Southern Colorado Plateau Water Quality Monitoring

The National Park Service (NPS) Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Program was designed to determine the current status and monitor long-term trends in the condition of park natural resources, providing park managers with a strong scientific foundation for making decisions and working with other agencies and the public to protect park ecosystems. As part of the effort to create a comprehensive look at aquatic ecosystem health, the Southern Colorado Plateau Network (SCPN) identified water quality as a core “vital sign” (Thomas et al. 2006).

Specific objectives of stream water quality monitoring for the SCPN parks are

1. Determine status and trends in selected water quality analytes at selected sites in priority streams within SCPN.

2. Determine the variability of NPS core water quality parameters (water temperature, pH, conductivity, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, and discharge) during base flow conditions at selected sites in priority streams within SCPN parks as they vary with daily, seasonal and climatic conditions. This part of the monitoring program focuses on core parameters that do not require laboratory analysis but will provide useful information that is likely correlated to other parameters (i.e., metals and nutrients).

3. Compare water quality data against state standards for chronic exceedances. Multiple exceedances in a year typically indicate non-compliance.