The City of Redmond (City) has several water quality related programs (e.g., Groundwater Monitoring, Drinking Water, Surface Water) responsible for contributing to the protection and management of ground and surface water resources.  These water quality programs (Programs) have either regulatory responsibility authorized by state or county oversight agencies or, have local authority through ordinances.  Each Program has different reporting needs internally, to the public, and for meeting regulatory requirements.  However, all the water quality Programs have a common need to understand the hydraulic connections between surface, storm, and groundwater.  They also need to understand the potential risks to surface and groundwater resources.  The primary source of risk is through contamination, however, there are also risks to the built environment, such as excessively deep foundations being inundated by groundwater.  Currently, each Program collects, stores, and analyzes data independent of the other Programs to meet their basic operational and regulatory needs.  However, the ability to combine data from the Programs in a centralized system would greatly enhance overall watershed management, provide significant efficiencies in reviewing/analyzing data, and help reduce risks. 

Solution

In order to provide a central water quality repository, the City implemented the EQuIS Professional (Version 5.3, SQL 2000) software solution in May 2008.  The EQuIS software, in conjunction with other technical software (such as ArcGIS) and some custom features, allowed the City to manage, track, store, and report water quality data at the Program level as well as provide a city-wide view of all water quality information that facilitated expanded analysis and water resource protection. 

Approach

The City teamed with GeoEngineers, Inc. (GEI), an earth science and technology consulting firm, to implement the EQuIS solution.  The City needed to collect historical analytical data (hardcopy reports), water level data (pressure transducers and manual measurements) and map sample locations within ArcGIS.

GEI created a path to add the historical data used through a combination of custom data entry templates and custom electronic data deliverable (EDD) formats.  They also complimented the out-of-the-box capabilities of EQuIS with additional custom tools through MS Access and ArcGIS that provided the City with the means to efficiently manage and analyze the City’s data.  GEI also provided a method to track the sample data back to a specific hardcopy report by adding a new bibliography table within the EQuIS framework.

Results

As a direct result of the project, the City’s ability to detect contamination and declines in the water table before a supply well is adversely impacted has dramatically improved. The City can also complete public data requests more efficiently and with greater detail than before the EQuIS system was in place.

Facts

The following lists project details as of May 2009:

• Entered analytical and spatial data from nearly 250 environmental reports.
• Approximately 130,000 water level measurements (recorded from manual measurements and data loggers) in EQuIS.
• Over 40,000 analytical records stored in EQuIS and available for analysis.
• Approximately 1,250 sampling locations that stored in EQuIS can now be easily mapped within GIS.

To download and view the case study in it’s entirety, please click here.

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*This video mentions EQuIS at approximately the 12:50 minute mark and again at 20:30

Video outlining a Data Management Workflow being used:
http://bp.concerts.com/gom/watersamples_22052010.htm

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Click here for German version.

Click here for French version.

Click here for Spanish version.

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Abstract
Burns N.M., McIntosh J., Scholes P. 2009. Managing the lakes of the Rotorua District, New Zealand. Lake Reserv. Manage. 25:284–296.

In 2005, Burns, McIntosh and Scholes described strategies to manage the Rotorua Lakes using lake monitoring together with designated baseline Trophic Level Index values established for each lake. Continued monitoring has revealed that 9 of the 12 Rotorua Lakes have Trophic Level Index values in excess of their baseline values. Action Plans have been drawn up for the remediation of these damaged lakes that specify the excess nutrient loading to each lake and propose actions for the decrease of these loadings. Nutrient loading to various lakes has been decreased by upgrading waste treatment facilities, dosing tributary streams with alum, diverting an enriched tributary flow directly into the outflow channel of a lake, precipitating in-lake phosphorus with PhoslockTM and zeolite additions, and removal of macrophyte biomass from a lake and planting an artificial wetland at the entry point of a tributary to a lake. Where data are available, the results of these actions are explored. The similarities between the management system for the Rotorua lakes with the management systems used for two American and European lakes are described. Key words: action plans, trophic level criteria, water quality criteria, trophic level indexes

The twelve Rotorua Lakes lie in the middle of the North Island of New Zealand in what is know as the Central Volcanic Plateau (Fig. 1) and vary widely in character. The beauty of the lakes, together with the interesting geothermal features of the region, have resulted in the Rotorua District being one of the most important national tourist and sport fisheries area of New Zealand. The region also supports a significant amount of successful farming and forestry. The sustainable management of the Rotorua Lakes is the legal responsibility of the Environment Bay of Plenty (EnvBOP) Regional Council.Water quality of the Rotorua Lakes began to change in the early 1900s soon after European settlement of their catchments. A program of routine monitoring of the lakes was started in 1990 by EnvBOP and intensified in 1999 when strategies to halt the deterioration of all the lakes were put into place by EnvBOP (described in detail in Burns et al. 2005). Statutory legislation supporting this management strategy is contained in EnvBOP’s Water and Land Plan (W&LP). This article is a sequel to the previous article (Burns et al. 2005) and describes the strategies, their implementation, their refinement with time and some results of the actions that have been taken.

Background
The Rotorua Lakes are considered to be a national resource in NewZealand.Widespread public concern about the degradation of many of these lakes prompted an investigation and report by the New Zealand arliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (2006). His report endorsed the strategy for restoration of the Rotorua Lakes and led to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Crown (New Zealand Government) and the Rotorua Lakes Strategy Group, consisting of the Te Arana Lakes Trust, the Rotorua District Council and EnvBOP (EnvBOP 2007a). The Memorandum endorsed the use of the Trophic Level Index (TLI) system together with the TLI targets included in the W&LP. Subsequent to the signing of this agreement, the New Zealand government agreed to pay NZ$72 million toward the estimated cost of NZ$144 million for the planned remedial work to improve the damaged lakes. In 2006, the Government of New Zealand signed an agreement with the TeArawa Maori Trust Board transferring legal title to the Rotorua lakebeds to the local Maori people, while protecting public access, as a partial redress for past actions against the Maori people. This does not currently change EnvBOP’s management role.

For the complete case study, including Methods, Results and Discussion and References, click here.

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“Manage and standardize all your environmental and sampling data — efficiently and cost-effectively.

In our increasingly ecologically conscious society, the demand for environmental data is growing rapidly. Regulatory bodies and government agencies require detailed and comprehensive environmental data, such as water, soils, sediments or air quality data collected from sampling events. However, it’s often time-consuming and costly for companies involved in generating, handling or receiving such large volumes of data. In addition, a lack of standardization means that this data can arrive in a variety of formats or with different valid values — for example, the same chemical may have numerous common names. What’s more, individual laboratories and consultants may report their data in different ways.”

Read the full case study on MicroSoft’s Case Studies site here: http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=4000006592

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LaBounty, J.F. and Burns, N.M. 2007. Long-term increases in oxygen depletion in the bottom waters of Boulder Basin, Lake Mead, Nevada-Arizona, USA. Lake Reserv. Manage. 23:69-82. Long-term changes in the hypolimnetic volumetric oxygen demand (HVOD) of Boulder Basin, Lake Mead were determined from dissolved oxygen profiles collected from 1991 to 2007. HVOD is the rate at which oxygen in a deep layer in contact with the sediments is depleted during the period of thermal and/or chemical stratification. Generally, the rate at which oxygen is depleted is correlated to the amount of organic debris in the hypolimnion and sediments. The sediment oxygen demand reflects historical organic loading, while HVOD is a measure of productivity because of the organic particles settling from above. The lower hypolimnion in Boulder Basin remains relatively stable during the stratification period, enabling the calculation of HVOD in the near-bottom water layer. Small increases and/or decreases that occur in temperature and dissolved oxygen concentrations are detectable. Boulder Basin fully destratifies every other year on average, but mixes only partially in the spring (before May) of the remaining years. The HVOD rates after partial and complete destratification have been assessed separately for 1995-2005. The annual HVOD rate is generally lower the year after partial destratification than after complete destratification due to greater downward transport of oxygen into the hypolimnion. The HVOD of Boulder Basin is variable depending on loading of nutrients and water into the Basin. The rate dropped significantly following commencement of advanced wastewater treatment practices in 1994. The rates then increased 1996-2006 at a rate of approximately 0.75 mg DO/m3/day per year, or about 7% annually. During those years the inputs of nutrients steadily increased. Rates have been dropping from 2005 to present (2007) following further reduction of phosphorus input. A multiple regression analysis revealed that HVOD is significantly positive related to the total phosphorus concentration in Las Vegas Bay, but significantly negative to inflows of Colorado River water. That means HVOD was highest when reservoir water was nutrient-rich and flow rates were low. HVOD should be considered a major tool for monitoring trophic state changes in Boulder Basin.

Full PDF follows.

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INDUSTRY: Water Supply

PRACTICE: The client is a US government agency tasked with environmental protection. They provide approximately 1.3 billion gallons of high quality drinking water to almost nine million New Yorkers every day — eight million City residents and a million more people in Westchester, Putnam, Orange and Ulster Counties — plus many tourists and commuters who visit the City throughout the year. The source of this water supply is a network of 19 reservoirs in a 1,969 square-mile watershed that extends 125 miles north and west of New York City.

CHALLENGE: It was becoming very difficult to manage the large amounts of water quality data collected from the reservoirs in the Catskill/Delaware system, which accounts for 90% of the daily water consumption.

New York City DEP were using a mixture of spreadsheets and statistical packages to store and analyze water quality data, but this system was not providing them with timely and accurate information about the health of their reservoirs.

SOLUTION: Using LakeWatch software, Dr. Noel Burns, a world respected limnologist was able to take the water quality data from 6 reservoirs and calculate the trophic level for each reservoir. In addition, he was able to prove that nutrient levels were improving, but not as fast as had previously been suspected. This was a big job, made possible through the use of LakeWatch, a single software program designed to help stream line the analysis process.

Having seen the ease of calculating trophic (nutrient) levels in each of the reservoirs using LakeWatch, scientists at New York City DEP agreed to purchase the program and are now able to track changes in water quality themselves.

BENEFITS: The program is 70-80% faster than the old methods employed to calculate trophic levels in inland water. This time saving means that users are now able to spend more time making informed decisions about the sustainable management of their freshwater resources.

The database structure means that it is easy to retrieve data and because of the strict coding within the database, input errors are greatly reduced, and this in turn enhances the trend analysis.

The graphing functionality is easy to use and all graphs created are easily copied to Word documents or published to the web to help share the information with colleagues and the public alike.

The program requires a limited amount of training.

ENVIRONMENT: LakeWatch software version 2.0 (backend is a MS Access database).

SUMMARY: The customer needed a single application, with strong capacity for data storage and powerful trend analysis functionality. LakeWatch was able to provide the solution and as a result the New York City DEP are better informed about the nutrient levels in their reservoirs.

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INDUSTRY: Water Supply

PRACTICE: The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) provides a water system for pumping, treating and delivering Colorado River water from Lake Mead to the Las Vegas area.

They are committed to managing the region’s water resources and developing solutions that will ensure adequate future water supplies for the Las Vegas Valley.

CHALLENGE: SNWA comprises of representatives from each of its member agencies: Boulder City, Henderson, Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Big Bend Water District, Clark County Sanitation District and Las Vegas Valley Water District.

In order to make collective decisions regarding the health of the lake, it is important that they are supplied with the same quantitative information regarding the level of nutrients and dissolved salts within Lake Mead.

Prior to the introduction of LakeWatch software, the Las Vegas Water Wash (LVWW) committee had been tasked with the job of analyzing and trending water quality data. This was a huge job owing to the amount of data collected from the lake and reports were difficult to produce in a timely manner.

SOLUTION: Using LakeWatch, consultants were able to determine a trophic level rating for the lake and correctly analyze trends in individual variables.

LakeWatch software is now employed on a permanent basis to help store, analyze and determine the trophic level of the lake. This means large volumes of water quality data are being put to good use and of benefit to decision makers.

BENEFITS: All the members of the SNWA have access to the same quantitative reports on water quality, which helps in making collective decisions.

ENVIRONMENT: LakeWatch software version 2.0 (backend is a MS Access database).

SUMMARY: The client is completely satisfied with the level of analysis that LakeWatch is now providing and an enthusiastic promoter of the product. We have recently modified the program based on some of the early recommendations from the SNWA and the base product now incorporates these changes.

Find out more at http://www.snwa.com/

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“LakeWatch is a much needed software tool for analyzing water quality data quickly and easily. We can see the data graphically and how it changes over time. This makes it much easier to understand the waterbody dynamics and history. It also means that we can publish interpreted data in a form that the public and policy-makers can understand at a glance.

“We use LakeWatch to give us a quantitative assessment of the trophic (nutrient, clarity, chlorophyll) level of the water. It tells us whether things are getting better or worse and how quickly. In fact, we have now adopted the Burns’s Trophic Level Index for our lakes as a planning standard to determine land use options.

“What we like about LakeWatch is that it is all done at the click of a button where previously using spreadsheets and statistical packages took much longer. We were recently contacted by the head of the Lake Tarawera Residents Association who wanted to know about the lake’s nutrient level – using LakeWatch we were able answer the question while they were still on the phone.”

Environment Bay of Plenty, New Zealand

Environment Bay of Plenty (BOP) is a local government agency, established in 1989 to manage environmental resources (inland water, land, air and sea) for a large area of New Zealand. The area is endowed with a wealth of natural freshwater resources, important for both commercial (tourism) and recreational uses.

For a number of years several of the lakes had been reporting increased nutrient levels which in turn lead to problems, such as algal blooms and loss of water clarity. There were a number of different factors which might have been causing the problems and it was up to Environment BOP to pinpoint the causes and to stop the lakes from getting worse.

John Gibbons-Davies, at Environment BOP contracted limnologist Dr. Noel Burns to determine:

• Trophic (nutrient) level – for each of the lakes based on historical data supplied
• Trends – how quickly the lakes were deteriorating
• Cause – why the lakes were getting worse

Dr Burns used the LakeWatch software to analyse the data from all 12 lakes. He was able to do this 5 – 8 times faster than the old method using spreadsheets and statistical software packages. As a result, he was able to to spend time determining the cause of the problems rather than getting tied up in the tedious and complex mathematical calculations.

Having established a benchmark nutrient level for each of the 12 lakes, Environment BOP is now using LakeWatch to keep an ongoing check on those levels. With LakeWatch , they can detect small changes in the trophic level and take appropriate remedial action before the consequences become disastrous and more expensive to fix.

Using LakeWatch, Environment BOP is now able to provide the community with information about the health of their lakes, so that they can better understand the effect their activities have on the local environment.

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