Title: National Water Quality Network: Delaware River Basin Pilot
1National Water Quality Network Delaware River
Basin Pilot
- NWQMC Meeting
- Philadelphia, PA July 2007
2Presentation Overview
- National Issues/DRB Issues
- DRB Partners
- DRB Pilot Study Area
- Resource Components Snapshots
- Data Management Status
- Dry Run Nutrient Analysis
3- Basin Facts
- Largest un-dammed river east of the Mississippi
330 miles - 13,539 square mile drainage
- 17 million water users
- 216 tributaries
- Three reaches included in National Wild and
Scenic River System - One of the worlds largest freshwater tidal
estuaries - Delaware Bay- 782 sq. miles
- One five MACOORA subregions
4Monitoring Partners in the Delaware River Basin
5NMN Objectives and Management Issues
NMN Objective NMN Management Questions Delaware Management
1. Define status and trends of key water quality parameters and conditions on a nationwide basis. What is the condition of the Nations surface, ground, estuarine, coastal, and offshore waters? Where, how, and why are water quality conditions changing over time? Development of management strategies for protecting areas of high water quality.
2. Provide data relevant to determining whether goals, standards, and resource management objectives are being met, thus contributing to sustainable and beneficial use of coastal and inland water resources. Are strategies that protect or remediate water quality working effectively? Are we meeting water quality goals and standards? Environmental sources, transport and effects of contaminants in the region (e.g. PCBs, pesticides, and contaminants of emerging concern).
3. Provide data to identify and rank existing and emerging problems to help target more intensive monitoring, preventative actions, or remediation. What are the water quality problems? Where are the water quality problems? What is causing the problems? Maintain freshwater quantity and quality.
4. Provide data to support and define coastal oceanographic and hydrologic research, including influences of freshwater inflows. What research activities will help us to understand water resources and ensure they are sustainable? Assuring public health (pathogen contamination and fish advisories.)
5. Provide quality-assured data for use in the preparation of interpretive reports and educational materials. All management questions require these data. Potential impacts of nutrient overload and nutrient imbalance in the estuary.
6- Table 1-1 Water Quality Issues from NMN Report
- Oxygen depletion
- Nutrient enrichment (arguable)
- Toxic contamination
- Sedimentation
- Harmful algal blooms
- Habitat degradation
- Invasions by exotic species
- Pathogens (indicator bacteria)
7Technical Needs from Estuary Science Conference
1. Contaminants (forms, sources, fates effects for different classes)
2. Tidal Wetlands (status, trends and relative importance of different types)
3. Ecologically Significant Species Critical Habitats (oysters, benthos, horseshoe crabs)
4. Ecological Flows (effects of flow changes on salt balance biota)
5. Physical-Chemical-Biological Linkages (e.g., sediment budgets, toxics biota)
6. Food Web Dynamics (key trophic connections among functional dominant biota)
7. Nutrients (forms, concentrations and balance of macro- and micronutrients)
8. Ecosystem Functions (assessment and economic valuation of ecosystem services)
9. Habitat Restoration and Enhancement (science policy)
10. Invasive Species (monitoring, management control)
8Estuary Program Operational Needs
Top Six Operational Needs
1. Strengthen Linkages Between Science and Management
2. Develop a Conceptual Framework Describing the Ecosystem
3. Implement an Ecosystem Management Approach
4. Grow the Monitoring Infrastructure and Link to Improved Indicators and Goals
5. Improve Data Coordination, Compatibility, Quality, Sharing, Access and Archiving
6. Educate Public and Build Identity for Defining Traits and Issues
9(No Transcript)
10Delaware River Basin Pilot Steering Committee
- Other DRB Pilot Work Groups
- Data Management
- Atmosphere
- Rivers above head of tide
- Estuary
- Near shore
- Off Shore
- Wetlands
- Ground water
- Chair Bob Tudor, DRBC
- Organizations participating
- DRBC, MACOORA
- USEPA Regions 2 3
- NOAA
- USGS NJ, PA, DE, NY and NAWQA
- NJDEP, DNREC, PADEP, NYDEC
- Rutgers, UDel
- PDE
- Set boundaries for study area
- Integrate with NMN Interagency Work Groups
- Coordinate DRB Work Group efforts
- Data Management efforts
11 DRB Pilot Study Area Boundary
- Entire Delaware Basin
- 4 statesNY, PA, NJ, DE
- Several Physiographic Provinces and Ecohabitats
- Major inflowsLehigh, Schuylkill, Maurice, CD
Canal - Bounded by northern and southern Coastal
endurance lines
12Data Management Work Group
- Chairs Eric Vowinkel and Ed Santoro
- Existing DRBC Monitoring Matrix
- Will create an ftp site on DRBC computer to store
exchange of information - Water-Quality Data Exchange (WQDE) Networks in
progress at NJDEP, DNREC, PA?, NY? - Exploring options for web-based portal for
Delaware Basin
http//www.delawareestuary.org/Info_gateway/Main_m
ap.asp
13Estuary Work Group
- Chair Jonathan Sharp, UDel
- Boat Runhistorical monitoring along spine of
Delaware Estuary - Probabilistic network
- NCA
- New sites from USEPA Corvallis from Tony Olsen
- Discussions of mixing probabilistic and fixed
stations
14Near-Shore Work Group
- Chair Bob Connell, NJDEP
- Issues
- How far south?
- 12-miles out into Atlantic Ocean
- Physical habitat needs
- Sediments included
- Biological assessment and productivity
- Lidar methodsremote sensing
- Should not be looking at nutrients but rather
eutrophic conditions - Chlorophyll a, DO, macro algae, HABS, nutrient
loads, wastewater discharges, atmospheric
deposition
- Assests
- Gliders
- Air craft and satellite remote sensing
- Boat along coast with NJDEP USEPA
- Fixed station LEO site from RU
- DEOs fixed station
- Optical sensor for DO in future in glider
- Nuisance algal blooms-by boat
- Loads from WWTP
- Maybe some nutrient data from atmospheric
- Map will be coming
15Off-Shore Work Group
- Chair Scott Glenn, RU IMCS
- Endurance line off of Tuckerton, NJ
- Future site off of Delaware
http//marine.rutgers.edu/cool/auvs/
16- Chair Danielle Kreeger, PDE
17Spills
18Atmosphere Work Group
- Chair Lisa Totten, Rutgers
- Only one NADP site in the Basin
- Supplemental sites added by NJDEP, DRBC
- Some sites deactivated
19Ground Water Work Group
- Chair Eric Vowinkel, USGS
- Significant vulnerability of ground water in the
Delaware Basin to contamination by nitrate in PA,
NJ, and DE - Concentrations of nitrate in ground water are
largest in agricultural areas and moderate in
urban area
http//pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2004/5118/SIR2004-5118.pd
f
20Proposed NMN Riverine Above the Head of Tide Sites
21NMN requirements for rivers
Rivers Flow and loads from inland HUC-6 watersheds Individual watershed 1-3 per watershed 258 sites for conterminous U.S. Sites located to represent 90 of freshwater outflow from HUC-6 watershed Monthly plus high flows (about 15 times per year) Once per year for biological characterization and sediment quality On going
Rivers Flow and loads to estuaries Individual estuary and aggregated for Network estuaries Variable 72 Sites located to monitor 97 of freshwater inflow to Network estuaries and inflow to 70 of Network estuary surface area Monthly plus high flows (about 15 times per year) Once per year for biological characterization and sediment quality On going
Rivers Flow and loads to Great Lakes Individual watershed 1 per watershed 56 Sites located to represent outflow of basins draining 250 square miles or more Monthly plus high flows (about 15 times per year) Once per year for biological characterization and sediment quality On going
22Nutrient dry run
- Results
- Delaware at Trenton site monitored 4-6 times per
year for DRBC and PADEP - Will be monitored 16 times per year for NAWQA
Status and Trends in 2008 for nutrients and
pesticides but only once every four years - Site location data well documented
- Metadata and QA/QC well documented
- Only Tier 1 nutrients satisfied except for silica
- Did not meet detection limit for most
constituents by more than an order of magnitude - For Estuary Boat Run more constituents were
analyzed for in the different Tiers but generally
did not meet the detection limit requirements for
nutrients
- What was done
- Compared Nutrient IWG recommendations
- Tier 1required
- Tier 2add significant value
- Response variables
- Ancilliary
- For Delaware River at Trenton as test case (see
table) - For Delaware Estuary Boat Run Data
23Example of River Nutrient Data
24Water Quality Monitoring Data Web sites
Agency (Abbreviation) Agency (Abbreviation) Web address Contact Letter of Support
Federal Monitoring Programs Federal Monitoring Programs Federal Monitoring Programs Federal Monitoring Programs Federal Monitoring Programs
U.S. Geological Survey Water Science Centers USGS-NJWSC USGS-PAWSC USGS-NYWSC http//nj.usgs.gov/ http//pa.water.usgs.gov/ http//ny.water.usgs.gov/ Richard Kropp Patricia Lietman Willie Rodriguez Y Y Y
USGS National Water Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA) USGS National Water Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA) http//nj.usgs.gov/nawqa/delr/ Jeff Fischer Y
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Ecology Division (AED) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Ecology Division (AED) http//www.epa.gov/aed/ John Garber Y
USEPA National Estuary Program (NEP) Center for Inland Bays USEPA National Estuary Program (NEP) Center for Inland Bays http//www.inlandbays.org/
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 2 ( USEPA-R2) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 2 ( USEPA-R2) http//www.epa.gov/region2/ John Kushwara Y
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 3 (USEPA-R3) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 3 (USEPA-R3) http//www.epa.gov/region03/ Larry Merrill Y
USEPA Atlantic Ecology Division/ORD (USEPA-AED) USEPA Atlantic Ecology Division/ORD (USEPA-AED) http//www.epa.gov/aed/index.html Henry Walker Y
DE and Nat. Oceanographic and Atmospheric Admin (NOAA/NEERS) DE and Nat. Oceanographic and Atmospheric Admin (NOAA/NEERS) http//nerrs.noaa.gov/ R. Scarborough Y
NOAA PORTS Delaware River/Bay NOAA PORTS Delaware River/Bay http//co-ops.nos.noaa.gov/dbports/
National Park Service (NPS) National Park Service (NPS) http//www.nps.gov/upde/ Joseph DiBello Y
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS-NJ) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS-NJ) http//www.nj.nrcs.usda.gov/ Tom Drewes Y
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) http//www.fws.gov/northeast/njfieldoffice/ Clifford Day
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District http//www.nap.usace.army.mil/
National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) http//nadp.sws.uiuc.edu/
Non Federal Monitoring Programs Non Federal Monitoring Programs Non Federal Monitoring Programs Non Federal Monitoring Programs Non Federal Monitoring Programs
Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) http//www.state.nj.us/drbc/ Robert Tudor Y
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) http//www.state.nj.us/dep/ Leslie McGeorge Robert Connell Y
New Jersey Water Monitoring Coordinating Council (NJWMCC) New Jersey Water Monitoring Coordinating Council (NJWMCC) http//www.state.nj.us/dep/wms//wmcchome.html Y
Delaware Depart of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DENREC) Delaware Depart of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DENREC) http//www.dnrec.delaware.gov/ R. Scarborough
Partnership for the Delaware Estuary (PDE) Partnership for the Delaware Estuary (PDE) http//www.delawareestuary.org/ Danielle Kreeger Y
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) http//www.depweb.state.pa.us/dep/ James Newbolt
Delaware Environmental Ocean Observing System (DEOS) Delaware Environmental Ocean Observing System (DEOS) http//www.deos.udel.edu/
Rutgers University Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences (IMCS) Rutgers University Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences (IMCS) http//marine.rutgers.edu/cool Scott Glenn Y
Univ. of Delaware Univ. of Delaware http//www.ocean.udel.edu/cms/jsharp/CruiseDatabase.htm Jonathan Sharp Y
Sea Grant and Marine Sciences Consortium Sea Grant and Marine Sciences Consortium http//www.njmsc.org/Sea_Grant http//www.njmsc.org/ Mike Weinstein
Drexel University Drexel University Mike Piasecki Y