Project Description

Problem

Federal, State, and local governments and industry have made significant commitments to the protection of water quality during the past two decades. Large financial investments have been made for water-quality management and protection and future expenditures are anticipated to abate and control water pollution. Nationally consistent information is needed to make valid regional comparisons and national statements about current water-quality conditions and about changes in these conditions. The U.S. Geological Survey began implementing a full-scale National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program in 1991 to address this need for national water-quality information. Because it would be impractical to assess water quality in every area of the Nation, major activities of the NAWQA program will take place within a set of hydrologic systems called study units. The Red River of the North Basin was selected as 1 of 60 study units because:

• the basin represents an important hydrologic region where good-quality water is a valued resource vital to the region's economy,
• the quality of the Red River of the North, which flows north into Manitoba, Canada, is of international concern,
• the basin represents a significant agricultural area for assessing nutrients and pesticides in water, the first two national issues that are being addressed under the NAWQA Program, and
• the northern location and potential interaction of surface and ground water are essential physical factors necessary for a complete national assessment of water quality.

Approach

Project activities are cyclic to accomplish the water-quality status and trends components of the study. The Red River Basin Study is one of the first twenty study units in the NAWQA Program. The first two years focused on planning and analysis of available data. Years 3 through 5 emphasized data collection and analysis. A lower level of data collection will continue for the subsequent 6 years to evaluate long-term trends in water quality, after which the more intensive data-collection cycle will be repeated. Project planning has been coordinated through a liaison committee made up of state, local, other federal agencies, and some Canadian agencies and private industries who have helped identify key water-quality issues of the basin and sources of data, and continue to assist with the project design.

Large amounts of available water-quality and ancillary data have been compiled into computer data bases including geographical information systems for spatial comparisons and statistical analysis. Information from the available data was used to design a data- collection strategy for a comprehensive assessment of the basin water quality. Water was sampled from networks of fixed and synoptic stream stations and wells and analyzed for target constituents. Suspended and bottom sediments were collected from major streams and analyzed for grain-size distribution and selected chemical constituents. Fish tissues were sampled and analyzed for selected trace metals and organic pollutants. Short reports of significant findings are available and more are being prepared on specific water-quality topics throughout the study. A larger report summarizing the results of the first five-year cycle of the study will be completed in year six.