Survey of the Nation's Waters - Region 5 Participation

Survey Overview:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its state, tribal, federal and other partners are implementing a series of surveys of the quality of the nation’s waters. These surveys will periodically generate statistically-valid and environmentally relevant reports on the condition of the nation’s water resources. Surveys have been completed on wadeable streams and coastal waters. Work is now underway analyzing data for lakes and planning a survey of the nation's rivers and streams.

Region 5 WQ
Water Quality Monitoring
Subtopics

Water Quality Monitoring

Other Local Water Topics

You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader, available as a free download, to view some of the files on this page. See EPA's PDF page to learn more about PDF, and for a link to the free Acrobat Reader.

Survey of the Nation's Lakes

• Regional Participation
  • Map of Regional Lakes Sampled
  • List of Regional Lakes Sampled
• Other Links

Survey of the Nation's Rivers and Streams

Survey of the Nation's Lakes

EPA and our State and Tribal partners sampled over 1000 randomly selected lakes for the 2007 Survey of the Nation’s Lakes. The Survey of the Nation’s Lakes is a statistical survey of the condition of our Nation’s lakes and reservoirs. EPA will assess data from 2007 field work during 2008. EPA expects to release a final report on the quality of lakes in 2009.

For more information on the Survey of the Nation’s Lake please see the national EPA Lake Survey site.

Regional Participation in the Survey of the Nation's Lakes

As part of this national survey, Region 5 Water Division staff sampled a total of 16 lakes including 1 lake on the White Earth reservation and 15 targeted reference lakes across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. Data from the reference sites will serve as benchmarks for assessing the quality of other lakes. Several States elected to collect additional data for parameters such as mercury and pesticides. Region 5 staff assisted in these efforts by collecting these at reference sites.

Regional Map: Attached is a map of sites sampled by EPA, states, tribes, and others in our region (1p, 299KB). A list of the lakes is provided in tabular format as well.

List of Lakes: The name, county and state of each lake sampled, along with other information, is also provided in tabular and pdf format

• List of Lakes - tabular
• 2007 Region 5 Lake Survey Sites (6p, 24KB).

Other Lake Survey Links

• Survey of the Nation's Lake - EPA's national website. Here you will find national factsheets, the quality assurance plan and other information.
• Indiana - Survey of the Nation's Lakes -
• Michigan - Michigan's Role in the National Lake Survey -
• Minnesota - National Lake Assessment Project information -
• Ohio - Lake Survey Information (scroll down) -
• Wisconsin - Lake Tides newsletter article (pdf file) -
• Data (more information to come) - Chemical, biological and habitat data for the national lake survey will be accessible through EPA's national STORET warehouse when available. Additional data collected by individual states may be accessible through their own data systems or websites.

Survey of the Nation's Rivers and Streams

EPA and its state, tribal, federal and other partners are beginning work on a survey of the nation’s rivers and streams. This survey will use a random sampling design to provide regional and national estimates of the condition of rivers and streams. States and tribes will use consistent sampling and analytical procedures to ensure that results can be compared across the country and over time. This survey will combine a first-ever assessment of the nation’s rivers with the second national survey of small wadeable streams (see the first such survey, the Wadeable Streams Assessment, at www.epa.gov/owow/streamsurvey). The Wadeable Streams Assessment provided the baseline data against which the 2008/2009 stream results will be compared.

For more information on the 2008/2009 Survey of the Nation’s Rivers and Streams please see the national EPA River and Stream Survey site.

Regional Participation

- more to come

Others River and Stream Survey Links

- more to come