ATTACHMENT 3

United States Department of the Interior

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

Water Resources Division

1201 Oak Ridge Drive, Suite 250

Fort Collins, CO 80525

March 23, 2000

IN REPLY REFER TO:

L54(2380)

Memorandum

To: Mike Focazio, National Park Service/U.S.

Geological Survey Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment Partnership Coordinator, U. S. Geological Survey

From: Gary Rosenlieb, Water Quality Coordinator, National Park Service

Subject: Request for FY00 Proposals for Level I Water Quality Inventories for the

National Park System

Please find in Attachment 1 of this memorandum a table listing parks for which the National Park Service (NPS) is seeking proposals from your agency to conduct Level I Baseline Water Quality Inventories. I have also provided park and USGS district contacts. It is my hope that our park managers can get together with your district staff for a day or two in the field to develop their Level I project plan, primarily as it relates to the selection of sampling sites and operational considerations in the parks. A description of our inventory requirements and guidelines for the development of the Level I project plan are provided below.

The primary objectives of the Servicewide I&M Program are to insure that every unit containing significant natural resources has a nominal inventory of its natural resources and that those data are available in a data management system consistent with park management needs. Several basic water quality parameters for "key" waterbodies within the park boundaries are required for a complete inventory. Key waterbodies for the purposes of Level I inventories are defined as those waters that are essential to the central cultural, historical, or natural resources management themes of the park or provide habitats to threatened or endangered plants and animals. This nominal set of water quality information will include:

Alkalinity

pH

Conductivity

Dissolved Oxygen

Temperature

Flow

Other constituents where important as determined on a case- by-case basis, include:

Toxic elements

Clarity/turbidity

Nitrate/nitrogen

Phosphate/phosphorous

Chlorophyll

Sulfates

Fecal-indicator bacteria

Funding Amounts: $5000 per key waterbody, NTE $30,000 per park

Project Duration: One hydrologic year but can be conducted over two fiscal years.

Project Plan Due: June 30, 2000

Submit To: One copy each to the Park Superintendent and the National Park Service’s Water Resources Division, Attention Gary Rosenlieb

Inventory Project Plan Requirements:

The Level I Inventory project plan must contain the following elements:

1. Introduction: This section should include a description of each key waterbody, such as stream, spring, or river, its significance to the park, and a map depicting the location of each of the key waterbodies where water quality inventories will occur.

2. Principal Investigators: This section should describe who will be responsible for supervising and conducting the inventory. Beyond USGS personnel, principal investigators can be members of the park staff, from a university, or professionals from another government agency.

3. Sampling Plan: This section should include a listing of the Level I parameters that will be inventoried, the frequency that each key water body will be sampled, and a schedule of when the sampling will occur. Schedules should consider seasonal variations in flow and climate. Quarterly sampling (four samples collected throughout the year) should be sufficient for most park inventories. However, higher frequencies will be permitted if justified by unique or unusual hydrologic or climatic conditions in the park.

4. Protocols: The sampling and analytical methods that will be employed for the inventory should be described here.

5. Data Management and Archiving: All water-quality inventory data will be permanently archived in the Environmental Protection Agency’s new STORET Version 1.1 water quality database. Both the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Park Service recognize that at this time the STORET database is in a period of transition between the STORET Legacy system and Version 1. This will create delays in the ultimate uploading of data to STORET Version 1. To ensure that an adequate digital backup of the Level 1 data is available, the Principal Investigator must furnish on disk with the final report the four files in the format are described in Attachment 2 of this document. This will be a primary responsibility for the principal investigator.

For answers to any questions concerning the content or format of these four files or archiving water-quality inventory data in STORET, Principal Investigators should contact Dean Tucker, NPS Water Resources Division, 1201 Oak Ridge Drive, Suite 250, Fort Collins, Colorado 80525 (Tel. 970-225-3516) or email (dean_tucker@nps.gov).

6. Reporting Requirements: Upon completion of the field portion of the inventory, an administrative report shall be prepared and copies submitted to the Park Superintendent, the NPS Water Resources Division, and the Office of Water Quality, USGS. The report must contain a brief description of the inventory process, goals, and objectives; a map depicting the sites inventoried; tables depicting the results of the laboratory and field analyses; and a 3.5" diskette containing the four files documenting the water-quality inventory results as outlined in Section 5 Data Management and Archiving above.

Payment: All billings will be made on the Online Payment and Credit (OPAC) as required by the Interagency Agreement between the U. S. National Park Service and the U. S. Geological Survey (NPSIA 2380-99-002). One Task Order will be developed by the NPS’s Water Resources Division and appended to this agreement for these services.

/s/ Gary Rosenlieb

Water Quality Coordinator

Attachments: 2

cc:

COLM – Superintendent

NAVA – Superintendent, John Laughter

SAPU – Superintendent, Loretta Mosely

WACA – Superintendent, Steve Mitchelson

SCBL – Superintendent

LABE – Superintendent, Chuck Barat

JOMU – Superintendent

1211 – Reber, Hudson, Moon

2370 – Williams, Fancy

2380 – Kimball, Jackson, Flora, Long, Irwin, Tucker, VanMouwerik, Kliwinski

6020 – Cinnamon

8000 – Kolipinski, Woo, Allen, Jope

Attachment 1

National Park Service Units Requiring USGS Proposals

For FY-00 Level 1 Water Quality Inventories

PARK	STATE	NPS REGION	PARK CONTACT	USGS CONTACT
Colorado National Monument	CO	Intermountain	John Reber Intermountain Regional Office P.O. Box 25287 Denver, CO 80225-0287 (303) 969-2418	WILLIAM F. HORAK dc_co@usgs.gov Bldg. 53, Denver Federal Center Mail Stop 415, Box 25046 Lakewood, CO 80225 (303) 236-4882, ext. 258
Navajo National Monument	AZ	Intermountain	Laura Hudson Intermountain Regional Office P.O. Box 25287 Denver, CO 80225-0287 (303) 969-2518	NICK B. MELCHER dc_az@usgs.gov 520 N. Park Avenue, Suite 221 Tucson, AZ 85719 (520) 670-6671, ext. 221
Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument	NM	Intermountain	Loretta Mosely P.O. Box 496 Mountainair NM 87036 (505) 847 2585 ext. 24	LINDA S. WEISS dc_nm@usgs.gov 5338 Montgomery, NE Suite 400 Albuquerque, NM 87109-1311 (505) 830-7900
Walnut Canyon National Monument	AZ	Intermountain	Steve Mitchelson Walnut Canyon NM 6400 N Hiway 87 Flagstaff, AZ (520) 526-1157 ext.235	Nick B. Melcher dc_az@usgs.gov 520 N Park Av, Rm221 Tucson, AZ 85719 (520) 670-6671, x221
Scotts Bluff National Monument	NE	Midwest	Steve Cinnamon Midwest Regional Office 1709 Jackson Omaha, NE 68102 (402) 221-3437	MICHAEL E. SLIFER dc_ne@usgs.gov 100 Centennial Mall No. Lincoln, NE 68508 (402) 437-5082
Lava Beds National Monument	CA	Pacific West	Chuck Barat Lava Beds NM P.O. Box 867 Tulelake, CA 96134 (916) 667-2282	MICHAEL V. SHULTERS dc_ca@usgs.gov Placer Hall 6000 J Street Sacramento, CA 95819-6129 (916) 278-3000
John Muir National Historic Site	CA	Pacific West	Mietek Kolipinski Pacific Great Basin SO 600 Harrison Street, Suite 600 San Francsisco, CA 94107-1372 (415) 427-1430	MICHAEL V. SHULTERS dc_ca@usgs.gov Placer Hall 6000 J Street Sacramento, CA 95819-6129 (916) 278-3000

Attachment 2

Electronic File Formats for Level 1 Water Quality Inventory Data

A. Water Quality Inventory Data

All water-quality inventory data (physical, chemical, and biological) must be entered into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet (WQDATA.XLS) or Access table (WQDATA.MDB). Each spreadsheet or table row should contain all the results/measurements from one sample at one station including the Station Name (and/or unique ID), date (MM/DD/YYYY), time (HH:MM:SS - military), medium (water, sediment, soil, air, biological), depth, name of the sample collector, and the actual water quality parameter results/measurements. Spreadsheet/table column headers should clearly state the full name of the parameter and measurement units. Parameter results that are below the detection limit should be indicated with a less than sign (<) and the instrument or procedure detection limit. Other remarks, qualifiers, or comments regarding a result should be in a column immediately following the result. All data should be examined for outliers or erroneous values. After entry in the spreadsheet or table, all data should be verified by comparison with the source to eliminate transcription errors.

B. Water Quality Parameter Definitions

Every water quality parameter must be explicitly defined in an ASCII or Microsoft Word file named PARMETER.DOC. Defining a parameter includes providing: (1) full parameter name (e.g. Nitrate as Nitrogen); (2) sample fraction (e.g. total, dissolved, suspended, etc.); (3) measurement units (mg/l, °C, µg/l, etc.); (4) indication of whether it was measured in the field or lab; (5) value type (actual, estimated, calculated); (6) description of lab sample preparation procedures (e.g. filtration of water samples, 0.45 microns); (7) description of sample transport/preservation (e.g. Cool to 4°C, adjust pH <2 with H2SO4) ; (8) lab analytical method/procedure name, source citation, and ID (e.g. Metals in Marine Waters by ICP/MS - USEPA/ORD 200.1; Ammonia Nitrogen in Water, Hach 8038); (9) name and model number of field and/or lab equipment; (10) maximum and minimum quantification limits for the method/procedure; (11) method/procedure detection limit; and (12) name of the chemist/lab technician that analyzed the samples.

C. Water Sampling Location Information

The location where every water quality sample was collected must be documented in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet (STATIONS.XLS) or Access table (STATIONS.MDB). Each row in the spreadsheet or table should contain all the attributes to describe a sample location including: (1) full station name; (2) station ID; (3) station type (stream, river, spring, lake, ocean, estuary, wetland, etc.); (4) description of the station (e.g. natural history, geographical location, access directions, etc.); (5) purpose of station in monitoring effort; (6) latitude and longitude (either decimal degrees or degrees, minutes, and seconds); (7) method of determining latitude and longitude (e.g. manual map interpolation, GPS , GIS, etc.); (8) the scale of the map used for interpolation or type of GPS (Carrier, Code, Kinematic, etc.); (9) the datum to which the latitude and longitude are referenced (e.g. NAD1927, NAD1983, etc.); (10) state and county of the station; (11) U.S. Geological Survey 8-digit Hydrologic Unit number for the station; (12) Natural Resource Conservation Service Watershed ID; (13) elevation; (14) elevation source; (15) elevation datum; and (14) secondary station name(s).

D. Project Background Information

Basic information about the water quality sampling effort must be included in an ASCII or Microsoft Word file named README.DOC. This file may incorporate all or parts of the sampling plan and final report. The purpose is to provide additional background information on the sampling effort including: (1) project goals and objectives; (2) contact information (names, addresses, and telephone numbers) for those who conducted the work; (3) contact information for the lab that analyzed the samples; and (4) any other information relevant to the effort.