What is water quality monitoring?
Water quality monitoring is a process in which there is a clear plan to collect organized data from a waterbody over a specific duration of time. There are wide ranges of methods and practices to collect water quality data. Some common practices are physically collecting water, deploying sensors/probes, sampling the macroinvertebrate community, and much more.
The plan that is followed to conduct water quality monitoring is essential. The overall plan for sampling should include the 5 W's (Who, What, Where, When and Why) and how as well as the goal for the project. Anyone that reads the plan should have a great understanding of the project and how to collect the data. NYS DEC requires a Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) for any project that collects water quality data to ensure that the methods and analyses used must be correct and reproducible.
Why is water quality monitoring important?
Water quality monitoring is important as it can provide helpful information on the condition, assist with source tracking, or answer a specific question within a waterbody. Waterbodies are important as they provide drinking water sources, recreation/ economic support, essential habitat for wildlife and host a plethora of important ecosystem services. Assessing the condition of waterbodies can help inform the surrounding community, partners and state agencies implementing next steps to improve and protect them.
Assessments are based off the extensive overview of the data collected by looking at the information collected, identifying trends, examining exceedances in parameters and the macroinvertebrate community to determine if the waterbody is supporting its designated best use. Assessing waterbodies can make communities more competitive in grant opportunities to improve or protect their resources, as well as provide updated data to inform permitting and compliance/ enforcement actions. In NYS, the DEC has created a framework-Consolidated Assessment Listing Methodologies (CALM)- outlining all the information needed to assess a waterbody on whether or not it supports the designated best use.
Hudson River Estuary Program: Monitoring Unassessed Stream Segments (MUSS)
Monitoring Unassessed Stream Segments (MUSS) Program is a Hudson River Estuary Program initiative centered on water quality monitoring in waterbodies within the Hudson River Estuary Watershed. This is a two-year revolving water quality monitoring program targeting streams or rivers with Best Use(s) that are unassessed or have an unconfirmed assessment status.
The MUSS program solicits and engages local partners via an application to recommend stream segments that they would like to be monitored by NYS DEC Hudson River Estuary Program staff. This benefits local partners by providing accurate water quality data that can assist with local land use planning, watershed management, and community outreach while also benefiting NYS by creating a baseline condition assessment of the selected waterbodies.
