Want Data?

Whether you are a curious citizen, student with a project, consultant, or a planner, you came to this page to get data. The links in the "More Info" table will get you started. Want more? Try the links below.

Interactive Map of MBSS Sites with Data

The link below shows an interactive map listing many freshwater stream sites sampled by DNR, and links each point to its associated data.

*WARNING*
This map references over 2500 data points, and takes SEVERAL MINUTES TO LOAD, even with a high speed connection. Continue to MBSS Interactive Map

DNR data:

  /irc/ links to the DNR Information Resource Center and Carter Library, with the ultimate search engine: your librarian.

  http://www.mdmerlin.net/ is DNR's online mapping tool, best used with a high-speed internet connection.
Many Water Quality sampling sites are included in the MERLIN data. Once you get into the main mapping screen, choose the 'special projects' button and choose the 'water quality sampling stations' button. It takes some time to load, but the dots are on the map. You will have to use the "InfoTips" feature tab on the left side to find out which dot is what site, but you can zoom in and out to whatever scale you want.

   http://dnrweb.dnr.state.md.us/gis/data/data.asp to download some of the datasets behind MERLIN.

http://www.mgs.md.gov/esic/freeseries.html for information on USGS topographic maps and other topics that may help you.

Other State and Federal Data sources:

Other Water Quality data is available by using the "Data Hub" button on page: http://www.chesapeakebay.net/
The data at this site is from many programs, and it is recommended that you read the "meta-data" before using the data.

http://www.mde.state.md.us/Water/index.asp is Maryland Department of the Environment's WATER INFORMATION CENTER.

All state regs are up on the State Documents web site (http://www.dsd.state.md.us). The water quality standards are in 26.08.02. The Stream use designations are in 26.08.02.08 and are listed by 6-digit basin codes. (COMAR Title 26,Sub-Title 08, Chapters 01,02,03,04,08 deal with water quality regs.)

http://water.usgs.gov/ is the USGS home page for Water Resources of the United States

USGS provides Water-Quality Information in a Format Compatible with EPA

Water-quality data from the National Water Information System (NWIS) of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) can be readily accessed online in a comparable format to data housed in the Storage and Retrieval (STORET) water-quality system of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (USEPA).To access the USGS water-quality web service, please go to http://qwwebservices.usgs.gov

Data are retrievable in a comparable format developed collaboratively between USGS and USEPA. The results include discrete provisional and finalized results of physical, chemical, biological, and other descriptive water-quality characteristics using comparable naming conventions. Several file formats are available from the web services including Extensible Markup Language (XML), tab-delimited text, Microsoft Excel and Google Earth Keyhole Markup Language (KML).

The USGS water-quality web service provides data from the NWISweb database (http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis), which hosts 4.3 million samples and 72 million results representing approximately 368,000 sites across the United States from over a century of monitoring.

This new water-quality web service is an integral part of the USGS mission to disseminate to the public water information in a reliable, impartial and timely fashion that is needed to understand the Nation’s water resources (http://water.usgs.gov/data).

USGS provides science for a changing world. For more information, visit www.usgs.gov..

For questions or more information, please contact Nate Booth, (608)-821-3822, nlbooth@usgs.gov or Timothy Miller, (703)-648-6868, tlmiller@usgs.gov.

US EPA Websites

The USEPA water-quality web service provides data from the STORET data warehouse that contains biological, chemical, and physical data on surface and ground water collected by federal, state and local agencies, Indian Tribes, volunteer groups, academics, and others ( http://www.epa.gov/storet/web_services.html). All 50 States, territories, and jurisdictions of the U.S. are represented.

1. General Water Science information, with links to many other EPA water-related sites is available on page http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/ .
2. The Water Quality Standards Database, http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/standards/, allows the user to view the designated uses of waterbodies in a structured way. Designated uses are one component of State and Tribal water quality standards. The designated use information is currently available in map form using WATERS, described below.
3. EPA's Watershed Assessment, Tracking and Environmental Results (WATERS) information system is available on EPA's website at http://www.epa.gov/waters. WATERS enables users to connect and display important water quality information on maps in their geographic context. Specifically, WATERS displays key water quality information about the quality of surface water bodies, the designated use of a waterbody (e.g., drinking water supply, recreation, fish protection) from state water quality standards, and an identification of which waters are identified as being impaired; allows users to quickly identify the status of individual waters of interest within a specified geographic area;uses EPA's standard mapping application, Enviromapper, to display the information;allows users to easily generate reports summarizing key information on waters of a state; and uses the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey, as the common language to connect the information hydrologically.

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This page was updated on 10/22/2009 (as)