Water Quality

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• Office of Water Gateway
  EPA. Gateway to many EPA water related sites.
• Environmental Assessment
  EPA.  county level data for air quality, water quality, surface water, toxic chemical releases, and hazardous wastes. 
• Water-Quality and Streamflow Data  
  USGS.  Hydrologic Benchmark Network (HBN) and the National Stream Quality Accounting Network (NASQAN) water quality and stream flow data. Uniformly-sampled (i.e., semi-annually to monthly) stream water-quality data includes physical, chemical, and biological criteria.
• Stream Water Quality - Status and Trends, 1980's.  
  USGS.  Assesses progress since the Clean Water Act in three categories - chemical and sanitary conditions in streams; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) finfish-tissue data and analyses of USGS herbicide data from streams that drain agricultural areas in the Midwest.

• Clean Water Action Plan.   

  Developed jointly by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and published in February 1998, the Clean Water Action Plan provides a blueprint for restoring and protecting the quality of U.S. rivers and lakes.

In 1972, the Potomac River was too dirty to swim in, Lake Erie was dying, and the Cuyahoga River was so polluted it burst into flames. Many rivers and beaches were little more than open sewers.  Despite the substantial progress in reducing water pollution and restoring rivers, lakes and coastal waters, states report that about 40 percent of the waters they assessed do not meet water quality goals. About half of the nation’s over 2,000 major watersheds have serious or moderate water quality problems.  The Clean Water Action Plan uses four basic tools: 

• assessments and response plans using a watershed approach;
• stronger and more effective Federal and State standards;
• better stewardship of cropland, pasture, rangeland, or forests, and
• better delivery of clean water information to officials and citizens. 
  
• Environmental Assessment
  EPA.  County level data for air quality, water quality, surface water, toxic chemical releases, and hazardous wastes. 
• Office of  Wetlands, Ocean, Watersheds 
  EPA.  "STORET (short for STOrage and RETrieval) is a repository for water quality, biological, and physical data and is used by state environmental agencies, EPA and other federal agencies, universities, private citizens, and many others."

• Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water 
  EPA.  provides general information on policy such as underground injection control and source water protection. 

• Office of Wastewater Management 
  EPA. Information about permits for the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NDPES) as well as wet weather flows, animal feeding operations and wastewater issues along the Mexico-US Border.
• Wastewater Infrastructure Needs
  EPA. 1996 Clean Water Needs Survey estimates the financial needs of the wastewater utilities to obtain clean water.

• Office of Wastewater Management 
  EPA. Information about permits for the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NDPES) as well as wet weather flows, animal feeding operations and wastewater issues along the Mexico-US Border.

• US Army Corps of Engineers Dredging 
  USACE. The Dredging Operations Technical Support Program, known as DOTS, provides direct environmental and engineering technical support to the US Army Corps of Engineers Operation and Maintenance dredging mission. Technology transfer activities have supported diverse filed needs for years and have directly benefited O&M dredging operations throughout the US. This site provides links to the Corps Research, Databases, Publications, Guidance Documents, Models, the Center for Contaminated Sediments, and training on dredging operations.