Water Quality in the Nation’s Streams and Rivers – Current Conditions and Long-Term Trends Active
What's in the Water?
Access water-quality data for current conditions of our streams and rivers
Water-Quality Trends
How has the water quality in our streams and rivers changed? Use this web tool to find out
Annual Agricultural Pesticide Use
Access maps, graphs, and tables for data on use of hundreds of pesticide compounds
The Nation's rivers and streams are a priceless resource, but pollution from urban and agricultural areas pose a threat to our water quality. To understand the value of water quality, and to more effectively manage and protect the Nation's water resources, it's critical that we know the current status of water-quality conditions, and how and why those conditions have been changing over time.
The Nation's rivers and streams are a priceless resource—they provide drinking water for a growing population, irrigation for crops, habitat for aquatic life, and countless recreational opportunities. But pollution from urban and agricultural areas continues to pose a threat to water quality. Since passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, Federal, State, and local governments have invested billions of dollars to reduce pollution entering streams and rivers. Yet recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported that more than half of the Nation's stream miles have ecosystems in poor condition. Knowing the current water-quality conditions of our rivers and streams and where those conditions have improved or deteriorated is critical information for resource managers and the public.
Two of the major goals of the USGS National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project are to determine the current status of water-quality conditions in the Nation’s streams and rivers and to determine how those conditions are changing over time. These goals are accomplished on a national scale through two projects:
(1) Objective 1: Tracking Water Quality of the Nation's Rivers and Streams—The USGS National Water Quality Network (NWQN) monitors water-quality conditions in streams and rivers throughout the Nation using consistent and comparable methods. The Water-Quality Tracking page provides annually updated information on water-quality concentrations, loads, and trends at sites located throughout the U.S.
(2) Objective 2: Water-Quality Changes in the Nation's Streams and Rivers—Outside of the NAWQA Project, the USGS and other Federal, State, and local agencies also have collected long-term water-quality data to support their own assessments of changing water-quality conditions. To support the second objective, these data have been combined with USGS data to support the most comprehensive assessment to date of water-quality trends in the United States. Collectively, these data provide insight into how natural features and human activities have contributed to water-quality changes in the Nation's streams and rivers. Use the Water-Quality Trends mapping tool to visualize trends in water chemistry (nutrients, pesticides, sediment, carbon, and salinity) and aquatic ecology (fish, invertebrates, and algae) for four time periods: 1972-2012, 1982-2012, 1992-2012, and 2002-2012.
Water-quality trends in US rivers: Exploring effects from streamflow trends and changes in watershed management
U.S. conterminous wall-to-wall anthropogenic land use trends (NWALT), 1974–2012
Pesticides in U.S. streams and rivers: occurrence and trends during 1992-2011
An overview comparing results from two decades of monitoring for pesticides in the Nation’s streams and rivers, 1992-2001 and 2002-2011
Watershed Regressions for Pesticides (WARP) models for predicting stream concentrations of multiple pesticides
Estimation of annual agricultural pesticide use for counties of the conterminous United States, 1992-2009
Estimates of areal extent of U.S. parking lots now available
Parking lots may be a significant source of pollution, but up until now there has been no quantitative estimate of the areal extent of parking lots in the U.S.
- Overview
The Nation's rivers and streams are a priceless resource, but pollution from urban and agricultural areas pose a threat to our water quality. To understand the value of water quality, and to more effectively manage and protect the Nation's water resources, it's critical that we know the current status of water-quality conditions, and how and why those conditions have been changing over time.
The Nation's rivers and streams are a priceless resource—they provide drinking water for a growing population, irrigation for crops, habitat for aquatic life, and countless recreational opportunities. But pollution from urban and agricultural areas continues to pose a threat to water quality. Since passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, Federal, State, and local governments have invested billions of dollars to reduce pollution entering streams and rivers. Yet recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported that more than half of the Nation's stream miles have ecosystems in poor condition. Knowing the current water-quality conditions of our rivers and streams and where those conditions have improved or deteriorated is critical information for resource managers and the public.
Two of the major goals of the USGS National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Project are to determine the current status of water-quality conditions in the Nation’s streams and rivers and to determine how those conditions are changing over time. These goals are accomplished on a national scale through two projects:
(1) Objective 1: Tracking Water Quality of the Nation's Rivers and Streams—The USGS National Water Quality Network (NWQN) monitors water-quality conditions in streams and rivers throughout the Nation using consistent and comparable methods. The Water-Quality Tracking page provides annually updated information on water-quality concentrations, loads, and trends at sites located throughout the U.S.
(2) Objective 2: Water-Quality Changes in the Nation's Streams and Rivers—Outside of the NAWQA Project, the USGS and other Federal, State, and local agencies also have collected long-term water-quality data to support their own assessments of changing water-quality conditions. To support the second objective, these data have been combined with USGS data to support the most comprehensive assessment to date of water-quality trends in the United States. Collectively, these data provide insight into how natural features and human activities have contributed to water-quality changes in the Nation's streams and rivers. Use the Water-Quality Trends mapping tool to visualize trends in water chemistry (nutrients, pesticides, sediment, carbon, and salinity) and aquatic ecology (fish, invertebrates, and algae) for four time periods: 1972-2012, 1982-2012, 1992-2012, and 2002-2012.
- Data
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- Multimedia
- Publications
Water-quality trends in US rivers: Exploring effects from streamflow trends and changes in watershed management
We present a conceptual model that explores the relationship of streamflow trends to 15 water-quality parameters at 370 sites across the contiguous United States (US). Our analytical framework uses discrete water-quality data, daily streamflow records, and a statistical model to estimate water-quality trends between 1982 and 2012 and parse these trends into the amount of change attributed to trendAuthorsJennifer C. Murphy, Lori A. SpragueFilter Total Items: 29U.S. conterminous wall-to-wall anthropogenic land use trends (NWALT), 1974–2012
This dataset provides a U.S. national 60-meter, 19-class mapping of anthropogenic land uses for five time periods: 1974, 1982, 1992, 2002, and 2012. The 2012 dataset is based on a slightly modified version of the National Land Cover Database 2011 (NLCD 2011) that was recoded to a schema of land uses, and mapped back in time to develop datasets for the four earlier eras. The time periods coincide wAuthorsJames A. FalconePesticides in U.S. streams and rivers: occurrence and trends during 1992-2011
During the 20 years from 1992 to 2011, pesticides were found at concentrations that exceeded aquatic-life benchmarks in many rivers and streams that drain agricultural, urban, and mixed-land use watersheds. Overall, the proportions of assessed streams with one or more pesticides that exceeded an aquatic-life benchmark were very similar between the two decades for agricultural (69% during 1992−2001AuthorsWesley W. Stone, Robert J. Gilliom, Karen R. RybergAn overview comparing results from two decades of monitoring for pesticides in the Nation’s streams and rivers, 1992-2001 and 2002-2011
This report provides an overview of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment program and National Stream Quality Accounting Network findings for pesticide occurrence in U.S. streams and rivers during 2002–11 and compares them to findings for the previous decade (1992–2001). In addition, pesticide stream concentrations were compared to Human Health Benchmarks (HHBs) and chronicAuthorsWesley W. Stone, Robert J. Gilliom, Jeffrey D. MartinWatershed Regressions for Pesticides (WARP) models for predicting stream concentrations of multiple pesticides
Watershed Regressions for Pesticides for multiple pesticides (WARP-MP) are statistical models developed to predict concentration statistics for a wide range of pesticides in unmonitored streams. The WARP-MP models use the national atrazine WARP models in conjunction with an adjustment factor for each additional pesticide. The WARP-MP models perform best for pesticides with application timing and mAuthorsWesley W. Stone, Charles G. Crawford, Robert J. GilliomEstimation of annual agricultural pesticide use for counties of the conterminous United States, 1992-2009
A method was developed to calculate annual county level pesticide use for selected herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides applied to agricultural crops grown in the conterminous United States from 1992 through 2009. Pesticide-use data compiled by proprietary surveys of farm operations located within Crop Reporting Districts were used in conjunction with annual harvested-crop acreage reported byAuthorsGail P. Thelin, Wesley W. Stone - Web Tools
- News
Estimates of areal extent of U.S. parking lots now available
Parking lots may be a significant source of pollution, but up until now there has been no quantitative estimate of the areal extent of parking lots in the U.S.