Nitrogen and phosphorus data for surface water in the Upper Colorado River Basin Colorado 1980-94
Wynn KH and Spahr NE. 1997. Nitrogen and phosphorus data for surface water in the Upper Colorado River Basin Colorado 1980-94. National Water-Quality Assessment Program. Open-File Report 97-233. United States Geological Survey. Denver, Colorado
This report documents and summarizes the surface-water data collected from January 1980 through August 1994 for nitrogen and phosphorus in the Upper Colorado River Basin from the Colorado-Utah State line to the Continental Divide. Ancillary data for parameters, such as water temperature, streamflow, specific conductance, dissolved oxygen, pH, and alkalinity, also are compiled, if available. Data were retrieved from the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Information System and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency STORET (STOrage and RETrieval) system. The water-quality data are presented for sites having five or more nutrient analyses that reflect ambient stream conditions.The compiled data base contains 4,927 samples from 123 sites. The median sample period of record for individual sites is 2.5 years, and the seventy-fifth percentile is about 12 years. Sixteen sites have only five samples each. The median number of samples per site is 14 samples, whereas the seventy-fifth percentile is 65 samples. The compiled data set was used in the design of a basinwide sampling network that incorporates sites that lack historic surface-water-quality data.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Wynn, Kirby; Spahr, Norman
- Date of Issue
- 1997
- Publisher
- United States Geological Survey
- Units
- NCPN
- Keywords
- Aquatic Sciences, Monitoring, Organic Compound-Environmental Aspect, Organic Coumpoung-Bioaccumulation, particulate organic matter, Water Quality