Managing Monitoring Data from Many Sources A New Hampshire Experience Deb Soule Watershed Management Bureau New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services May 9, 2006

Items to be covered Background on NHDES monitoring data Development of our own database based on EPA’s STOrage and RETrieval (STORET) database Web access to database Electronic data submittal process Next steps - Using the Water Quality Exchange Schema

Prior to 2003, how would you obtain NHDES water monitoring data? Be on the inside track - know someone who knew where the data was Sort through paper lab data in file cabinets Weed through disks and databases of various formats

We looked for a better solution. Reviewed commercial databases (we’re too cheap) Asked other states if we could copy their database (cheap option but not fruitful) Reviewed STORET (didn’t fit all our needs) Formed a department wide committee to develop a database (couldn’t get consensus) Began development of our own database in the bureau

Database development process Bureau met every 2 weeks for several months to determine needs/wants STORET structure and requirements were used as guidance Organizations/Programs/Projects/Stations/Activities Program needs were incorporated Business plan was developed

Core database is developed Called the Environmental Monitoring Database (EMD), it was built: by one developer in-house in 4 months by a total design/development team of 3 people: business analyst, developer, and database administrator using Oracle forms 6i with Oracle 8i for the back end while working on other databases/projects Imported almost all old bureau data (in electronic format) Has automatic nightly imports of DES State Lab and bureau’s Limnology Lab data

EMD facts Went live March 2003 Accepts both field and lab data for air, water, soil, product etc. Accepts QA/QC samples and automated data logger files Handles physical/chemical data – biological later Has over 110 projects, 15,000 stations, 241,000 activities, and 1,870,000 results Contains 64 screens and 48 tables (for main part of database only)

EMD features Contains modules to track complaints, beach inspections and shellfish sanitary surveys Fulfills beach reporting requirements (both monitoring and advisory) Can be linked to the Assessment Database (ADB) and is used as the basis for developing automated assessments Can easily create STORET Import Module (SIM) compatible export files for upload to STORET

The EMD expands within NHDES Other bureaus/divisions contribute data Superfund Site Remediation Geology Unit Wastewater Developed direct links between their databases and the EMD Developed department wide committee to collectively create changes to the database

The EMD beyond NHDES Outside agencies/groups contribute data University of NH Several volunteer monitoring groups Working with other agencies to bring in their data We enhance/standardize their data to meet database requirements Will upload to STORET for them free of charge Why do we do this? We want/need data for assessments and the EMD is the basis for assessment data.

EMD data available on the web Went live June 2004 Only “final” data is available Can query by: OrganizationProject NameStation ID Station TypeTownCounty StateWaterbody NameRiver Name Designated RiverHUC 12 NameAnalyte Medium Data returned via in Excel/pipe delimited file complete with your query parameters Data available via: Monitoring_Query.aspx

Electronic data submittal to the EMD via the web Needed a way to receive standardized monitoring data electronically from consultants, outside labs, volunteers, cooperating agencies etc. Developed Excel spreadsheets to import station and activity data separately (with XML planned for the future). Developed web registration and submittal forms with data validation tool. Developed interim table to capture what was being submitted, by whom, when etc.

Next steps Update EMD to Environmental Sampling, Analysis and Results (ESAR) data standards Report data to EPA via Water Quality Data Exchange (WQX) Eliminate local copy of STORET Add biological component to EMD eventually eliminate local copy of Ecological Data Application System (EDAS) Update web site to include: graphing capabilities geographic queries

Questions? Contact Information: Deb Soule Business Systems Analyst Watershed Management Bureau New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (603)