In the 2012 President's Budget Request, the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) is terminated. As a result, all resources, databases, tools, and applications within this web site will be removed on January 15, 2012. For more information, please refer to the NBII Program Termination page.
The following pages contain information on surface water, ground water, water quality, and drought;in the Pacific Northwest. They also include real-time data and historical data for streamflow, water quality and more!
For more information about fishes nationwide, visit the NBII Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (NBII-FAR) web site. There you can find further web resources on fishes and aquatic organisms and the diverse factors affecting aquatic resources nationally.
Water Cycle [Photo: US Global Climate Change Research Program]
From its oceans, estuaries, rivers, lakes, and ponds, to its wetlands, vernal pools, seeps, and aquifers, water is a distinguishing characteristic of the Pacific Northwest Region. All biological organisms require water and, to function well, clean water serves critical roles in agriculture, industry, recreation, transportation, and maintenance of our environment, as well as our very quality of life.
Drought
A drought is a period of unusually persistant dry weather that lasts long enough to cause serious problems such as crop damage and/or water supply shortages. The severity of the drought depends upon the degree of moisture deficiency, the duration, and the size of the affected area (National Weather Service). A drought can be defined by the amount of precipitation in an area, by the amount of moisture in the soil, by surface and subsurface water supplies, or by water shortages affecting people.
Drought is an issue of great concern in the Pacific Northwest region. Severe drought can lead to wildland fire and agricultural losses in the states of this region.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Surf Your Watershed
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's "Surf Your Watershed" program integrates environmental information available by geographic units including state, watershed, county, metro area, and tribe.
The site provides access to three main databases:
1. Adopt Your Watershed, a database of watershed groups,
2. Wetlands Restoration Projects, which displays ongoing wetlands restoration,
3. Environmental Websites Database, a directory of websites dedicated to environmental issues and information.
The objective of the Clean Water Act is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation's waters. Fish, insects, algae, plants and other aquatic organisms can act as biological indicators, providing accurate information about the health of waterbodies such as lakes, streams, rivers, wetlands, estuaries, and coral reefs.
The presence, condition, and numbers of the types of these plants and animals reflect current conditions, as well as changes over time and cumulative effects. Through direct observation and monitoring, scientists can identify problems and stressors in aquatic ecosystems.
About the NAWQA Data Warehouse:
The USGS began its NAWQA program in 1991, systematically collecting chemical, biological, and physical water quality data from 42 study units (basins) across the nation. The Data Warehouse contains and links the following data:
Chemical concentrations in water, bed sediment, and aquatic organism tissues for about 2000 chemical constituents
Biological community data for 16,000 fish, algae and invertebrate samples
Site, basin, well and network characteristics with many descriptive variables
Daily stream flow information for fixed sampling sites
Ground water levels for sampled wells
7,600 surface water sites and 8,100 wells
49,000 nutrient samples and 31,000 pesticide samples as well as 9,000 VOC samples
2,500 samples of bed sediment and aquatic organism tissues
