CWQMC Data Swaps

Dr. Holly L.O. Huyck

CWQMC Coordinator

hhuyck@csd.net

CWQMC Data Swaps

• January 2001: Clear Creek Watershed and Henderson site metadata

• March 2002: South Platte Basin data needsswap

• May 2002: South Platte Basing metadataswap

Portion of the Clear Creek Metadata Table on the Website

AGENCY # SITES FREQUENCY START/END DATE FORMAT1 Black Hawk/Central City

Sanitation District Lynn Venters bhccsd@qwest.net

3--Plant Effluent, Segment 13b (above WWTP effluent), and new Plant site

WQ Testing 1st Wed. of each month, plus monthly

since 12/00 for first 2 sites Excel

2 City of Black Hawk Ron Reeves Reeves@cityofblackhawk.org

1--Segment 13a (above infiltration gallery). (Will test stream segment near near new plant effluent.)

WQ Testing 1st Wed. of each month since 12/00 Excel

3 City of Thornton Vic Lucero vlucero@ci.thornton.co.us

5 (CC@Ford, CC@Croke, CC@Youngfield, CC@LCC, CC@UP SP

monthly 1993 to Present ACCESS (Aspen LIMS)

4 Clear Creek Watershed Monitoring Group UCCWAG-R.L.Jones / City of Golden - Vicki Coppage / Standley Lake - Mary Fabisiah ccwatershed@qwest.net

Includes 15 Clear Creek sites and 7 wastewater treatment plant monitoring sites in the upper watershed.

8x/year for 11 chemical & nutrient parameters. Concurrent samples taken & analysed by EPA for 23 trace metals (total recoverable & diss.). Flow data recorded at 9 USGS recording gages & 9 staff gages.

Started in 1994 to address water quality issues for all participating agencies.

Excel

5 CDPHE Bob McConnell/Joni Nuttle robert.mcconnell@state.co.us or joni.nuttle@state.co.us

6--#131 lat 39:45:33 long 105:39:37/#132 lat 39:44:47 long 105:27:36/#133 lat 39:44:54 long 105:23:55/#034 lat 39:49:42 long 104:57:30/#035 lat 39:45:11 long 105:14:05/ #089 lat 39:46:00 long 105:05:00

average 6-10x/year each site varies old STORET & Excel (eventually new STORET)

6 CGS Matt Sares matt.sares@state.co.us

Location -- 3 sites only one-time, grab samples summer 1991, 1995 Access

Fields on CC Metadata Table

• Agency and email contact

• Number of sites

• Frequency of sampling

• Start/end dates

• Data storage format

• Parameters (listed individually)

• Additional information

 

May 2002 Swap Meet Metadata Requested

• 1.     Sampling locations and formats (e.g. dot-on-a-map, Lat/Long, UTM, address, all-of-the-above);

• 2.     Period-of-record for the sampling, from what date to what date (or present);

• 3.     Frequency of sampling—both number of times per year and specific months;

• 4.     Parameters (SPECIFIC lists may include physical parameters, DO, organics, metals, pesticides, major ions, nutrients, hardness, biological, habitat, physical);

 

May 2002 Swap Meet Metadata Requested (continued)

• 5.    Data Quality Objectives (indicate whether for research project, permit compliance, trend analysis, reconnaissance, or other-please specify);

• 6.    Database format (EXCEL, ACCESS, STORET, NWIS, hand-written, combination);

• 7.    Contact information for someone who works with the database;

• 8.    Note whether SOP (sample/lab protocols) are written; • 9. Lat/long. for plotting on a map of the South Platte

Basin—sent to USGS electronically.

Advantages of Metadata Swaps

• List requested is simple and allows for different monitoring styles and objectives.

• Providing metadata is much less onerous.

• Data remain property of monitoring group that still controls access.

• E-mail contact is much easier for data managers to handle.

Disadvantages of Metadata Swaps

• Information provided on the website is limited.

• Definitions vary among groups (e.g. major vs. minor cations)

• Still need to contact each group to obtain the actual data.

• Data remain in different formats.

South Platte Basin Map Format

• Uses web-based mapping technology for on-the-fly map enlargements.

• Sites are listed by group/agency.

• Click on site to obtain a table of metadata.

• Table has a link to variables list for definitions of parameter groups.

Map Directory of Selected Data-Collection Sites in Colorado

Map Zoom-in on Denver Water Sampling Sites

Roberts Tunnel of DWB Selected

Fields for Each Site Selected• Group name and email contact

• Site:Stream Name or Description

• Period of Record & Number of Samples

• Chemical: Field Parameters,Hardness, Major ions, Nutrients, Organics, Minor and Trace Elements, Pesticides, Chemistry of Sediments

• Biological: Fish Assemblages, Macro-invertebrates, Micro-invertebrates, E.coli or Fecal Colliform, Aquatic Vegetation, Other

• Physical: Flow, Temperature, Secchi Depth, Turbidity,

Sediments, Instream Habitat, Riparian or Wetland Habitat, Upland Habitat

Lists of Variables That Occur under the Current Fields (via hot link at bottom of main table)

Chemical Variables Field parameters: pH, DO, conductivity, etc. Major ions: major cations and anions, including Fe, Mn, but NOT nutrient-related ions. Nutrients: all forms of nitrogen and phosphorous (including iron). Organics: TOC, TOD. Minor and Trace elements: minor elements, and metal (EXCEPT for Fe and Mn). Chemistry of Sediments: analyses of the sediments themselves, as opposed to water chemistry.

Variables Continued

• Biological Variables Fish Assemblages: includes all types of fish, also analyses of fish tissues. E. coli or Fecal Coliform: any analysis of all forms of E. coli or fecal colliform.

• Physical Habitat Sediments: amount of sediment - bedload or suspended sediments.

Results of Swaps

• Clear Creek: 21 groups/projects reporting~130 sites excluding Superfund

109 sites related to Superfund (sampled 1-5x)

Include nutrients, metals, sediments, fish, flow

• South Platte: additional 10 groups

~900 sites (past and current)

Clear Creek Monitoring (2001)

0

50

100

150

200

250

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Number of Sample Sites

Nu

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Sa

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Ongoing Monitoring Completed Monitoring

Metadata Swap Process

• Iterative process (Clear Creek added 5 groups over 12 months.)

• Groups range from federal agencies to local volunteer watershed coalitions.

• Best response from established groups and agencies; also better if paid people are involved. (All-volunteer groups are less responsive.)

• Best response is to one-page request; 3-page data needs request received very few responses.

Metadata Swap Process (continued)

• Try three contacts per new group.

• Personal acquaintance improves responses.

• “Cold calls” 45% response on S. Platte.

• ~1/2 of electronic responses occur after the swap; used in addition to swap minutes.

• Swap is a “round-robin,” with each group presenting its metadata and comments.

Recommended CWQMC Shared Database Information

• General comments. This simplification of STORET and the NWQMC recommended fields is considered to be the MINIMUM amount of information to make the databases useable for comparisons among databases.

• Fields focus on chemical data, and should be modified to accommodate biological data by the Aquatic Life Committee. This list does not specify the design of the database.   

Recommended Minimum Data Fields (MDE’s)

Project Name: character field.Project agency name: unique name for each agency or group.Project Description: memo-type field that can include

whatever comments are desired.Project Purpose: character field with ,e.g. basic screening,

regulatory compliance, site trends.Project QA/QC: memo-type field with # of field duplicates,

field blanks, analytical lab name, and corrective actions for problems—e.g. bad blanks.

ProjectContact: Name, address, telephone, email. Person who supplied data. (These may differ.)

MDE’s (continued)Station ID: character field, no duplicates allowed. Station Name: character field. If no name exists, can just repeat the station

ID.Station Type: stream, well, lake, canal, etc.Station Latitude: standardize this as Degree-Minute-Second or decimal

degree.Station Longitude: standardize this as Degree-Minute-Second or decimal

degree.Location Datum: NAD27 or NAD83. Define which datum was used for

lat./long. (e.g. pre-1983 USGS maps would be NAD27; GPS systems should tell users which datum was used.)

Location Description: memo-type field with local permanent landmarks or other descriptive comments—e.g. sample in the thalweg, upstream of bridge.

MDE’s (continued)

Sample ID: character field, must be a unique identifier.Sample Date: representative date or date that sample collection was started. Sample Time: representative time or time that sample collection was started (military time).Sample Type: grab, composite; if composite, code for duration of composite (hours, days, etc).SampleMedium: water, sediment, fish tissue, etc.SampleDepth: character field that contains depth, or range in depth. SampleDepth Units: meters, feet, etc.

MDE’s (continued)

Result Name: e.g. pH, Temp., Calcium, Nitrate, etc. Result Value: measured characteristic. Prefer numeric field, but

could be character field.Result Units: degrees, mg/l, ppm, ppb, ug/l, etc.Result Fraction: total, total recoverable, dissolved (filter size?),

etc.Result Detection Limit: Result Detection Limit Units: mg/l, ppb, etc.Result Comments: memo-type field to include user-defined

information, e.g. whether the result is an estimate, average, less than (for below detection limit), how user made an average, sample preparation, analytical method, etc.

Responses to MDE’s

• Even one page of MDE’s is onerous to some people, including state agencies.

• NWQMC’s MDE’s are overwhelming to all but a few swap participants.

• Common MDE’s are a major challenge, much less finding a common format!

• Tradeoff between participation and complexity of swaps. ($$$ and time issues)