Board approves contract to continue longtime water data partnership
PALATKA, Fla., Aug. 9, 2016 — For more than 40 years, the St. Johns River Water Management District and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have collaborated on data collection and analysis, sharing water quality and water level information that both agencies use to protect Florida’s water resources. Today, the district’s Governing Board approved its annual joint funding agreement with the USGS, which currently calls for monitoring 71 sites in springs, rivers and streams throughout the district.
“Water monitoring provides us with a better understanding of the complex interactions that take place in our waterways,” said St. Johns River Water Management District Executive Director Dr. Ann Shortelle. “Sharing data between agencies avoids duplication of efforts and ultimately saves taxpayer money while providing the information we need to make sound decisions. The fact that we have partnered with USGS on data collection since 1974 is fantastic.”
The district operates and maintains more than 2,000 monitoring stations throughout the district and processes data from approximately 350 additional sites collected by county and municipal agencies through mutual agreement or by the USGS under contract to the district. More than 8 million measurements are collected, verified, processed and stored each year.
The agreement approved by the board provides $938,450 toward long-term hydrologic data collection continuous water level and discharge at 10 main stem sites in the St. Johns River, as well as numerous tributaries to the river. Also, the USGS collects continuous water quality at five sites in the St. Johns River.
While the data is used by scientists and engineers in the district’s decision making, much of it is also publicly available on the USGS website at http://waterwatch.usgs.gov/. To view water data on the district’s website, visit /data/hydrologic/.