U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Fact Sheet 2016–3021

April 2016

National Water-Quality Assessment

The Northeast Stream Quality Assessment

Printed on recycled paper

In 2016, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National 

Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) is assessing stream quality in the northeastern United States. The goal of the Northeast 

Stream Quality Assessment (NESQA) is to assess the quality of 

streams in the region by characterizing multiple water-quality 

factors that are stressors to aquatic life and evaluating the relation between these stressors and biological communities. The 

focus of NESQA in 2016 will be on the effects of urbanization 

and agriculture on stream quality in all or parts of eight States: 

Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, 

New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont (fig. 1). 

Figure 1. The Northeast Stream Quality Assessment study area; 

boundary based on four U.S. Environmental Protection Agency level 

III ecoregions of the United States. Ninety-five streams in urban, 

agricultural, and forested settings will be sampled in 2016. Sixty-six 

streams in forested settings, and distributed across a flow-alteration 

gradient, were sampled in 2014.

EXPLANATION

Land cover Site type

Water or wetlands

Urban

Grasslands and other

Forest

Pasture/hay

Cultivated crops

Flow-alteration

 site (2014)

Agricultural

Forested

Light urban

Urban

78° 74° 70°

48°

44°

40°

Base modified from Esri digital data, 1:70,000, 2009 

©Esri and its licensors (used under license); all 

rights reserved

Web Mercator projection; World Geodetic System of 1984

0 80 160 MILES

0 90 180 KILOMETERS

Land cover modified from 

National Land Cover 

Dataset 2011

MAINE

NEW YORK

PENNSYLVANIA

VERMONT

MASSACHUSETTS

CONNECTICUT

NEW

HAMPSHIRE

RHODE ISLAND

NEW

JERSEY

ATLANTIC

OCEAN

CANADA

Findings will provide the public and policymakers with information about the most critical factors affecting stream quality, 

thus providing insights about possible approaches to protect the 

health of streams in the region. The NESQA study will be the 

fourth regional study conducted as part of NAWQA and will be 

of similar design and scope to the first three, in the Midwest in 

2013, the Southeast in 2014, and the Pacific Northwest in 2015 

(http://txpub.usgs.gov/RSQA/).

Approach

Ninety-five sites will be sampled across the region (fig. 1) 

for up to 9 weeks during June, July, and early August 2016 

for contaminants, nutrients, and sediment. This water-quality 

“index” period will culminate with an ecological survey of 

habitat, algae, benthic invertebrates, and fish at all sites. Streambed sediment will be collected during the ecological survey 

for analysis of sediment chemistry and toxicity. Urbanization, 

particularly in the greater Boston to New York City corridor 

and around other major cities in New England and New York, is 

causing water-quality concerns in the region. Additionally, the 

effects of agricultural practices on water quality are concerns in 

the western parts of the NESQA study area. The study design 

therefore will sample 63 sites with watersheds that reflect a 

wide range of urbanization, 19 sites with undeveloped forested 

watersheds, and 13 sites with agricultural watersheds. The 

study builds on sampling in 2014 of flow-alteration sites in the 

Northeastern Highlands, which focused on streamflow modifications as a stressor to stream ecosystems (fig. 1, blue symbols). 

The resulting data therefore should span ranges of many specific 

stressors (for example, contaminants), enabling a better understanding of the effects of those stressors on stream ecology.

Objectives

• Determine the status of stream quality across the region on 

the basis of nutrients, contaminants, toxicity, sediment, flow, 

habitat, and biological communities.

• Evaluate the relative influence of the measured chemical and 

physical stressors on biological communities in the streams 

sampled.

• Evaluate relations between watershed characteristics (both 

natural and anthropogenic) and the measured stressors and 

biological communities of the streams.

• Develop models and management tools to predict stressors 

and ecological conditions in wadeable streams across the 

region.
Study Components

Ecological condition assessments.—Algal, benthic macroinvertebrate, and fish communities will be sampled and physical 

habitat will be surveyed once at each site during August 2016. 

These assessments will be 

done along a 150-meter 

section of each stream.

Water sampling.—Water 

samples will be collected 

weekly by using depth- and 

width-integrating methods. 

Samples will be collected, 

preceding ecological sampling, for 9 weeks at the 

mostly urban and agricultural sites and for 4 weeks 

at the mostly forested 

and least disturbed sites. 

Water samples will characterize water chemistry during late spring 

through midsummer, a period of potential concern for chemical 

runoff. All samples will be analyzed for nutrients, suspended sediment, major ions, pesticides, and pesticide degradates. Samples 

collected during selected weeks also will be analyzed for mercury, 

pharmaceuticals, and wastewater-indicator compounds.

Integrated water sampling.—Passive polar organic chemical 

integrative samplers (POCIS) will be deployed in streams at all 

95 sites for about 6 weeks to collect dissolved chemicals from 

stream water. These time-integrating samplers will be used to 

characterize chronic contaminant exposure to organisms. The 

POCIS samples will be analyzed for pesticides, pharmaceuticals, 

and wastewater-indicator compounds.

Sediment sampling.—Surficial streambed sediment will be collected from depositional areas at all 95 sites and analyzed for 

some or all of the following: trace elements, radionuclides, pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), halogenated 

organic compounds (compounds containing chlorine or bromine 

atoms, such as DDT), wastewater-indicator compounds, and 

hormones. Sediment tends to accumulate different contaminants 

than does water and can be an important contaminant source to 

organisms.

Time-integrating suspended-sediment samplers will be 

deployed at about 14 sites 

to characterize sources 

of sediments entering the 

streams. These sediment 

samples will be analyzed 

for radionuclides and 

trace elements.

Toxicity testing.—Bed 

sediment samples from 

about one-half of the 

sites will be tested by 

using standard wholesediment toxicity tests with amphipod crustaceans (Hyalella 

azteca; 28-day exposures), midge larvae (Chironomus dilutus; 

10-day exposures), and freshwater mussels (Lampsilis siliquoidea; 28-day exposures) to measure potential effects of 

contaminants on survival and growth. Many stream organisms 

For additional information, contact

National Water-Quality Assessment

U.S. Geological Survey

413 National Center

12201 Sunrise Valley Drive

Reston, VA 20192

Email: gs-w_nawqa_whq@usgs.gov

Internet: http://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/

are sensitive to various contaminants, notably some current-use 

insecticides and PAHs.

Continuous monitoring.—Stream water level and temperature 

will be monitored continuously at all 95 sites across the region, 

and continuous water-quality monitors will be deployed at 

5 sites. Continuous monitoring for parameters such as dissolved 

oxygen and nitrate concentration, in conjunction with periodic 

sampling of nutrients and periphyton biomass, can provide useful information on the effects of nutrients in streams.

Daily pesticide sampling.—Small-volume automated samplers 

will be deployed at seven sites to assess short-term temporal 

variations in concentrations of pesticides and pesticide degradates. The samplers will collect daily and weekly composite 

samples that will be analyzed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Pesticide Programs. Results will provide 

valuable information for determining short-term acute exposure 

of aquatic organisms to pesticides and for optimizing temporal 

sampling strategies.

Unconventional oil and gas.—Part of the NESQA region 

overlies the Marcellus Shale formation, parts of which are 

undergoing rapid development of natural gas wells. A reconnaissance-level assessment of methane in streams for NESQA 

sites in Pennsylvania and 

south-central New York is 

planned.

Algal toxins.—Relatively 

little is known about 

the occurrence of toxic 

algae in small streams. 

A reconnaissance survey 

of microcystin, a toxic 

chemical produced by 

some cyanobacteria, will 

be carried out in NESQA 

streams during July 2016. 

Depending on results from the reconnaissance survey, followup 

sampling might be done to better understand sources in selected 

watersheds.

Mercury in fish.—Fish specimens from each of the 95 sites will 

be analyzed for total mercury. Fish from a subset of sites will be 

analyzed for isotopes of mercury, a technique that can indicate 

the sources of the mercury. The study could provide new insights 

given the large sample size and diversity of stream settings being 

sampled.

Stream water sampling. Photograph by Kelly 

Rausch, U.S. Geological Survey

Brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis). 

Photograph by Barry Baldigo, 

U.S. Geological Survey

Stream water sampling. Photograph by Kelly 

Rausch, U.S. Geological Survey

By Peter C. Van Metre, Karen Riva-Murray, 

and James F. Coles

ISSN 2327-6916 (print)

ISSN 2327-6932 (online)

http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/fs20163021

Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply 

endorsement by the U.S. Government.