WATER Monitoring & Data
The Water Trends, Assessment, and Environmental Research (WATER) Monitoring Program ensures the best data are available to assist decision makers in managing, protecting, and improving Oklahoma’s water resources. Continuous data, including water well level and stream stage or discharge, are collected using data loggers that report readings in real-time intervals. Discrete data are collected for physical, chemical, and biological parameters and stored in the Ambient Water Quality Monitoring System (AWQMS). Several custom searches have been saved in AWQMS specific to certain waterbodies, common parameters, timeframes, project areas, etc. to facilitate the creation of data exports, interactive maps, reports, and graphs for data analyses.
Approximately 80 lakes are monitored on a quarterly basis utilizing a five-year rotation schedule, allowing for long-term assessment of beneficial uses and water quality trends. Generally, lakes are sampled at 3-5 stations in order to be representative of the riverine, transitional and lacustrine zones of the waterbody. On many reservoirs, additional sites are monitored, including major arms of the reservoir as appropriate.
Approximately 70 river and stream sites are monitored annually on a quarterly basis across the state. Data collected at the sites are important indicators for determining compliance with water quality standards, tracking general water quality trends, and identifying pollution problems, as well as providing stream flow data critical for water supply planning and early flood warnings.
Groundwater sampling is conducted on a network of more than 1,000 wells in Oklahoma's major aquifers. Sampling occurs in both a baseline monitoring network and a long-term (trend) monitoring network within each major aquifer. Multiple assessments of water levels and chemistry facilitate the recognition of seasonal changes, changes due to climate variability, and/or changes due to usage over time. Additionally, a select number of wells are equipped with water level data loggers to monitor changes on the scale of weeks, days, or even hours.
