Assessment of Interstate Streams in the Susquehanna River Basin. Monitoring Report No. 17, July 1, 2002, Through June 30, 2004

摘要

The Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) used a water quality index (WQI) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA's) Rapid Bioassessment Protocol III (RBP III) to assess the chemical water quality, biological conditions, and physical habitat of 52 sample sites in the Interstate Streams Water Quality Network from July 1, 2002, to June 30, 2003. Only 41 out of 1,182 possible parameter observations exceeded water quality standards. Assessment results indicate that approximately 33 percent of the sites supported nonimpaired biological communities. Water quality impacts in the New York-Pennsylvania border streams tend to be mostly from metals, while most Pennsylvania-Maryland border sites have higher nitrogen and nitrate values in addition to some elevated metals.