FLORIDA GEOGRAPHIC DATA LIBRARY DOCUMENTATION
VERSION 2003, RELEASED NOVEMBER, 2002.
US EPA WATER QUALITY INFORMATION
Geodataset Name: EPAWQ Geodataset Type: SHAPE Geodataset Feature: POINT
GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
This dataset contains locations of monitoring stations and statistical
summaries of water quality monitoring for 47 physical and chemicalrelated
parameters.
DATA SOURCE(S): US Environmental Protection Agency SCALE OF ORIGINAL SOURCE MAPS: NA DATE OF AUTOMATION OR SOURCE: 1/26/1998 GEODATASET EXTENT: State of Florida
FEATURE ATTRIBUTE TABLES
Datafile Name: EPAWQ.DBF
NAME WIDTH TYPE PRECISION ID 28 CHARACTER STATION 15 CHARACTER AGENCY 8 CHARACTER LOCATION 48 CHARACTER CU 8 CHARACTER SEG 3 CHARACTER MILEP 6 DECIMAL 2 ONOFF 3 CHARACTER COUNTY 20 CHARACTER STFIPS 2 CHARACTER STATE 17 CHARACTER LONG 10 DECIMAL 5 LAT 10 DECIMAL 5 TYPE 60 CHARACTER STCOFIPS 5 CHARACTER BWQID 12 DECIMAL 0 BCU 12 CHARACTER
Related Tables:
Table Name Description
WQ70_74 Water Quality observations related tables that contain
estimated information of chemicals and toxins between
1970 and 1974
WQ75_79 Water Quality observations related tables that contain
estimated information of chemicals and toxins between
1975 and 1979
WQ80_84 Water Quality observations related tables that contain
estimated information of chemicals and toxins between
1980 and 1984
WQ85_89 Water Quality observations related tables that contain
estimated information of chemicals and toxins between
1985 and 1989
WQ90_94 Water Quality observations related tables that contain
estimated information of chemicals and toxins between
1990 and 1994
WQ95_97 Water Quality observations related tables that contain
estimated information of chemicals and toxins between
1995 and 1997
WQPARM Water Quality parameters table
WQCRIT This table contains information on specific toxins and
chemicals but was not documented by EPA. Please contact
the DATA SOURCE listed below.
FEATURE ATTRIBUTE TABLES CODES AND VALUES:
ITEM DESCRIPTION
ID BASINS assigned unique station number (relate item)
STATION Station code
AGENCY Agency code
LOCATION Description of location
CU Cataloging unit code
SEG Reach file v1 segment number (FGDL has Reach File v.3 EPARR3)
MILEP Reach file v1 mile point (FGDL has Reach File v.3 EPARR3)
ONOFF On/off reach indicator
COUNTY County name coordinate
STFIPS State FIPS code
STATE State Postal Abbreviation
LONG Longitude
LAT Latitude
TYPE Station type
STCOFIPS State and County FIPS Code
BWQID BASINS assigned unique station number
BCU BASINS assigned cataloging unit
RELATED ATTRIBUTE TABLES CODES AND VALUES:
ITEM DEFINITION ID BASINS assigned unique station number (relate item) AGENCY Agency code LOCATION Description of location BWQID BASINS assigned unique station number PARM_CODE EPA STORET parameter code (relate item) NO_OBS Number of observations MEAN Mean value A15TH_P 15th percentile value A25TH_P 25th percentile value A50TH_P 50th percentile value A75TH_P 75th percentile value A85TH_P 85th percentile value STD Standard deviation BCU BASINS assigned cataloging unit code PARM_NAME Parameter name SAMPLE_TYP Sample type UNITS Units UPREFLVL Upper reference level LWREFLVL Lower reference level UNKNOWN Type of standard REF_LVLSRC Reference level source
USER NOTES:
The coverage feature attribute table contains the primary attributes of the monitoring stations. The related tables WQXXXX, contain the statistical summaries for these stations. The WQPARM and WQCRIT tables contains the STORET parameter codes and definitions.
This data set provides statistical summaries of water quality monitoring for 47 physical and chemicalrelated parameters. The parameter specific statistics were computed by station for 5year intervals from 1970 to 1994 and a three year interval from 1995 to 1997. The data are extracted from the U.S. EPA Storage and Retrieval of US Waters Parametric Data (STORET) which is contributed by a number of organizations including federal, state, interstate agencies, universities, contractors, individuals and water laboratories. Data updates are performed weekly. Each provider of data is responsible for the data it submits to STORET. For distribution with BASINS v.2.0, the spatial attributes of the database were prepared in Arcview shape file format while selected relational attributes were prepared in Arcview DBF file format.
Intended use of data: This data set was prepared to support the U.S. EPA BASINS Better Assessment Science Integrating Point and Nonpoint Sources) System.
Scale is an important factor in data usage. Certain scale datasets are not suitable for some project, analysis, or modeling purposes. Please be sure you are using the best available data.
1:24000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the county level. 1:24000 data should NOT be used for high accuracy base mapping such as property parcel boundaries.
1:100000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the multicounty or regional level.
1:250000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the regional or state level or larger.
Vector datasets with no defined scale or accuracy should be considered suspect. Make sure you are familiar with your data before using it for projects or analyses. Every effort has been made to supply the user with data documentation. For additional information, see the References section and the Data Source Contact section of this documentation. For more information regarding scale and accuracy, see our web pages at:
http://www.geoplan.ufl.edu/education.html
FGDL QUALITY ASSURANCE STATUS:
-Reprojected data to FGDL Albers
-Set Precision to DOUBLE
-Set Tolerances to FGDL Standards
REFERENCES:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1992). "Office of Water Environmental and Program Information Systems Compendium", Office of Water, U.S. EPA, Washington, D.C.
DATA LINEAGE SUMMARY:
The BASINS Water Quality Monitoring and Data Summaries for the conterminous U.S. are created by retrieving the source data from the STORET database using the STORET MEAN program. Monitoring stations characterized as ambient stream, lake, reservoir, canal, estuary or ocean were selected. Summary statistics were computed by the program by station for 5year intervals from 19701994 and for the period from 19951997. Statistics include number of observations, standard deviation, mean, 15th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 85th percentiles. A BASINS water quality station ID was assigned to each station in order to facilitate links and joins within BASINS between station data and the monitoring data summary.
For distribution with BASINS v2.0, ARCVIEW shapefiles which included the spatial extent of each of the ten U.S. EPA Regions, plus the 8digit hydrologic units that crossed region boundaries were prepared to indicate the geographic locations of the monitoring stations within the region.
MAP PROJECTION PARAMETERS
Projection ALBERS Units METERS Datum HPGN Spheroid GRS1980 1st standard parallel 24 0 0.000 2nd standard parallel 31 30 0.000 central meridian -84 0 0.000 latitude of projection's origin 24 0 0.000 false easting (meters) 400000.00000 false northing (meters) 0.00000
DATA SOURCES CONTACT(S):
Name: US Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Water
Abbr.name: USEPA Office of Water/OST Basins
Address: 401 M Street, SW Mail Stop 4305
Washington, DC 20460
Phone: (202) 2607301
Fax: (202) 2609830
Web site: http://www.epa.gov/ost/basins
FGDL CONTACT:
Name: FLORIDA GEOGRAPHIC DATA LIBRARY
Abbr. Name: FGDL
Address: Florida Geographic Data Library
431 Architecture Building
PO Box 115706
Gainesville, FL 326115706
Web site: http://www.fgdl.org
Contact FGDL:
Technical Support: http://www.fgdl.org/fgdlfeed.html
FGDL Frequently Asked Questions: http://www.fgdl.org/fgdlfaq.html
FGDL Mailing Lists: http://www.fgdl.org/fgdl-l.html
For FGDL Software: http://www.fgdl.org/software.html