Preparing for the Third Decade of the National Water-Quality Assessment Program (2012) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 17-24
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In the United States, excess dissolved nutrients from applications of agricultural fertilizer have caused pervasive anoxia where the Mississippi River discharges to the Gulf of Mexico1 (Osterman et al., 2006)
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has a distinguished history of leadership, serving the nation by providing scientific data to describe and understand Earth systems and unbiased assessments to facilitate management of the nation's natural resources. Hydrologic research and hydrologic data collection and analyses are performed through the USGS Water Mission Area, one of six broad earth science mission areas around which USGS is organized: Energy and Minerals, and Environmental Health; Climate and Land-Use Change; Ecosystems; Natural Hazards; Core Science Systems; and Water.4 The administrative structure of water-related activities at the USGS has evolved throughout the history of the agency, yet the mission has remained constant: "to provide reliable, impartial, timely information needed to understand the nation's water resources." Because USGS is a science agency with no regulatory or management responsibilities, the Water Mission Area (along with the entirety of the agency)
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Research conducted by USGS's National Research Program and the Toxic Substances Hydrology Program, for example, helps define NAWQA methodologies and topics for the future, but NAWQA does not employ untested methods for probing water quality. Perennial water-quality data collection and sequential assessments in river basins and aquifers as well as regional and national syntheses are key features of the NAWQA program.
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: Field-based research to understand behavior of toxic substances in the nation's hydrologic environments for development of strategies to clean up and protect water quality. Ground Water Resources Program: Groundwater data collection and the evalu ation of controls on regional aquifer systems due to pumping and other stresses.
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Earlier studies have concerned the National Streamflow Information Program, the National Water Use Information Program, the National Research Program, and the Water Resources Discipline5 of the USGS as well as areas of research such as river science, groundwater, hazardous materials in the aquatic environment, hydrologic hazards science, and watershed research. The CWRR has reviewed NAWQA several times in the past.
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2. Provide advice on how NAWQA should approach these issues in Cycle 3 with respect to the following questions: · What components of the program -- Surface Water Status and Trends; Ground-Water Status and Trends; Topical Understanding Studies; National Syn thesis -- should be retained or enhanced to better address national water-quality issues?
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The letter report encouraged NAWQA to further define and enhance program thrusts to meet the principle of "national scale"; adhere to its original program design of probing water-quality "status, trends, and understanding"; align with the new USGS Six Strategic Science Directions; and concentrate on studies where the program can continue to make a unique and substantial scientific contribution. In a letter dated December 14, 2010, the USGS Director Marsha McNutt asked the committee to provide additional advice on NAWQA's progress in the Cycle 3 planning process, focusing on a second planning document, Design of Cycle 3 of the National Water Quality Assessment Program, 2013-2023: Part 2: Science Plan for Improved Water-Quality Information and Management or the NAWQA Cycle 3 or "Science Plan."7 The purpose 6 At the time of this review, the Science Framework was a working document, available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2009/1296.
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. The committee responded to this request through a second letter report, Letter Report Assessing the USGS National Water Quality Assessment Program's Science Plan (Appendix B)
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