National Water-Quality Assessment Project (NAWQA)

The National Water Quality Program (NWQP) of the Water Mission Area conducts water-quality monitoring, assessment, and research activities that:

1. Assess the current quality of the Nation’s freshwater resources and how it is changing over time,

2. Explain how human activities and natural factors (e.g., land use, water use and climate
   variability) are affecting the quality of surface water and groundwater resources,

3. Determine the relative effects of important sources of impairment to water resources including contaminants, excess nutrients and sediment, and altered streamflow on aquatic ecosystems, and

4. Predict the effects of human activities, climate change, and management strategies on future water-quality and ecosystem conditions.

In 1991, Congress established NAWQA within the USGS to address a fundamental question: “What is the status of the Nation’s water quality and is it getting better or worse?” Since then, the NAWQA Project has been a primary source of objective and nationally consistent water-quality data and information on the quality of the Nation’s streams and groundwater. NAWQA Project data and models provide answers to where, when, and why the Nation’s water quality is degraded, and what can be done to improve and protect it for human and ecosystem needs.