Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2019CO002S

Assessing Status of Water Quality and Environmental Health of our Nation’s Rivers

Institute: Colorado
USGS Grant Number: G19AP00126
Year Established: 2019 Start Date: 1970-01-01 End Date: 1970-01-01
Total Federal Funds: $49,999 Total Non-Federal Funds: Not available

Principal Investigators: Reagan M. Waskom

Project Summary: High-quality freshwater resources are essential to our nation’s health and prosperity, but these same resources are limited, fragile, and responsive over small and large spatial and temporal scales to a wide variety of human activities and natural events. Stakeholders and policymakers require accurate assessments of water-quality and seek to understand whether those conditions are getting better or worse over time. Regional and national assessments pose many challenges, including strategic study design, uniform methods of data collection, cutting-edge analytical and statistical analysis, and interagency collaboration. Furthermore, in order to assess the quality and sustainability of water resources, scientists must synthesize geographical and ecological information with trends in demographics, land-use, and climate change. As such the National Water Quality Project, Regional Stream Quality Assessment conducted five eco- regional (Midwest, Southeast, Pacific Northwest, the Northeast, and coastal Mountains of Central California) assessments of the physical, chemical, and ecological health of our Nation’s rivers. Data collection by the USGS ended in 2017, and Dr. Travis Schmidt at the Colorado Water Science Center is currently interpreting the data and developing statistical models necessary for information synthesis and publication. CSU will collaborate with Dr. Schmidt to further summarize the data, develop data releases, develop statistical models of models, and prepare up to two manuscripts. A non-student hourly employee is expected to work off-campus in collaboration with Dr. Travis Schmidt. The two manuscript titles are expected to be 1) “Aquatic insect response to the pesticide fipronil and its degradates in a 30 day mesocosm experiment†and 2) “Aquatic insect response to the neonicotinoids imidacloprid and clothianidin in a stream mesocosm experimentâ€.