1. WQX Biological and Habitat Data Effort STORET/WQX Users Conference Austin, TX November 28, 2007

2. WQX Biological and Habitat Data WQX Version 1.0 data flow in production (Feb 07) –Physical, chemical, microbiological, and fish tissue data only Add Biological/Habitat data to schema –Begin Bio/Habitat WQX pilot (Early 07) –Finalize WQX Bio/Habitat Schema (Jan 08) –Bio/Habitat WQX in production (May 08)

3. Determining Bio and Habitat Elements As a starting point, used core elements from STORET and EDAS (Ecological Data Application Systems) to put together data elements No ESAR data standard for biological or habitat monitoring exists –Toxicity/Population/Community Water Quality Data Elements not fully adopted as standard –Work moving forward on Habitat data standard

4. Bio/Habitat Issues Introduced the starting data elements to a pilot group Pilot group involved states, tribes, academics, and other groups such as USGS Pilot group discussed and addressed a list of issues around the starting data elements –Examples: How to best model Index and Metric information Adding in context/citation information

5. Draft WQX v2.0 Schema

6. Station Weights Support Probabilistic Designs Station Weights Stratum Identify Reference Sites

7. Wells Support Well Information Well data associated with monitoring location

8. Biological Sampling Activities Biological Activity Information Net capture type activities Electro fishing activities Toxicity testing activities

9. Index and Metric

10. Biological Descriptions

11. Next Steps Looking for additional feedback this week Plan to solicit final feedback from pilot group and others Will be finalizing schema by January 2008 Will be rolling into the production version of WQX v2.0 by May 2008

12. More information www.epa.gov/storet/wqx_bio_pilot.html Contact Information: –Kristen Gunthardt, gunthardt.kristen@epa.govgunthardt.kristen@epa.gov –The STORET Team, storet@epa.govstoret@epa.gov