Surface Water - Alabama Department of Environmental Management

Appendix R. Ambient Trend Monitoring Data
Lead agency: ADEM
Purpose: Long-term water quality and biological monitoring has been conducted at fixed
ambient monitoring stations located throughout Alabama. Stations were established
primarily to monitor water quality below point source discharges. During 1996, with the
addition of ADEM’s ALAMAP Program, the ambient trend monitoring program was
modified to focus on wadeable streams and rivers. Sites more applicable to the rivers and
reservoirs were transferred to ADEM’s Reservoir Monitoring Program.
Eighteen ambient trend monitoring stations were established in the BWC Basin
Group along the mainstem of the Cahaba River and Locust Fork and several tributaries.
The program constituted a large portion of the data collected within the basins during the
‘70s and ‘80s. In general, intensive water quality sampling was conducted at these sites
using ADEM’s SOP’s and QA/QC manuals. Data colected since 1998 are presented.
Appendix R. Physical/chemical data
References:
ADEM. 2004. In-house Ambient Monitoring Databases.
Environmental Management. Montgomery, Alabama.
Alabama Department of
ADEM. In press. Fifty years of water quality in Alabama; a comparison of water quality
data from 1948-1949 through 1999. Field Operations Division. Alabama
Department of Environmental Management. Montgomery, Alabama.