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Why Monitor Water Quality?
water quality monitoring intro who monitors water quality?

Unless you are a swamp rat or a toad, you probably don’t want to live on the edge of a smelly, algae-filled waterway. Most people like their lakes, streams, rivers to be clean, clear, and fresh. Clean waterways not only provide an outlet for recreation and an ideal setting to connect with nature, but they also are a part of our water cycle, and thus eventually end up as our drinking water!

Monitoring can be conducted for many reasons. Five major reasons (according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) are to:

  
  1. Characterize waters and identify changes or trends in water quality over time

2. Identify specific existing or emerging water quality problems

3. Gather information to design specific pollution prevention or remediation programs

4. Determine whether program goals -- such as compliance with pollution regulations or implementation of effective pollution control actions -- are being met

5. Respond to emergencies, such as spills and floods.
 
Some types of monitoring activities meet several of these purposes at once; others are specifically designed for one reason.
 
 

 
   
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