Evaluation and Refinement of USEPA's River Reach Files (RF3) for Northwest Missouri

Go here for the Final Report

Background

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MoDNR) contracted the Center for Agricultural, Resource and Environmental Systems (CARES) to conduct the Evaluation and Refinement of U. S. Environmental Agency's Reach Files (RF3) for Northwest Missouri project. This project has had two work periods. The original project was to work with the RF3 data sets for northwest Missouri. While many of the original project objectives were met, events at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) negated much of the work accomplished. Specifically, USEPA undertook an enhancement of the RF3 data which resolved many of the issues dealt with in the original project.

Because of the interest in generating a better data set, a second part to this project was initiated in FY97. The project funding and scope was expanded. The objective of the current project is to dynamically link water quality data to the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) through a decision support system (DSS) tool to address water quality issues within the state of Missouri. Using the DSS for both graphic representation and analysis, the project is designed to support whole basin water quality planning, assessment, and enforcement activities of both the MoDNR and the public.

The four phase project began with RF3 enhancement for the state of Missouri. This is being done in cooperation with USEPA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) using the recently developed Hydrographic Visual Pass process (VP). In the creation of the NHD, USEPA RF3 attribute data will be conflated to the USGS DLG dataset. Phase two will be the accumulation of spatial data sets for Missouri area including concentrated animal feeding operations, Special Area Land Treatment (SALT) and EARTH projects and priority watersheds. Phase three will be the development of the DSS with accessibility of the data through the Internet This tool will utilize other natural resource data currently available through the Missouri Spatial Data Information Service (MSDIS). Phase four will see the creation of presentation materials, a procedure manual and training the MoDNR staff on the use of the DSS.

Phase I - RF3 File Enhancement

In 1994, the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began development on what is now known as the National Hydrography Dataset. The NHD will integrate USGS's Digital Line Graph (DLG) and USEPA's Reach File Version 3.0 (RF3) hydrographic databases into a single 1:100,000-scale dataset. The robust attribute data from RF3 is being conflated to the higher quality USGS hydrology in the DLG files. This union will be very beneficial to the end goals of the project and to the advancement of watershed-based planning activities. After the initial "blind" conflation of the two datasets, the preliminary results will be provided to states and regional offices that are participating for further enhancement through the Visual Pass process.

Phase II - Water Quality Data Development

During this phase digitizing and attributing spatial data for all Type I, IIa and IIb concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), all Special Area Land Treatment (SALT) and EARTH projects and priority watersheds in the MoDNR Southwest Regional Office area will be done. The remainder of the state will be completed within reason. Locational data from the Division of Geology and Land Survey and the Missouri Department of Health on private wells will be requested and geocoded.

Phase III - Decision Support System Development

A water quality decision support system World Wide Web (WWW) site will be developed for the Internet using a geographic information system (GIS) and either ESRI's Map Objects or Internet Map Server. Existing water quality databases such as the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) will be linked to the spatial data developed within the DSS. Links from MoNDR's web pages will allow easy access to the public. This tool will allow users to address environmental priorities within a selected drainage basin. Particular attention will be given the development of this tool to answer such questions as:

• What type and size of CAFOs are located in this water basin?
• What is the name of the watershed that the CAFOs are located in?
• Which stream(s) are downstream or upstream from a particular CAFO?
• Where are the SALTs and EARTH projects located in the state?
• Are there any private wells or mining operations in the vicinity that may have an impact upon water quality?
• Other than CAFOs are there other NPDES permitted sites located in the water basin?
• Which drinking water supply is closest to a particular point or non-point pollutant?
• What other spatial data are available for this area?

The preliminary site for the DSS is called the CARES Watershed Information Clearinghouse and was housed at http://www.cares.missouri.edu/cwic.

Phase IV - Water Quality Data Presentation

CARES, in association with MoDNR, will develop presentation materials and a procedure manual for the DSS. Training on the use of the DSS will be provided to the staff of the Southwest Regional Office of the MoDNR, Water Pollution Control and Soil and Water Conservation Program staff. A copy of the DSS and related spatial databases will be provided to the SWRO. This will enable the staff and public to be geographically better informed about real and potential water quality issues in relation to other natural resource features during inspections and/or enforcement issues. MoDNR staff will be able to provide faster response to public inquiries concerning water quality concerns related to potential pollutant sources/sites.

National Hydrography Dataset

Background

The USEPA RF3 dataset is a series of national hydrological databases that identify and network stream segments or "reaches". The three versions, RF1, RF2 and RF3-Alpha, were created from increasingly detailed hydrography datasets produced by USGS. USEPA added unique reach codes to each segment, determined upstream/downstream topography and added a stream name, if available. The USGS DLG dataset being used as the base for the NHD is the DLG-3 version in a 1:100,000 scale. A DLG-3 file is made of node, line and polygon elements. The files have a full topological structure.

In 1994, a Memorandum of Understanding formalized the commitment of USGS and USEPA to merge RF3 and DLG as a response to their own needs and those of other users. This merger of complementary systems also coincided with the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) led efforts to develop the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). As a result, the National Hydrography Dataset incorporates NSDI framework criteria set out by the FGDC. The NHD is the culmination of these recent cooperative efforts between USEPA and USGS. It combines the best of the USEPA RF3 and USGS DLG hydrography files: hydrologic ordering, navigation for modeling applications, the unique reach code for water features from RF3; and the spatial accuracy and fullness of DLG hydrography.

The National Hydrography Dataset is a product that combines the extensive previous work of USGS, USEPA, and others. It is designed for continual expansion and improvement by user-contributors. The move towards 1:24,000-scale data is already underway in many states, for example, a pilot program in the State of Florida was completed on November 30th, 1997.  Other states are working on 1:24,000 integration projects with grants from FGDC.

The NHD will be housed at the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) Clearinghouse at the USGS Eros Data Center, and be available initially at the cataloging unit (CU) level. Accessible through the Internet via FTP and the World Wide Web, the data will be served in ASCII and/or SDTS formats, and perhaps also on CD-ROM or tape media.

The Distributed Visual Pass Process

Many different organizations are participating in the distributed Visual Pass processing, including the USGS National Mapping Division (NMD), USGS Water Resources Division (WRD), USEPA Regions, Tennessee Valley Authority, Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, University of California - Davis, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Arizona State Land Department, and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

Visual Pass processing has occurred at both the 30x60 minute 1:100,000-scale quadrangle and CU levels. For each quadrangle assigned to a site, participants first performed conflation, centerline correction and navigation quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC). Once this quad-level QA/QC was completed, VP sites began performing CU-level QA/QC for all CUs completely within the assigned set of quadrangles. After the initial processing by the VP site the quadrangles will be returned to the USGS National Mapping Division. The NMD will perform QA/QC for all CUs that fall between participating sites and then perform the final central processing. This is to ensure that the data has been processed consistently across the country. The follow-on quality checking work will involve both an automated (blind) screening of all data, as well as a visual review of the data.

The initial or "blind" pass processing by USEPA was expected to process 93%-95% of the conflation correctly. The remaining 5%-7% were corrected using the VP tools. These AML tools were developed jointly by the USGS, USEPA and private contractors.

Three primary checks of the data were made. The first was the correction of conflation errors or omissions. RF3 reaches which did not conflate or conflated incorrectly to the DLG linework were conflated manually using the Visual Pass tools. The tools allowed the operator to correct reach IDs, fix flow direction, add missing reaches or delete extraneous linework. The second major goal was to fix centerlines which failed to integrate into the DLG, adding them where necessary or assign reach IDs. The third check was to be verifying and correcting navigation errors (although this was subsequently dropped due to lack of time).

The estimated amount of time required for each 1:100,000-scale quadrangle in the VP process was six to eight hours. With nearly 1,850 quadrangles to process, the twenty-two sites doing the VP shared in approximately 14,000 hours of Visual Pass processing. The Visual Pass began after a final training session in May 1997. The goal for completion of the VP and making the NHD available was originally September 30th, 1997. Due to the unexpected difficulties and data errors the Visual Pass did not begin CU-level production until October 1998.  The current projected completion date is April 30th, 1999.

Assignment Area

CARES was one of only twenty-two sites in the United States to be working on the Visual Pass. 

Publications

Meyer, Jim and Stan Wood.  Using the National Hydrography Dataset for a Water Quality Decision Support Tool.  Eighteenth Annual ESRI User Conference, San Diego, California, July 1998.

Wood, Stan. Water Quality Data Enhancement Project. Proceedings: Seventeenth Annual ESRI User Conference, San Diego, California, July 8-11, 1997.

Presentations

Wood, Stan.  Using the National Hydrography Dataset for a Water Quality Decision Support Tool.  Eighteenth Annual ESRI User Conference, San Diego, California, July 1998.

Wood, Stan.  Using the National Hydrography Dataset for a Water Quality Decision Support Tool.  Third Annual State of Missouri GIS Conference, Jefferson City, Missouri, March 16-17, 1998.

Wood, Stan. Water Quality Data Enhancement Project. Seventeenth Annual ESRI User Conference, San Diego, California, July 8-11, 1997.

Principal Investigators: Chris Fulcher and Tony Prato

Project Manager: Stan Wood

Project Staff: Jim Meyer and Chris Barnett

Funding Amount: $132,739 (FY96 - $32,739; FY97 - $100,000)

Funding Source: Missouri Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Project Duration: October 1995 - September 1996; February 1997 - September 1998

Evaluation and Refinement of USEPA’s RF3 Files for Northwest Missouri – Phase II

Final Report

Prepared for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources Division of Environmental Quality

Submitted by
Stan Wood, Jim Meyer and Chris Barnett

Center for Agricultural, Resource and Environmental Systems
Department of Agricultural Economics
College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources
University of Missouri – Columbia

October 18^th, 1999

Table of Contents

Introduction
Task List Discussion
Presentations
Appendix A - RF3 Project Timeline
Appendix B - Acronyms
Appendix C - Illustrations
Appendix D - Selected Correspondence

Introduction

The Evaluation and Refinement of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Reach (RF3) Files for Northwest Missouri – Phase II (RF3 Project) objective was to dynamically link water quality data to improved and enhanced digital hydrology files through a decision support system (DSS) tool. Development of the DSS would focus on Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) accessibility of both the tool and data. The tool would utilize newly acquired spatial data and natural resource datasets currently available through the Missouri Spatial Data Information Service (MSDIS).  Funding for this project came from the USEPA’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Program (NPDEP) and was passed through the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MoDNR).

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) have developed a combination of the USEPA’s River Reach Files Version 3 (RF3) and the USGS’ Digital Line Graph (DLG) hydrology datasets.  This new united 1:100,000-scale dataset is called the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD).  It combines the robust attribute data from the RF3 with the superior linework and networking from the DLG dataset.  Twenty-four agencies and offices participated in the creation of the NHD. 

The Distributed Visual Pass (VP) process of the NHD required human operators to assist in the conflation of the attribute data from RF3 to the linework of the DLG.  This stage followed the initial “blind pass” processing done on a USGS mainframe computer.  VP analysts examined errors and omissions from the blind pass and corrected the data.  After several iterations of conflation and navigation checks, both at the quad level and the cataloging unit (CU) level, CARES passed the data back to USGS for final Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC).   The USGS originally expected the final data to be available via the Internet by September 30^th, 1997.   At the time of the writing of this report (October 18^th, 1999) the data was still undergoing QA/QC by the USGS. More information on the NHD can be found on their website at http://nhd.usgs.gov

Project Duration: February 1^st, 1997 – January 30^th, 1998

No-Cost Extensions: Granted to CARES due to USGS/USEPA setbacks with providing necessary tools to complete tasks.

Funding Amount: $100,000

Principal Investigators: Chris Fulcher and Tony Prato

Project Manager: Stan Wood

Project Staff: Jim Meyer and Chris Barnett

Task List Discussion

Phase One - RF3 File Enhancement

• RF3/DLG files necessary to conduct the National Hydrography Dataset Visual Pass Process will be obtained for sixteen hydrogeologic basins in Southwest Missouri.

The RF3 Project deviated from the original proposal because CARES/MoDNR had the opportunity to become involved in the much larger National Hydrography Dataset program.  The goal of this ambitious program was to produce very similar data and tools as the RF3 Project, but on a national scale.  It seemed reasonable to join the NHD effort and become a partner in the creation of what will become the national standard for hydrographic data. USEPA/USGS is in the process of creating the tools necessary to access the NHD in the ways required to complete this project.  These tools will be available for download along with the NHD data.  The largest problem the NHD project had was perhaps an overly optimistic estimate of the amount of time needed to develop and implement the Visual Pass process and tools.

The original estimate of 8 hours processing per quadrangle quickly fell by the wayside due to the numerous revisions and releases of the VP tools.  On several occasions CARES processed most of the quads as far as the tools would permit and had to suspend processing until the next tool release date.  As can be seen in Appendix A, RF3 Project Timeline, the final tools to complete the VP process were only released in mid-June 1999. For more detail refer to the August 25^th, 1998, letter to Jay Martindale (MoDNR) in Appendix D, Selected Correspondence.  The status of the NHD as of August 25^th, 1999, is shown in two maps: Figures 1 and 2 in Appendix C, Illustrations.  As of October 4^th, 1999, no CUs were available from the USGS but 762 were “in progress”.  See Figure 3 for the CUs in progress in the Mid-West. See Appendix B, Acronyms, for acronyms used in this report.

• The University in association with the Agency will determine the quality and consistency of the data and develop and implement a work plan for the needed enhancements to be completed in the Visual Pass Process.

The University and the Agency agreed that cooperation in the National Hydrography Dataset Visual Pass Process would provide the data required to complete the project.

• Locational data from the Missouri Department of Health (MDOH) on private wells will be requested and geo-coded. 

The Missouri Department of Health (MDOH) was contacted in regard to locational data on private wells.  Chris Barnett talked to Gale Carlson of MDOH about the data.  He told him that the information was mostly in paper format, with very little in digital form.  He also said that it would take “hundreds of hours” to sort through the information.

As an alternative, the Division of Geology and Land Survey (DGLS) well log database was geo-referenced.  This database contains many types of wells, including private wells.  However, since DGLS was initiating a review of the data, it was decided to not use the CARES data and wait for updated information from DGLS.

Phase Two - Water Quality Data Development

• Spatial data for all Type I, IIa, and IIb CAFOs will be digitized and attributed.

The objective of the task was to georeference the animal feeding operation permit data in the Water Quality Information System (WQIS), a database maintained by the Water Pollution Control Program (WPCP) within MoDNR.  However, at the request of MoDNR, all permits within WQIS containing legal description information were georeferenced, not only the animal feeding operation data.  This decision meant that a total of 8,347 records were to be located. 

An earlier georeference of the animal feeding operation permits had utilized an automated method for mapping the permit records.   This was done in cooperation with the Commercial Agriculture program at the University of Missouri, using data requested from MoDNR.  A later review of the data by MoDNR revealed data inconsistencies and mapping errors.

For this task, it was decided that the automated method would be replaced by a semi-automated method.  The automated method placed a point at the center of the legal description.  The semi-automated method guided an operator to the correct general area, where he would look for features on the digital 1:24,000 USGS quadrangle to guide the placement of the permit site.  While the automated method completed the task in only a few hours, the semi-automated method required multiple operators several weeks to complete.

On May 27^th, 1997 the WQIS data was provided to CARES by WPCP.  The semi-automated georeference was complete by the end of September 1997.  However, no attribute data, other than name and legal description, had been provided with the information. 

A request was made to WPCP for additional attribute information in September 1997.  However, due to personnel shortages, the request was not processed for some time.  In February of 1998 the attribute data was provided, but there was a poor match to the georeferenced data.  Discussion between CARES and WPCP determined that the WQIS data had been through major review and the database had significantly changed. 

In April of 1998 a meeting between CARES, WPCP and Commercial Agriculture (which was interested in an update of the previous data) met to discuss the animal feeding operation data georeferenced by CARES.  Because of inconsistencies in the data, it was determined that a fresh start was appropriate.  On May 4^th, 1998, a new set of data was provided to CARES by WPCP for georeferencing.  The fully automated method was used this time.  A final dataset was provided to Commercial Agriculture for their use, and used by CARES within the RF3 Project. 

In November of 1998 the DEQ GIS coordinator, Jo Ann Shaw, called a meeting regarding the CAFO data layer and maps produced using this layer.  It was determined that changes in the WQIS database required yet another update of the CAFO layer.  The information was provided to CARES by December 19^th, 1998.  A final data layer was provided to WPCP for review in February of 1999.  This layer is still under WPCP review and has not yet been provided for public distribution. 

• Spatial data for Special Area Land Treatment (SALT) and EARTH projects will be digitized.

On the 1^st and 2^nd of April, 1997, Liz Cook of the Lincoln University GIS/RS Laboratory provided CARES with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) 14-digit watershed boundaries for 10 hydrologic units.  On April 17^th, 1997, Ms. Cook provided the NRCS 14-digit boundaries for the entire state of Missouri in digital form.

The first twelve preliminary digital Special Area Land Treatment (SALT) project boundaries were incorporated into a digital database. NRCS 14-digit boundaries were followed except in cases where hydrological units were split or combined and where the boundaries did not follow the SALT watershed. 

Each watershed was plotted onto a 35” x 40” map showing preliminary SALT watershed boundaries that are non-NRCS 14-digit hydrological units, preliminary SALT boundaries that are part of the NRCS 14-digit hydrological unit boundaries as well as the surrounding 14-digit unit boundaries.  USGS 7.5’ quadrangle Digital Raster Graphic (DRG) images were used as the base map.  In late May CARES delivered to Clif Baumer (NRCS) twelve large maps of pilot SALT areas.  These maps used Digital Raster Graphic (DRG) images of the USGS 1:24,000-scale quadrangles as the background for the watershed boundaries.

October 1997 -- Dave Connett finished digitizing the 177 SALT Project, twelve pilot SALT Project, and twenty-seven EARTH Project watersheds.  This dataset is available on the MSDIS FTP site as the file saltcov.e00.gz. One large map of the Bonne Femme and Little Bonne Femme Creek pilot SALT Project was delivered to Ann Peton of MoDNR.

• Digitize priority watersheds in the Southwest Regional Office (SWRO) area.

The priority watersheds layer, as defined by 10 CSR 20-6.300 Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, was digitized by Chris Barnett.  The whole state is included in this layer. This dataset is available on the MSDIS FTP site as the file scriticl.e00.gz

• Obtain other existing water quality and natural resource coverages for the SWRO area.  The ability to be able to link to other existing water quality data and systems such as the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) will be a priority.

It was agreed to obtain water quality and natural resource datasets for the entire state instead of just the Southwest Regional Office area.  Among the many datasets procured for the RF3 Project are public drinking water sources, both wells and surface intakes, geology, selected chemical site locations from dozens of various databases including USEPA Superfund sites, Toxics Release Inventory, National Priority List, pesticide dealerships, Hazardous Waste Program, Solid Waste Program, Water Pollution Control Program and many others. 

Phase Three - Decision Support System Development

• A water quality DSS web site will be developed for the Internet, using a Geographic Information System (GIS), ArcView and Internet Map Server.

The CARES Watershed Information Clearinghouse (CWIC) is the Internet-accessible Decision Support System (DSS) tool.  This web site was developed and put into operation in 1997 and has been under constant revision ever since.  The site includes data from other CARES projects including The Vulnerability Assessment of Missouri Drinking Water to Chemical Contamination and the One-Stop Initiative. The customized functionality of CWIC is also made possible by several other grants.

CARES Watershed Information Clearinghouse (CWIC)

CWIC uses geographic information systems (GIS) software called ArcView (version 3.1.1).  This software provides spatial database and map-making capabilities.  With the ArcView Internet Map Server (IMS) version extension installed, a limited number of the ArcView GIS functions are made available to anyone with an Internet connection and a Java-enabled web browser. CARES recommends Netscape Navigator v. 4.0 or later. Figure 1 (Appendix C) shows the homepage of CWIC.

Data List for CWIC

Table 1 shows a few of the many data layers available on CWIC.  In addition to the layers in the table there are roads and highways, hydrology, hydrological units, county and state boundaries, and water quality monitoring sites. For selected areas there are available digital orthophoto quarter quads (DOQQs), and for the entire state, Digital Raster Graphic (DRG) 1:24,000, 1:100,000 and 1:250,000-scale USGS topographic maps.

The technology and programming skills developed for CWIC have since been applied to several other Internet sites.  The One-Stop Initiative, while not the only example, is closely related to the RF3 Project.  This site also contains data from the Hazardous Waste Program and Water Pollution Control Program. 

Table 1. Selected Data Layers Available on CWIC.

Internet Map Server (IMS)

To use the interactive mapping of the CWIC website the user clicks on the link to the IMS homepage (see Appendix C, Figure 7.) and chooses to view data by the state or one of three selected watersheds.  The next page is the data list page where the user selects as many data layers as desired.  The data can then be viewed by selecting a county or by river basin (see Figure 8.)

In Figure 9, the user has selected Water Quality Monitoring Sites, hydrology, SALT and EARTH watersheds, Critical Watersheds and county boundaries.

To better serve those accessing the site, there have been many improvements to the “out-of-the-box” ArcView IMS.  The right-hand frame contains an extensive help section displaying and explaining the various buttons and functions.  Buttons have been added to the top frame allowing the user to return to the data list page (which is reset to default), alternatively, the user can jump to the CARES home, CWIC home or CWIC help pages. 

Within the menu bar of the main IMS frame custom query tools have been added. The first such tool CARES added was the “X-Y” tool which returns the latitude and longitude of a given point after the user clicks on it.  See Figure 10.

The second tool is the Clip Theme tool.  The user can clip out a portion of a selected theme and then download the shape, .dbf and .shx files. See Figure 11.

The IMS Radius Query tool lets one choose a theme and radius to query, and displays the query results in the right hand pane. In the example (see Figure 12) a user has queried the public drinking water wellhead theme for a 5-mile radius from the Independence, Missouri well field.

The Future of CWIC

To fulfill the deliverables of the RF3 Project, CWIC should be able to help answer the following questions from the original proposal:

1. What information is available from the RF3 data for a given watershed?
2. What is the quality of the RF3 data for a particular basin?
3. What is the type and size of a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) in a given location?
4. Which stream(s) are downstream or upstream from a particular CAFO?
5. What is the name of the watershed that the CAFO is located in?
6. Other than the CAFOs, are there other NPDES permitted sites located in the particular area?
7. Where are the Special Area Land Treatment (SALT) and EARTH projects located in the state?.
8. What are the Non-Point source rankings for the watersheds for this particular hydrologic basin?
9. Which drinking water supply is closest to a given point or non-point pollutant?
10. Are there private wells or mining operations that may have an impact upon water quality?
11. What other spatial data is available for this area?

When the RF3 data is available as the completed National Hydrography Dataset (NHD), it will be added to CWIC and its attributes made accessible.  This will help to answer questions one and two. The NHD data is also required to answer question four.

After the CAFO layer is approved by the Water Pollution Control Program and deemed complete, questions three, five, six and seven will be answerable.

Question eight deals with a ranking of the watersheds in Missouri based on criteria from John Ford (MoDNR).  The criteria include proximity of the 8-digit hydrologic unit to Non-Point Source and land use within the watershed.  This information has not yet been obtained from Mr. Ford, CARES is currently in the process of contacting him.  The CARES-hosted Missouri Unified Watershed Assessment page has a similar theme but is a very detailed approach. 

Question nine can be answered by CWIC because Internet Map Server is serving public drinking water sites.

Question ten concerns private wells. Ann Peton looked at the layer CARES developed from DGLS data and said not to include it, but to wait for DGLS to complete the review of the database.

Finally, the answer to question eleven, what other spatial data is available, can be found in the help and links section of CWIC.

Conclusion

The CARES Watershed Information Clearinghouse is a dynamic and expanding website.  It is no longer a single webpage or two but a collection of independent, yet related sites all concerned with various aspects of water quality in Missouri.

• The water quality WWW site will be linked from MoDNR’s homepage.

For a brief time there was a link to the CARES website on MoDNR’s homepage.  MoDNR has added a link to the CARES home page from the homepage of the Public Drinking Water Program.

Phase Four - Water Quality Data Presentation

• Presentation materials and a procedure manual for the DSS will be developed by CARES in association with MoDNR.
• Training will be provided on the use of the DSS to SWRO, Water Pollution Control and Soil and Water Conservation Program staff during two separate sessions. 
• A copy of the DSS and related spatial databases will be provided to the SWRO staff. 

CWIC contains a web-based manual for the DSS which includes an ArcView IMS “help” section and a tutorial for using the customized functionality.

CARES would be open to presenting CWIC (and has on many occasions) to a selected audience. Since the DSS is available to anyone with access to the Internet there is no need to provide a copy of the website and its data to the Agency.  This would not be desirable in any case because the served data is updated frequently and any copy given out would rapidly become obsolete.

Presentations

March 10^th-11^th, 1997 -- A poster presentation was made at the 2^nd Annual State of Missouri GIS Conference held in Jefferson City, Missouri on.  The presentation included a poster detailing the RF3 Project.

April 3^rd, 1997 -- CARES presented the above poster at the College of Agricultural, Food and Natural Resources’ Extension & Outreach EXPO ’97 at the University of Missouri - Columbia.

July 10^th, 1997 -- Stan Wood presented a paper on the RF3 Project at the 17^th  Annual ESRI Users Conference in San Diego.  The paper was taken substantially from the web page at http://www.cares.missouri.edu/projects/completed/old/VP.html.

March 16^th-17^th, 1998 -- Stan Wood presented Using the National Hydrography Dataset for A Water Quality Decision Support Tool at the 3^rd Annual State of Missouri GIS Conference in Jefferson City, Missouri. A poster detailing aspects of the RF3 Project was also presented at the ESRI Conference.

April 25^th, 1998 -- Representatives of the Great Rivers Alliance toured the CARES facility.  They came to view GIS technology and see demonstrations of CARES projects.  One of the projects they viewed was the SALT/EARTH boundary digitizing task.

July 27^th-31^st, 1998 – Stan Wood presented Using the National Hydrography Dataset for a Water Quality Decision Support Tool at the 18^th Annual ESRI User Conference, San Diego, California.

March 15^th-17^th, 1999 – Stan Wood presented Accessing Public Drinking Water Data Through the World Wide Web at the 4^th Annual Missouri GIS Conference, Columbia, Missouri.

July 26^th-30^th, 1999 -- Stan Wood presented Accessing and Modifying Source Water Inventories Through a Web Browser (Yan Barnett, Chris Barnett and Stan Wood) at the 19^th Annual ESRI User Conference, San Diego, California. 

Appendix A

RF3 Project Timeline

October 1996 -- The USGS and USEPA held the first introductory Visual Pass workshops in the fall of 1996.  Ann Peton, MoDNR Project Manager, and Stan Wood of CARES attended a workshop along with representatives from twenty-four other organizations/offices.  The origin and structure of the NHD was presented and hands-on demonstrations of the early version VP tools were given. 

February 1997 -- The NHD VP process was originally scheduled to begin in early 1997.  This projection was made at the USGS/USEPA workshop in October 1996, and was obviously too optimistic.  The VP tools took much longer to develop than USGS/USEPA imagined, the final tools and release date for the data was pushed back to May 1997.

April 11^th, 1997 -- Tommy Dewald (EPA) assigned CARES/MoDNR forty-two 30’ x 60’ 1:100,000-scale quadrangles (quads) to perform the VP process on.  NHD personnel were expecting each quad to require eight hours of processing at the VP site level. The state of Kansas dropped out of the NHD program, so CARES/MoDNR was assigned the eight bordering quads that touch Missouri.  This brought the number of quads assigned up to 50.

May 6^th-8^th, 1997 – Stan Wood and Jim Meyer attended the Final Visual Pass Training Workshop host by USEPA and USGS in Denver Colorado.  The workshop was given to provide the VP analyst extensive final hands-on training on the tools.

May 14^th, 1997 -- “Homework” quads were released.  CARES Visual Pass analysts Stan Wood and Jim Meyer were each to complete and submit one quadrangle to the Visual Pass Technical Support Team.  The first release of the homework quads was found to have underlying data errors causing the entire release to be discarded and processed through the blind pass again.

June 6^th, 1997 -- The second release of the homework to the VP sites quads was begun.

June 20^th, 1997 -- CARES VP analysts completed and submitted two quads. Research Triangle Institute (RTI), the VP civilian subcontractor, reviewed the quads for Visual Pass process completeness and accuracy.  Reports detailing their findings and suggestions were returned to the VP analysts to provide guidance and make final corrections to the homework quads.

August 11^th, 1997 – The first eleven production quads were downloaded from RTI.  Simultaneously, the release of version 4.2 of the VP tools was made.  Within two days a patch was applied upgrading the tools to version 4.2a.  Within a week problems with the tools necessitated a second patch 4.2b which was not released immediately.  Bugs in version 4.2a would not allow the completion of a quad because the “Post Quad Checks” AMLs failed and thus the “Integrity Checks” AMLs could not be run.

August 29^th, 1997 -- CARES downloaded twenty-four additional quads.  Thirteen more remained to be processed by RTI.

October 31^st, 1997 -- A problem was detected in the quads that fell on a UTM boundary.  These quads had to be reprocessed by the blind pass.  This error affected seven of the quads assigned to CARES.

September 5^th 1997 -- Visual Pass tools version 4.3 was released.

November 4^th, 1997 – The last of the original fifty quads were downloaded from the RTI FTP site.

November 13^th, 1997 -- Three more quads were assigned to CARES, released and downloaded.

December 11^th, 1997 -- Version 4.4 of the VP tools released.  This version allowed many quads to pass Integrity Checks that had previously failed. 

January 1998 – CARES received the first eight-month no-cost extension.

March 9^th, 1998 – The fourth quarter report (due in January) was delayed from the due date of January 15^th, 1998 until March 1998, due to extensive delays in the release of the VP tools and the anticipated extension of the project. At the time of the Fourth Quarter Report all 53 quads assigned to MoDNR/CARES had been released. Twenty-two quads had passed the Integrity Checks and were waiting for the release of the CU-level tools.  Twenty-five were stalled pending the release of Version 4.5 of the Visual Pass tools.  One quad was in progress and six were not yet started

August 25^th, 1998 – CARES applied for a second no-cost extension based on the estimated additional time required to finish the VP process.  In addition to CARES, this extension was requested by both Keven Roth (USGS point of contact) and Tommy Dewald (USEPA RF3 coordinator).  CARES submitted a bill to MoDNR for $8,000 (two months staff time) to cover the additional expenses required.  At this time CARES VP analysts had completed processing through version 4.5a of the VP tools on 16 of the 53 quads.  Thirty quads were nearly complete and 7 had been minimally processed. 

September 20^th, 1998 – CARES completed all 53 quads to VP tools version 5.0 level. See the Figure 4 for a map of the quads.  This revision introduced the tools to begin building what were called “super-quads,” a combination of all the quads needed to edit at the CU-level.  Many of the quads had to be re-opened and edited before the superquad process would work. This was the case with every release of the VP tools; there were always quads that would not pass without further editing.  Each version of the tools would catch errors not recognized by the previous release. 

September 31, 1998 -- The first RF3 Project no-cost extension terminated.

February 1^st, 1999 -- RTI released version 5.02b of the VP tools.

May 3^rd, 1999 – CARES completed all but one CU.

May 17^th, 1999 – All sixty-five CUs completed by CARES VP analysts.  See Figure 5.

April 23^rd, 1999 – RTI released version 5.03b of the VP tools.

June 14^th, 1999 – PackagePlus 5.03b, the tool needed to “package” the finished quads and submit them to USGS, was released by RTI.  The PackagePlus tools found data errors which necessitated re-opening many quads with the VP tools again.

August 12^th, 1999 – CARES submitted the final CU to USGS Rocky Mountain Mapping Center.

CARES submitted a bill to MoDNR for $8,000 (two months staff time) to cover the additional expenses required.

Appendix B

Appendix C

Illustrations (Not Available)

Appendix D

Selected Correspondence (Not Available)