Surface-water sampling stations, National Water-Quality Assessment, Yellowstone River Basin, Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming

Release Date

2000-01-01

Time Period

2000-03-17

Publication Date

2023-09-15

Zelt, R.B., 2000, Surface-water sampling stations, National Water-Quality Assessment, Yellowstone River Basin, Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9HS8ZWG.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) began full implementation of the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program in 1991. The program objectives are to describe current water-quality conditions and trends over time; and to improve our understanding of the natural and human factors that affect water quality. The Yellowstone River Basin (YRB) is one of more than 50 areas to be studied for this program. Among the principal program activities, water, bed-sediment, and tissue samples are collected from streams or lakes at specific sampling stations and analyzed for a large suite of chemical and physical constituents. Water-quality characteristics at each station are influenced by the natural and cultural characteristics of the local area at the sampling station. Efficient quantification of the site-specific geographic and environmental characteristics at sampling stations requires a geospatial data set composed of the site locations that may be processed, together with other digital thematic maps (such as geology or land use), in a geographic information system (GIS). Digital data for 24 stream-sampling stations in the Yellowstone River Basin are included in this data release. The station locations were retrieved from the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water Information System where they are stored as latitude-longitude coordinate pairs referenced to the NAD27 datum. Selected station identifiers and geographic codes also were retrieved and are included in the data release.

• Model Data Management Function (MDMF)