Through cooperation with other Federal, State, and local agencies, the USGS monitors various water-quality parameters to compute concentrations of instream sediment and nutrients. This information is used to guide resource management decisions, track the effectiveness of management practices, and inform the public of water quality conditions. 

The United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Pennsylvania Office has partnered with the USGS to use this water-quality data to measure the effects of conservation practices implemented in the Chiques and Swatara Creek watersheds. The Chiques and Swatara Creek watersheds are located within the larger Chesapeake Bay Watershed, which is critically important to a number of Federal, State, and local stakeholders. The USGS has been conducting monitoring and interpretive studies in the bay as an active partner in the Chesapeake Bay Program for over four decades. 

This geonarrative, titled "Using Continuous Water Quality to Guide Conservation Efforts", describes in detail the water quality concerns in these watersheds, the various components of water quality monitoring, sediment and nutrient concentration and load estimation, future work, and links to various resources on this topic.