Document ID: EPA-HQ-OW-2003-0074-0377
Agency: epa
Document Type: Supporting & Related Material
Title: 
Posted Date: 2003-12-24T05:00Z

NWIS
Data
February
21,
2002
NWIS
is
the
national
system
for
historic
streamflow
data,
collected
and
maintained
by
the
United
States
Geological
Survey
(
USGS).
Data
includes
current­
conditions
data
for
selected
surfacewater
ground­
water,
and
water­
quality
sites,
and
descriptive
site
information
for
all
sites
with
links
to
all
available
water
data
for
individual
sites.

Purpose:
The
USGS
has
collected
water­
resources
data
at
approximately
1.5
million
sites
across
the
United
States,
Puerto
Rico,
and
Guam.
The
types
of
data
collected
are
varied,
but
generally
fit
into
the
broad
categories
of
surface
water
and
ground
water.
Surface­
water
data,
such
as
gage
height
(
stage)
and
streamflow
(
discharge),
are
collected
at
major
rivers,
lakes,
and
reservoirs.
Ground­
water
data,
such
as
water
level,
are
collected
at
wells
and
springs.
Water­
quality
data
are
available
for
both
surface
water
and
ground
water.
Examples
of
water­
quality
data
collected
are
temperature,
specific
conductance,
pH,
nutrients,
pesticides,
and
volatile
organic
compounds.

Results:
This
is
a
vast
database
of
water
resources
data.
NWISWeb
is
a
web
site
that
serves
current
and
historical
data.
Data
are
retrieved
by
category
of
data,
such
as
surface
water,
ground
water,
or
water
quality,
and
by
geographic
area.
Subsequent
pages
allow
further
refinement
by
selecting
specific
information
and
by
defining
the
output
desired.
Not
all
water­
resources
data
collected
by
the
USGS
are
provided
on
this
web
page.
To
inquire
about
the
availability
of
additional
hydrologic
data,
as
well
as
other
USGS
information
such
as
reports,
visit
the
USGS
Water
Resources
Home
Page
at
http.

Short
Term
Followup:
Investigate
usefulness
of
data
sets.
They
may
be
helpful
plugging
into
models.

Long
Term
Followup:
Develop
a
partnership
with
USGS
to
use
the
data
in
their
national
models
as
input
to
second
phase
of
the
planning
process
(
thumbnail
environmental
assessment).
About
USGS
Water
Data
The
United
States
Geological
Survey
(
USGS)
has
collected
water­
resources
data
at
approximately
1.5
million
sites
across
the
United
States,
Puerto
Rico,
and
Guam.
The
types
of
data
collected
are
varied,
but
generally
fit
into
the
broad
categories
of
surface
water
and
ground
water.
Surface­
water
data,
such
as
gage
height
(
stage)
and
streamflow
(
discharge),
are
collected
at
major
rivers,
lakes,
and
reservoirs.
Ground­
water
data,
such
as
water
level,
are
collected
at
wells
and
springs.
Water­
quality
data
are
available
for
both
surface
water
and
ground
water.
Examples
of
water­
quality
data
collected
are
temperature,
specific
conductance,
pH,
nutrients,
pesticides,
and
volatile
organic
compounds.

This
web
site
serves
current
and
historical
data.
Data
are
retrieved
by
category
of
data,
such
as
surface
water,
ground
water,
or
water
quality,
and
by
geographic
area.
Subsequent
pages
allow
further
refinement
by
selecting
specific
information
and
by
defining
the
output
desired.
Not
all
water­
resources
data
collected
by
the
USGS
are
provided
on
this
web
page.
To
inquire
about
the
availability
of
additional
hydrologic
data,
as
well
as
other
USGS
information
such
as
reports,
visit
the
USGS
Water
Resources
Home
Page
at
http://
water.
usgs.
gov.

About
this
web
site
NWISWeb
system
is
a
new
system
that
was
based
on
the
effort/
development
from
several
other
USGS
water
related
web
systems:
the
national
system
for
historic
streamflow
data
(
NWIS­
W)
,
and
the
real­
time
streamflow
data
system;
and
several
development
efforts
that
were
established
in
our
districts.
An
overview
of
NWISWeb
is
available
for
further
information.

Specifications
of
our
National
System
Web
Server
operating
system
is
the
Sun
Solaris
[
tm]
4
Processors
running
at
480
Mgz
Pages
served
by
the
Apache
web
server
Perl
and
CGI
is
used
to
display
all
pages
Graphics
are
created
by
Gnuplot
and
we
are
licensed
to
create
GIF
images
from
Unisys
Database
Server
Operating
system
is
the
Redhat
Linux
8
Processors
running
at
600
Mgz
MySQL
is
used
to
run
our
database
Connectivity
1
Ghz
Fiber
connection
between
the
web
server
and
the
database
server
NWISWeb
Data
for
the
Nation
Data
Category
S
Current­
conditions
data
transmitted
from
selected
surface­
water,
ground­
water,
and
water­
quality
sites
S
Descriptive
site
information
for
all
sites
with
links
to
all
available
water
data
for
individual
sites.

Water
flow
and
levels
in
streams,
lakes,
and
springs.

Water
levels
in
wells.

Chemical
and
physical
data
for
streams,
lakes,
springs,
and
wells.

Introduction
These
pages
provide
access
to
water­
resources
data
collected
at
approximately
1.5
million
sites
in
all
50
States,
the
District
of
Columbia,
and
Puerto
Rico.
Online
access
to
this
data
is
organized
around
the
categories
listed
to
the
left.

The
USGS
investigates
the
occurrence,
quantity,
quality,
distribution,
and
movement
of
surface
and
underground
waters
and
disseminates
the
data
to
the
public,
State
and
local
governments,
public
and
private
utilities,
and
other
Federal
agencies
involved
with
managing
our
water
resources.

Water­
Quality
Data
for
the
Nation
Real­
time
water­
quality
data
are
returned
directly
from
field
instruments.
Instantaneous
data
are
recorded
at
5­
minute
to
1­
hour
intervals
and
uploaded
to
the
data
base
every
4
hours.

Retrieve
water­
quality
data
from
field
and/
or
laboratory
analysis
of
water,
biological
tissue,
stream
sediments,
and
other
environmental
samples.

Tutorial
explaining
how
to
perform
a
water
quality
retrieval
and
understand
the
results
Introduction
The
USGS
collects
and
analyzes
chemical,
physical,
and
biological
properties
of
water,
sediment
and
tissue
samples
from
across
the
Nation.
The
NWISWeb
discrete
sample
data
base
is
a
compilation
of
over
3.5
million
historical
water
quality
analyses
in
the
USGS
district
data
bases
through
September
1999.
The
discrete
sample
data
is
a
large
and
complex
set
of
data
that
has
been
collected
by
a
variety
of
projects
ranging
from
national
programs
to
studies
in
small
watersheds.
Users
should
review
the
help
notes
and
particularly
the
Data
retrieval
precautions
before
beginning
any
retrieval
or
analysis
of
data
from
this
data
set.
Additions
of
more
current
data,
modifications
to
ancillary
information,
and
enhanced
retrieval
options
to
help
users
find
and
appropriately
use
the
data
they
need
are
planned
for
a
future
release
of
NWISWeb.