WATSTORE Phaseout Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 10:30:17 -0500 To: "A - Division Chief and Staff", "B - Branch Chiefs and Offices", "DC - All District Chiefs", "CD - All Data Chiefs" From: "Judith B Griffin, Secretary, Reston, VA" (Judith B. Griffin) Subject: WATSTORE Phaseout Cc: "Dorothy M Woods, Secretary (AO), Reston, VA" In Reply Refer To: Mail Stop 414 MEMORANDUM October 16, 1997 To: Senior Staff Branch Chiefs District Chiefs Data Chiefs From: Lewis V. Wade Acting Chief, Office of Information Subject: WATSTORE Phaseout Access to the WATSTORE system, located on the Reston mainframe computer, will end by December 30, 1997. All WATSTORE files will be archived and removed from the system in January 1998. This memorandum outlines the schedule and process that will be followed. Specific questions about this process should be sent to Owen Williams, (oowillia@usgs.gov) 703 648-5610. DAILY VALUES FILE - On June 23, 1997, mail was sent to all Districts announcing our intention to remove the WATSTORE Daily Values File. As part of the process, NWIS staff compared daily values data in WATSTORE with daily values data in each District's NWIS database. The Districts retrieved the results of this analysis from the WATSTORE homepage. Districts with data on WATSTORE but not in NWIS have sent us requests for retrievals of that data. We have retrieved daily values data for 30 Districts with 16 more Districts in the queue. Updates to the WATSTORE Daily Values File may be made until November 2, 1997. At that point, the database should be complete through 1996 for most Districts. EPA will be sent a copy of the daily values for entry into STORET. We also will fill a request from Earth Info Inc. for a copy of all daily values data. Retrievals from the Daily Values File may be made until December 30, 1997. All daily values data will be archived in the 2 and 3 card-image format on cd-roms. The archived data will be maintained in Reston. GROUND-WATER SITE INVENTORY (GWSI) - On July 22, 1997, mail was sent to all Districts announcing our intention to remove the GWSI database from WATSTORE. We asked Districts to notify us if they needed to download data from WATSTORE to their NWIS system. At this time we have received responses from all Districts indicating that their NWIS database is up-to-date and that they have no need to download data from WATSTORE GWSI. Because of changes made to the IBM mainframe operating system, all updates to the WATSTORE GWSI ended effective Friday, October 3, 1997. Retrievals from GWSI may be made until November 2, 1997. WATSTORE GWSI data will be archived on cd-roms in the loader-string format. The archived data will be maintained in Reston. UNIT VALUES FILE AND BASIN CHARACTERISTICS FILE - Retrieval and update of the Unit Values File and the Basin Characteristics File may be made until November 2, 1997. These two files will be archived on cd-roms and maintained in Reston. Each District will receive a cd-rom containing the entire contents of the Basin Characteristics File. PEAK FLOW FILE - Update capability for the Peak Flow File will end on November 24, 1997. Retrievals from the WATSTORE Peak Flow File may be made through December 30, 1997. The Peak Flow File system will be available as part of the NWIS system with the planned release of NWIS_2_1 in December 1997. The NWIS Peak Flow File will be populated with the District data in WATSTORE as of November 24, 1997. These data will be loaded into NWIS by the Districts from a file created from WATSTORE by NWIS staff. To ensure that all data for a District are included in the NWIS database, Districts will receive a list of stations to review in late November. Once Districts have approved the list, the file for loading into NWIS will be prepared by NWIS staff. Complete instructions and information will be sent as part of this process. In December, the peak flow file will be downloaded and used to update the peak flow data available on the web through NWIS-W. This download will also fill a request from Earth Info Inc. for a copy of all peak flow data. The WATSTORE Peak Flow File will be archived on cd-roms in the peak flow card-image format. The archived data will be maintained in Reston. WATER QUALITY FILE - Updates to the Water Quality File may be made up to December 10, 1997. Retrievals may be made until December 30, 1997. The last update to STORET from WATSTORE will be made on December 10, 1997. Software distributed with the NWIS_2_1 release in December will allow STORET updates to be made from the District databases. Final details on this process will be released in a separate memorandum. To ensure that Districts do not lose any data that might be on the WATSTORE water-quality file and not on NWIS, the following steps are being taken: 1. A program that compares the station number, dates, and times of each analytical record in WATSTORE with those on each Districts NWIS database has been developed. WATSTORE proprietary data are not included in the comparison. 2. NWIS staff will run this comparison and provide to each District a report of data in WATSTORE but not in NWIS. 3. Retrievals will be made from WATSTORE by State for all data. This data, in 1 and * card format, and a copy of the report will be placed on a cd-rom. This cd-rom will be sent to the District. If a District Office has need for a cd-rom of neighboring States, they can request copies from the NWIS office. The complete contents of the Water Quality File will be archived in 1 and * card format on cd-roms and maintained in Reston. STATION HEADER FILE, SUPPORT FILES AND SOFTWARE - Updates to the Station Header File may be made up to December 10, 1997. Retrievals may be made until December 30, 1997. Once all other data files are removed from WATSTORE, the Station Header File will be removed and archived in the station header card-image format on cd-roms. Also all major support files, such as the parameter code dictionary and the WATSTORE source code, will be archived on cd-roms and maintained in Reston.