Annual Water Quality Monitoring Plan
Monitoring Year 2007
1 January 2007 to 31 December 2007
2007 Water Quality Monitoring Plan (PDF)
INTRODUCTION
The Department of Environmental Quality Water Division every year makes available to the public its annual monitoring plan, which summarizes the water quality monitoring activities conducted during the annual year between 1 January and 31 December. The annual plan is developed for the purpose of implementing the goals and objectives of the draft Water Quality Monitoring Strategy*. (Copies of the strategy are available from R.E. Stewart at 804-698-4449, restewart@deq.virginia.gov.) This water quality information is presented in compliance with the Virginia Water Quality Monitoring, Information, and Restoration Act (§ 62.1-44.19:5.) to help ensure public awareness of water quality issues and conditions.
The plan contains detailed information on the Department’s monitoring activities including the location of stations sampled, specific conditions, frequency of monitoring and costs. A station list by county identifies the specific location of each station including important data helpful when using U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps or state watershed boundary maps.
These planning summaries are utilized by the DEQ central office staff to calculate estimates for laboratory analysis costs for the coming year and to evaluate the standardization of statewide monitoring efforts (site selection, parameter selection, frequency of sampling, etc.). They also provide a convenient source from which to extract descriptive summaries of specific regional, intra-regional and statewide programs on the basis of station locations, parameters sampled, frequencies sampled and the total laboratory costs associated with each.
For a complete copy of the annual monitoring plan please visit:
http://www.deq.virginia.gov/watermonitoring/aqm.html
Page 1 of the plan provides by program a point of contact who is knowledgeable in detailed aspects of an assigned program and who is available to answer questions.
Page 2 of the plan summarizes the number of stations and the associated analytical cost by program. The analytical costs are divided between those interagency transfer funds to the Virginia Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services and other funds available to DEQ for services by either DCLS or other contract labs.
Pages 3 through 251 contain the individual program sample projects.
Page 252 summarizes individual special studies.
Pages 253 through 315 identify the parameter group codes, the individual target analysis and associated STORET (Storage and Retrieval) Parameter codes that are to be collected by DEQ over the course of the monitoring year. These codes can be used to identify the specific parameters collected in each of the programs on pages 3 through 251.
Pages 316 through 330 provide a reference list of all stations by county with geographical metadata.
Pages 331 to 333 provide a cross reference to the station meta data on pages 283 to 338 specifically identifying the level 1, level 2 and level 3 codes used to categorize the type of station.
A description of the individual program codes follows:
WATERSHED AW The ambient watershed network of stations represents the largest single section of the monitoring program. AW stations are those that are sampled every other month for two years and then rotated to a new set of stations the following two years completing a statewide cycle in six years. Detailed information on the purpose and objectives of these stations and their selection can be found in Section III.B. of the strategy.
COASTAL 2000 C2 Coastal 2000 is the federal and state jointly federally funded tidal probabilistic program designed by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and sampled by Virginia DEQ staff.
CHESAPEAKE BAY CB The Chesapeake Bay Program is identified in section III.E.1. of the strategy. The design of this program is through the U.S. EPA Chesapeake Bay Program Office and encompasses a multi-state water quality characterization effort.
CITIZEN MONITORING CM Citizen monitoring are those stations in segments identified through public participation as targeted for specific monitoring. Public notification for requests from citizens to DEQ to include water quality monitoring is usually a result of problems identified by the public. Notification occurs in the fourth quarter of the calendar year with sampling scheduled to begin in the next monitoring year.
FACILITY INSPECTION FI Facility inspections are not specifically identified in the water quality monitoring strategy but are integral to determining compliance with discharge limits. Specific sample locations are not included in the monitoring plan. Only estimated numbers of samples for the purpose of calculating annual budgets are included. For more information on this program, please contact Roger Stewart.
FISK KILL TASK FORCE FK The Shenandoah River Fish Kill Task force has identified sampling efforts related to the intensive ongoing investigations into the cause, extent, and severity of the fish kills that are occurring in the Shenandoah Basin. For more information please contact Don Kain.
FRESHWATER PROBABILISTIC FP The freshwater probabilistic monitoring program covers the nontidal free flowing waters of the state. The program is designed to answer the question of what is the overall water quality of the Commonwealth for free-flowing streams.
FISH TISSUE FT The fish tissue monitoring program is conducted by central office staff from the Office of Water Quality Standards. Stations are rotated through the state in a five-year cycle for the purpose of determining the human health risks associated with consuming fish.
MERCURY HG The mercury special study program is a result of a settlement between the Commonwealth of Virginia and the responsible parties contributing to mercury contamination associated with the Waynesboro Dupont Plant. The settlement set forth a 100 year study to determine the fate, transport and effects of mercury contamination in the Shenandoah River, the South Fork of the Shenandoah River, the South River, the North River, and associated tributaries.
INCIDENT RESPONSE IR Incident response samples are the same as pollution complaints but are not of petroleum in origin.
POLLUTION COMPLAINTS PC Pollution complaints are special samples collected generally as a result of a petroleum spill.
PFIESTERIA MONITORING PF The Virginia Department of Health has requested that DEQ re-initiate monitoring for the existence of Pfiesteria in tidal portions of the state. VDH is funding a portion of DEQ analytical costs to determine the extent and amount of Pfiesteria.
QUALITY CONTROL QA The quality assurance program is a component of each of the individual programs and varies in the number and types of quality control samples produced. Generally between two and ten percent of the samples collected in the field have associated quality control samples. These include field replicate samples, field blanks and standard reference material.
REGIONAL BIOLOGICAL RB The biological monitoring program targets stations to determine the health of the benthic macro invertebrate community as a tool to detect water quality conditions. The methodology follows the U.S. EPA Rapid Bioassessment Protocol II and is described in section III.E.4. of the strategy.
RESERVOIR MONITORING RL The reservoir monitoring program targets Virginia’s largest lakes and others by prioritizing the significance based on several criteria. Generally the largest lakes are sampled every year, and the others are sampled based on a rotating schedule. For this monitoring cycle 114 reservoirs will be sampled.
SPECIAL STUDIES SS Special studies are identified by individual project plans and are generally specialized, intensively targeted monitoring efforts designed to answer specific hypothesis related to water quality conditions.
TMDL TM Total maximum daily load monitoring stations are associated with the development of a TMDL implementation plan for segments listed on the 303(d) list, which indicate the segments that need a cleanup plan.
TREND TR Trend stations are those long-term stations sited for permanent monitoring for the purpose of detecting short-, medium- and long-term water quality trends for a wide variety of environmentally important water quality parameters.
CARRYOVER TW Carryover stations have insufficient data for assessment and usually have small data sets that indicate a potential problem. These stations are considered carryover stations and will be sampled until sufficient data indicate water quality conditions.
MONITORING INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON THE WEB
Information on detailed station descriptions, special studies, parametric descriptions and the raw data are stored in the Comprehensive Environmental Data System Water Quality Monitoring (CEDS WQM) database application used by the DEQ to store and retrieve water quality information. Much of the data in CEDS WQM can be accessed at:
http://www.deq.virginia.gov/watermonitoring/
This information includes all of DEQ’s water monitoring data for physical and chemical parameters since 1941. Physical, chemical and biological data from collection efforts can be viewed at the Water Quality Monitoring homepage. This page also contains links to downloading data and an interactive map application:
http://gisweb.deq.virginia.gov/monapp/mon_data_retrieval_app.html
The results of the fish tissue monitoring program can be accessed at:
http://www.deq.virginia.gov/fishtissue/
Real-time water discharge measurements (flow and gauge height) at DEQ and U.S. Geological Survey gauging stations can be obtained at:
The detailed monitoring plans are available by directing your request to R.E. Stewart at 804-698-4449, restewart@deq.virginia.gov.
* Millennium 2000 Water Quality Monitoring Strategy, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, October 2000.