NDEQ develops water quality standards that designate the beneficial uses to be made of surface waters and the water quality criteria to protect the assigned uses. Title 117 - Nebraska Surface Water Quality Standards form the basis of water quality protection for all surface water quality programs conducted by the department. These standards were revised and approved in late 2002, and are available on the department’s web page at deq.ne.gov. In addition to developing the standards, the Planning Unit develops and implements procedures for applying the standards to surface water quality programs.
Water Quality Data Handling and Storage
The department has implemented the STORET electronic storage system for surface water quality data. Nebraska water quality information will be available to anyone who has an internet connection, at www.epa.gov/storet/. During FY2003-4, the department added to the database additional metadata for new and existing water quality stations established. All of the monitoring data from 1998 to 2003 is being entered into the database. When completed, this effort will result in the centralization of NDEQ’s previous and current water quality monitoring information.
The department also intends to populate all of the existing (pre-1998) water quality monitoring results in the modernized STORET system, making it available to the public in a centralized location. There will be a system in place to update the database on a regular schedule, making the most current information available to the public. Currently, the public can get access to the bacteria monitoring data for lakes on the DEQ website.