**\"The statements below and on the following/linked pages represent
views of members of the ACWI, and are not official statements of the
USGS.\"**

ACWI MOTION FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE PRESENT STREAMGAGE NETWORK --
Unanimously approved by ACWI on September 15, 2004 \*

Motion:

> Whereas the USGS National Streamflow Information Program provides the
> Nation with information to help protect life and property and manage
> our water resources has experienced flat or declining funding; and
> whereas the USGS Cooperative Water Program provides significant
> support for streamgages in the NSIP; ACWI strongly recommends:

1.  That the maintenance of the National Streamflow Information program,
    and the Cooperative Water Program, at or above the present levels is
    vital to health and welfare of the United States.

2.  That USGS remain the agency responsible for the operation of this
    important network of streamgaging stations.

Background:

> SOH has discussed this issue and urges ACWI to endorse the proposal.

Streamgaging under the National Streamflow Information Program (NSIP)
provides the Nation with streamflow information to help protect life and
property and manage our water resources. The streamgaging network is
supported by four funding sources: the USGS through the Cooperative
Water Program, the USGS NSIP, other Federal agencies (primarily the
Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation) and 800 State and local
funding partners (figure 1) who now fund about 67 percent of the USGS
streamgaging network.![](media/image1.wmf){width="3.161111111111111in"
height="1.5340277777777778in"}

In 2003, the USGS operated over 7,300 streamgages. This number has been
rising slightly over the past 4 years (figure 2). However, given the way
that streamgages are funded, based heavily on partner needs and partner
funds, there are often significant year-to-year changes in individual
streamgages in operation and an instability in the network. The
instability of the network remains a concern of the USGS and many users
of the data. For example, due to State funding shortfalls in Indiana, at
the start of fiscal year 2004, 23 daily streamgages out of a statewide
network of 173 were discontinued. Of these discontinued streamgages, 19
had 30 or more years of record, and the longest of these records was 60
years for Busseron Creek near Hymera, IN. Since then, Indiana has added
three new streamgages. In Mississippi, 8 daily streamgages were lost,
three of which had with 30 or more years of record, with the longest
record of 74 years at Tibbee Creek near Tibbee, MS.

The USGS continues to make great advances in upgrading streamgages with
near real-time data delivery capabilities (figure 2). About 93 percent
of the streamgages have telemetry (satellite, radio, or phone) and are
now able to deliver data to users in near real-time via the World Wide
Web.

Long records are vital to the characterization of regional hydrologic
conditions (for purposes of planning of water supplies and for flood
hazard assessments) as well as for documenting and understanding of the
many changes that are taking place in streamflow due to changes in land
use, water use, ground-water development, and climate. During the period
1990 to 2000 there was a net loss of 573 active streamgages with records
of 30 years or more. ("Net loss" is defined as the number of long record
stations discontinued minus those that were reactivated). This trend was
briefly reversed in 2002 as a result of the funding increase received by
NSIP in 2001 (see figure 3) when there was a net increase of 84
long-record streamgages due to reactivations, record increases, and no
losses of long-record streamgages. In Fiscal Year 2003, however, there
were 19 losses and no reactivations of long-record streamgages.
Expectations for FY 2004 and 2005 suggest a continuation of the
instability of the network and the pattern of more losses than
reactivations of long-record streamgages. This expectation is based on
the fact that funding levels for the Cooperative Water Program and NSIP
program both showed very slight declines from FY 2003 to FY 2004 and
similar slight declines are expected in FY 2005. The budgets of many
funding partners also continue to be very constrained.

Over the last 10 years, the USGS funding for streamgages has been
essentially flat or slightly declining except for the increases in
FY2000 and FY2001 (figure 3). Partner funding has been increasing
slightly over this same time period but not enough to keep up with
inflationary cost increases. The cost of streamgaging is often a topic
of concern among the partners and stakeholders of the program. A recent
cost analysis shows that nationwide the annual cost of operating a USGS
streamgage has increased by about 3.8 percent per year from 1997 to
2003. The single largest part of the cost of streamgage operations is
the salary costs for the hydrologic technicians who maintain and operate
the network. Over this same period of time, the average salary of a
GS-9, step 1, Hydrologic Technician (typical of those who conduct this
work) increased at an average rate of 4.5 percent per year. Thus, the
ratio of annual streamgage costs to salary levels has actually decreased
by about 0.7 percent per year. In light of the improvements in data
delivery and reliability that have taken place over this time, the USGS
believes that the program continues to be operated in a cost effective
and efficient manner. The costs per streamgage born by the many partners
are rising less than would be caused by the mandated pay increases.

Maintenance of the present stream gage network is important to others.
There are many users of the NSIP stream gages: at the federal, state and
local governments. One example of a water use is river level
forecasting. This information is vitally needed on a 24/7 basis for
various water resources purposes. The data must be available and must be
timely and accurate. During extreme high river levels, the National
Weather Service (NWS) issues its river and flood forecasts to warn those
in harm's way of impending dangerous conditions to take appropriate
actions. The NWS uses sophisticated mathematical models which rely
heavily upon the NSIP gages to calibrate the models. Based on the NWS
forecasts, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and others operate their multiple purpose projects in the
most efficient manner to reduce flooding. The economic benefits
resulting to the nation from the forecasts and remedial actions are very
substantial. Without the stream gages, the benefits would be much lower.

NSIP is also investing significant resources into long-term improvements
in the overall delivery of streamflow information to users. These
improvements include: database enhancements that will streamline the
computational process and that will improve users access to real-time
and historical streamflow information, new methods of regional
assessments of streamflow information to define trends and estimate
streamflow at ungaged locations, and research and development aimed at
new ways to measure streamflow more accurately, less expensively, and
more safely.

\* Motion by Charlie Hunsicker, National Association of County Planners,
Florida

Second by Steve Heiskary, North American Lake Management Assoc.,
Michigan