The Interagency Field Manual for the Collection of Water-Quality Data was initiated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), Region VI, to compile field water-sample-collection methods (water column only) commonly used by various "participating" agencies for assessing the water quality of international and transboundary rivers. These agencies include the USEPA-Regions VI and IX, International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), and State regulatory agencies. The manual is intended to provide an objective assessment of the benefits and limitations associated with each sampling method to enable the collector to select the field procedure that is most appropriate for the respective agency’s needs or individual project’s data quality objectives (DQO).