Quality-Assurance Plan for Water-Quality Activities in the USGS Ohio Water Science Center

Abstract

In accordance with guidelines set forth by the Office of Water Quality in the Water Resources Discipline of the U.S. Geological Survey, a quality-assurance plan has been written for use by the Ohio Water Science Center in conducting water-quality activities. This qualityassurance plan documents the standards, policies, and procedures used by the Ohio Water Science Center for activities related to the collection, processing, storage, analysis, and publication of water-quality data. The policies and procedures documented in this quality-assurance plan for water-quality activities are meant to complement the Ohio Water Science Center quality-assurance plans for water-quality monitors, the microbiology laboratory, and surface-water and groundwater activities.

Water Quality, Cyanobacteria, and Environmental Factors and Their Relations to Microcystin Concentrations for Use in Predictive Models at Ohio Lake Erie and Inland Lake Recreational Sites, 2013-14

“…Standard field and data management quality-assurance practices for USGS water-quality activities in Ohio are described in Francy and Shaffer (2008). Standard laboratory quality-assurance/quality-control (QA/QC) practices for the OWML are described in Francy and others (2014).…”

Groundwater quality in Geauga County, Ohio: status, including detection frequency of methane in water wells, 2009, and changes during 1978-2009

“…Previous samples.-Efforts were made to resample wells from which the USGS collected water-quality data in both 1986 (Eberts and others, 1990) and 1999 (Jagucki and Darner, 2001) so that temporal changes in water quality could be assessed from a consistent set of wells. Samples were collected by means of methods described in the "National Field Manual for the Collection of WaterQuality Data" (U.S. Geological Survey, 1997-present) and the "Quality-Assurance Plan for Water-Quality Activities in the USGS Ohio Water Science Center" (Francy and Shaffer, 2008). Samples were collected from household spigots; existing plumbing fixtures and well pumps were used.…”

“…Assessing sampling and laboratory variability (within a sampling round).-Sequential replicates were collected in 1999 and 2009 for most constituents to assess sampling and analytical variability (Francy and Shaffer, 2008). Sequential replicates were collected from the same well immediately after the environmental sample by use of the same equipment and field methods, and they were analyzed for the same constituents as the environmental samples.…”

“…When the bottle was opened, some of the unfiltered water was poured imme diately into two sample containers and was sent to the NWQL for DOC and pesticide analysis to verify that the source water used to prepare the equipment blanks was organic free. This sample is referred to as the source-solu tion blank (Francy and Shaffer, 2008) (table 2-1).…”

“…Bacteria equipment was sterilized by autoclaving. Quality-control samples were collected at the rate of 10 percent to ensure sample integrity and final quality of data, as specified in the "Quality-Assurance Plan for Water-Quality Activities in the USGS Ohio Water Science Center" (Francy and Shaffer, 2008). Variability introduced by sample collection and laboratory analyses (represented by replicate samples) was compared to variability in constituent concentration between years.…”