Limited availability of new USGS data; starting March 11th, 2024, there will be a period when new USGS data will not be accessible on the Water Quality Portal. Data will still be collected but will not be publicly available. This limited availability is expected to last a few weeks.
Recent USGS data will be accessible again upon release of the new Data Profiles, which will be in the WQX 3.0 format. These profiles should be available in April, 2024. Please keep an eye on banners on this website for announcements.

What is the Water Quality Portal (WQP)

The Water Quality Portal (WQP) is a cooperative service sponsored by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Water Quality Monitoring Council (NWQMC). The WQP integrates publicly available water quality data from the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS) the EPA Water Quality Exchange (WQX) Data Warehouse, and the USDA ARS Sustaining The Earth’s Watersheds - Agricultural Research Database System (STEWARDS).

The EPA water quality data originate from the Water Quality Exchange, the EPA's repository of water quality monitoring data collected by water resource management groups across the country. Organizations, including states, tribes, watershed groups, other federal agencies, volunteer groups, and universities, submit data to the WQX in order to make their data publicly accessible.

The USGS water quality data originate from the NWIS Web Database. The database contains current and historical water data from more than 1.5 million sites across the nation. It is used by state and local governments, public and private utilities, private citizens, and other federal agencies involved with managing water resources. All publicly available data are not available through the web services at this time. The web services include results for USGS parameters represented in the crosswalk between NWIS Parameter Codes and the EPA Substance Registry System. The latest crosswalk is available at this WQP Page. At this time this crosswalk accounts for approximately 92% of water-quality data available from NWIS Web.

The ARS water quality data originate from the STEWARDS (Sustaining The Earth’s Watersheds - Agricultural Research Database System) database and were developed as part of the Conservation Effects Assessment Program (CEAP). STEWARDS contains long-term hydrologic, weather, and water quality data from 17 ARS benchmark research watersheds.