Friday, December 04, 2020
Boise — The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is seeking scientific data to assist the agency in evaluating water quality in all Idaho rivers, streams, lakes, and reservoirs for Idaho’s 2022 Integrated Report.
The report describes DEQ’s ongoing efforts to monitor, assess, track, and restore the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the state’s surface waters.
Within the report, water bodies are classified into at least one of five categories, ranging from meeting water quality standards to impairment by one or more pollutants.
DEQ welcomes submittal of water quality data to assess water bodies for all categories in the report. Particularly useful are data collected within the last five years (2016 to the present) that haven’t been previously submitted to DEQ. For all submitted data, provide a monitoring plan with the quality assurance and quality controls reported.
Before submitting data, interested parties are advised to review DEQ’s Water Body Assessment Guidance (download at right) to learn more about how DEQ uses external data for water quality assessments, including Section 4.2, “Existing and Readily Available Data Policy.” Interested parties are also advised to review the additional guidance sheet (download at right) for more information about commonly submitted water quality data.
The deadline for submitting data is February 4, 2021, at 5 p.m. MST.
For questions or more information, contact Robert Esquivel at (208) 373-0153 or at robert.esquivel@deq.idaho.gov.
Related Documents
Water Body Assessment Guidance: 3rd Edition
Additional Guidance