Water-Quality Assessment of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River basin, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama: Physical, Chemical, and Biological Data, 1992-1995

INTRODUCTION

This data report is based on findings from the USGS NAWQA-National Water Quality Assessment-program. This program was designed to describe the status and trends in the quality of the Nation's ground- and surface-water resources, and to provide a sound understanding of the natural and human factors that affect the quality of these resources (Leahy and others, 1990). In 1991, the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River basin was selected for investigation in the NAWQA program, and it is the findings from that investigation that are presented here.

Data collection began in August 1992 and continued through September 1995. Water-quality data were collected at 308 sites, including 132 stream sites; at 15 locations within 6 reservoirs; and at 161 ground-water sites, including wells, springs, drains, and seeps. Surface-water samples were collected at frequencies varying from hourly to annually, depending on purpose, and were analyzed for nutrients, carbon, pesticides, and major ions; field measurements included specific conductance, temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and alkalinity. Ground-water samples were collected at varying frequencies and analyzed for the same constituents. Ground water samples also were analyzed for volatile organic compounds, trace metals, radionuclides and stable isotopes. Bed-sediment and tissue samples from selected surface-water sites were analyzed for metals and organic compounds; and ecological surveys of fish, algae, and macro invertebrates were conducted.

In addition to the surface-and ground-water studies, water-quality data are available from four special studies: 1) surface-water synoptic surveys were conducted to determine spatial distribution of nutrients and pesticides, and to better define the effects of poultry, urban and suburban land-uses; 2) sediment cores collected from five reservoirs in the basin to better define long-term trends; 3) water-quality data collected during the flooding that followed record rainfall produced by Tropical Storm Alberto; and 4) a study of the recovery of the native fish community at a small watershed following the record floods resulting from Tropical Storm Alberto. The data from these studies are available for viewing or downloading. Each special study has an associated site-location map or maps.

This data report provides the user with an alternative to a paper data report by offering access to data in a digital format in which physical, chemical, biological and associated information collected as part of the ACF River basin NAWQA may be accessed. The report is divided into two sections-"read me" text and data tables. The text section includes an Abstract, Introduction, ACF Study Design,Glossery of Terms, and Description of the Data Sets. The data tables are presented by study component and further subdivided into groups consisting of related water-quality constituents. The data tables can be viewed on the screen or downloaded to a user's computer as relational data-base files. A link to a Glossary of Terms is provided with each table, as well as links to the ACF Study Unit Design section, allowing the user to obtain more detailed descriptions of surface- and ground-water data collection activities.