WORLD WIDE WEB HOME PAGE FOR 

THE SOUTH PLATTE NAWQA

A World Wide Web home page for the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National 

Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program, South Platte River Basin study is now 

online. The home page includes information about the basinwide investigation and provides viewing and downloading access to physical, chemical, and biological data collected by the study team.

The World Wide Web (WWW) is part of 

a computer information network that provides 

public access to a wide variety of information. 

This information commonly is accessed and 

viewed by means of "home pages" on the 

WWW.

The South Platte River Basin study team 

has developed a home page on the Colorado 

^^^^ District Web server that is available to any per11 ^^^1 son with access to a Web browser. The home 

page contains information on significant findings from the study investigations, synopses of 

work activities, listing of and access to publications produced by the study team, and personnel information. It also provides links to 

other USGS home pages, including the 

National USGS NAWQA home pages, in 

addition to other water-information-related 

links that may be of interest.

The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) 

for the South Platte River Basin study home 

page is:

http://webserver.cr.usgs.gov/ 

nawqa/splt/splt_home.html

An innovative aspect of the home page 

is the availability of data to the public. Physical, chemical, and biological data for the 

South Platte River Basin study for water years 

1992-95 are available over the WWW to any 

interested party through viewable tables and 

downloadable data sets. Included are data collected from 136 surface-water sites on 24 

streams, 39 sampling locations in 6 reservoirs, 

and 147 wells at 99 ground-water sites (a single sampling location may have multiple 

wells) throughout the basin. The home page 

and data are updated as information and additional data become available.

Most of the data for the South Platte 

River Basin study were collected during the 

high intensity data collection phase of the 

project (March 1,1993, to September 31, 

1995). The data consist of (1) physical information such as water-temperature measurements, site descriptions, well-construction information, and suspended-sediment 

data; (2) chemical data from all surface- and ground-water sites 

and from fish tissue and bed sediment collected at surface-water 

sites; (3) biological data, such as habitat and fish community 

information; and (4) quality-control data associated with each 

sampling effort.

The data sets can be accessed by clicking on the activity 

or data sets of interest listed as subheadings below the main 

headings in the "TABLE OF CONTENTS" (for example, Synoptic Studies under Surface Water). Readers who want a more 

detailed explanation of each activity should begin by clicking on 

the main headings in the "TABLE OF CONTENTS" (for example, Surface Water, Ground Water, Biology, and Sediment).

File Edit View Go Bookmarks Options Directory" Window

Location: ijhttp //Webserver, cr U3gs.gov/rtairqa/splt/splt_home html/

South Platta 

River Basin 

Study Unit

1 Introduction ' What's New

Significant Findings j Activities ! Publications

Contacts ' Appendices j Other Hydro Links

THE SOUTH PLATTE NAWQA ONLINE DATA REPORT

UPDATED 9/30/1996. 

Click here for a detailed explanation of updates.

Settf! Plase fiiver Bas-:n Unit WebMaster

UfiL for ibis Heine fags is fh8p:/iwabsenrericrjj5gsgov/riawqa/5f/li/splt_hoir>etitml*

For comments or questions, Mail. LS-. Comments.

The South Platte River Basin NAWQA home page.
WATER-QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF THE SOUTH PLATTE RIVER BASIN, 

COLORADO, NEBRASKA, AND WYOMING PHYSICAL, CHEMICAL, AND 

BIOLOGICAL DATA, FISCAL YEARS 1993-95

°'"e 1 1 Gob.ack to cpvexp_age | GeMck to t)ie.Foreword

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Abbreviations and Acronyms

Because the data are from multiple sources (analyses from 

different laboratories, data recorded in the field, data recorded by 

data loggers), there are many data-storage formats. Three types of 

data formats are provided to make these data sets more useful: (1) 

formatted tables (for viewing); (2) American Standard Code for 

Information Interchange (ASCII) flat files (for downloading); and 

(3) tables in a tab-delimited ASCII format called RDB (for viewing and downloading).

Each chemical data set is accompanied by explanatory text 

that contains links to column-description lists that describe each 

column of data in the ASCII flat files. However, biological data 

also include RDB formatted tables (physical habitat data), and the 

explanatory text contains links to different column-description 

files called data dictionaries.

Overview of National Water-Quality Assessment Program 

Overview of South Ptatte River Basin Study Unit 

Purpose and Scope 

Acknowledgments

-Sharon L. Qi and Kevin F. Dennehy

Basic-Andjntensive-Fixed Sites 

Synoptic Studies 

Be^eji!plr^jip^_ 

Quality-Control Samples

Ground._Water I

Study-Unit Survey

Study-Unit Survey Ui ban/Crystalline Setting

Land-Use Studies

Url)jn/Muyia!_Land_-ys.e.Stiidy. 

Agricultural/Alluvial Land-Use Study

Fiowpath Studies

Agiicultural/AHuvialFlQvvpMLStudy

Well Information for All Wells Sampjed 

Quality-Control Samples

Biology

_^ 

Eco[Qgica[Si'jioptic_Stiidy 

Fis|vIis_s_ue_StiLdy

Sediment LLL2.

Sus_Bended-_Sedunejrrt Data 

Bed-Sedinienl_Study,

References 

Appendices

The Table of Contents for the online data.

The data 

can be 

downloaded to a 

hard drive 

or disk with 

the click of 

a button.

For more information, please contact:

Project Manager - South Platte River Basin study

U.S. Geological Survey

Denver Federal Center, MS 415

Denver, CO 80225

(303) 236-4882

In 1991, the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, began a National Water-Quality Assessment 

(NAWQA) Program. The long-term goals of the NAWQA Program are to describe the status of and trends in the quality of a large, representative part of the Nation's surface- and ground-water resources and to identify the major factors that affect the quality of these resources. In addressing these goals, the NAWQA Program will produce waterquality information that is useful to policymakers and managers at Federal, State, and local levels. 

Studies of as many as 60 hydrologic systems that include parts of most major river basins and aquifer systems are the building blocks 

of the national assessment. The 60 study units range in size from less than 1,000 to more than 60,000 square miles and represent 60 

to 70 percent of the Nation's water use and population served by public-water supplies. Twenty investigations began in 1991, 15 investigations began in 1994, and at least 72 are scheduled to begin in 1997.

February, 1997 Fact Sheet FS-242-96