Requests for Information Related to the List of Gaging Stations for the Hydro-Climatic Data Network (HCDN)


In Reply Refer To:                               November 3, 1989
WGS-Mail Stop 415



OFFICE OF SURFACE WATER TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM NO.  90.02

Subject:   PROGRAMS AND PLANS--Requests for Information Related to
                               the List of Gaging Stations for the
                               Hydro-Climatic Data Network (HCDN)

There have been a number of requests for preliminary versions of
the HCDN list or for analysis of stations in a region that would
give the requestor such a list.  An example is a request from the
Illinois State Water Survey, which asks District Offices within a
study area to review a list of stations and to indicate those that
meet criteria essentially the same as those developed for the HCDN
list.

Office of Surface Water Technical Memorandum No. 89.15, the latest
policy memorandum concerning HCDN, stated:

  ... in the interest of accuracy and to avoid favoritism
  in distributing USGS data, we are not honoring any of
  these requests until the list is finalized in a Survey
  report.  We request that you refrain from distributing
  the list in whole or in part until then as well.

In view of this policy, do not provide the HCDN list to a
requestor.  Do not analyze a list of stations to provide
essentially the same information to a requestor.  It is intended
that the HCDN list and the related analysis be a Water Resources
Division product.

This prohibition will be in effect until the end of February 1990,
when the principal investigators will have had opportunity to open
file their results and to present them at a national conference on
climate.

Thank you again for your cooperation in this endeavor.  The HCDN
has potential for focusing much favorable attention on our work.




                                 Ernest F. Hubbard
                                 Acting Chief, Office of
                                  Surface Water

WRD Distribution:  A, B, S, FO, PO

Copy to:  James R Slack, WRD, Menlo Park, California
          Jurate Landwehr, WRD, Reston, Virginia