Letter Report Assessing the USGS National Water Quality Assessment Program's Science Framework (2010) / Chapter Skim
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The purpose of the Science Framework, the first of two documents on the Cycle 3 design, is "…to outline and describe a framework of water quality issues and priorities for Cycle 3 that reflect the unique capabilities and long term goals of NAWQA, an updated assessment of stakeholder priorities, and an emphasis on identifying potential approaches and partners." It begins with a discussion of NAWQA's unique role in assessing current and future water quality 1 Available online at: http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2009/1296. The Science Framework is a working document and is the basis for the NAWQA Cycle 3 program.
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NAWQA's commitment to national level work should be prefaced by a vision for water quality at the national scale. A national water quality program should include national scale surveillance, scenario development, and forecasting.
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In other words stressors constitute technical topics, or "priorities" that should be structured within the context of the drivers, or "causes", for changing water quality and key policy relevant questions that NAWQA hopes to answer. Specifically, we recommend that NAWQA reorganize its activities to focus on the two major large scale drivers affecting national water quality: (1)
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These research questions will convey to decision makers and water managers the important topics that the NAWQA program will address as well as the critical value of the NAWQA program itself. An example of a policy relevant question might be: How would changing land use and a changing climate affect water quality, quantity, and allocation in the American west?
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Again, a national water quality program should include national scale surveillance, scenario development, and forecasting. It should characterize the quality of the nation's waters and serve as a tool for water policy and decision makers in their evaluations of the nation's water resources.
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How the sediment delivered in response to changing land use influences aquatic ecosystems and how sediment may be controlled within dam management and operations while minimizing ecological and economic impact constitute examples of policy relevant issues. Detailed sediment flux and discharge monitoring is very costly and may be beyond NAWQA's means, but NAWQA has the capacity to address sediment in the context of key questions aimed at addressing major ecosystem and economic impacts using SPARROW modeling (SPAtially Referenced Regressions On Watershed attributes)
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While there are clear water quality issues related to reuse, most projects are local in nature and would not be well suited for integration with the larger national priorities that NAWQA should address. (Concrete examples of how the NAWQA program addresses this issue on a national scale would be necessary prior to further pursuit.)
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The committee urges creation of a more focused, restructured, and clarified planning document for Cycle 3 of the NAWQA program. It should clearly and compellingly demonstrate how the program has had and will have an impact on national water policy, and, in part, secure that NAWQA moves through Cycle 3 intact as our nation's premier water quality monitoring program.
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