Retrieving Wadeable Streams Assessment Data

Sampling data from the Wadeable Streams Assessment (WSA) will be available to the public beginning on May 16, 2006 in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's national STORET Data Warehouse. The WSA data included in the STORET data warehouse are the following:

1. Western EMAP Sites- Random and reference sites
2. Benthic Metrics Report- Macroinvertebrate data that was used in the analysis of the WSA Report
3. Ecoregions- Random and reference sites according to WSA ecoregion:
   1. Coastal Plains (CPL)
   2. Northern Appalachians (NAP)
   3. Northern Plains (NPL)
   4. Southern Appalachians (SAP)
   5. Southern Plains (SPL)
   6. Temperate Plains (TPL)
   7. Upper Midwest (UMW)
   8. Western Mountains (WMT)
   9. Xeric (XER)
4. Duplicates- Duplicate samples that were not used in the population estimates
5. Analysis Sites- Random and targeted reference sites that were used to set expectations for interpreting condition

Additional files containing watershed catchment information and 1992 landuse metrics for each WSA site can also be obtained from EPA by sending a request to storet@epa.gov.

The respective project datasets can be downloaded using the following instructions:

1. Click this link to go to the STORET Data Warehouse
2. Under STORET Regular Results, click on Regular Results by Project
3. Under Step 1: Select a Single Organization from the List, select the organization named NARS     EPA National Aquatic Research Survey Data from the dropdown list.
4. Under Step 2: Select a Single Project by Clicking “Look Up,” click the Look Up button and select the Project that you are interested in downloading
5. Leave all the other fields as defaults and click Continue at the bottom of the page
6. Enter your email address and a 3 character identifier in the yellow fields
7. Scroll down to Select Data Elements for Report and check the boxes for Activity Comment and Result Comment (Weights and Metrics are captured in these fields)
8. Scroll to the bottom of the page and Click Immediate or Overnight 
9. Repeat the above steps for STORET Biological Results and STORET Habitat Results
10. You will receive a PROCESSING email then later a COMPLETED email.  Click the URL in the COMPLETED email to download your file, identified by the 3 character prefix.
11. All result downloads are in a tilde “~” delimited format that can be imported into a database or spreadsheet assuming searches have been narrowed to files of appropriate size (<60,000 records). For tips on how to do this, click this link to download the How to Query and Download Data tutorial

Please note that it is not possible to provide state-scale analysis of these data, except for western states that were sampled as part of the EMAP-West program and included in the WSA. The WSA was designed to provide regional and national assessments of water quality. In most individual states, there are not enough sites to make statistically-valid assessments.

If you need assistance downloading WSA data, contact storet@epa.gov.

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