Update

Methods and Data Comparability Board

San Diego, CA, Dec. 6,2007

MDCB External Web Page

MDCB Current Activities

• Recent meeting in Portland, OR 10/23-24/07– NEMI– Water Quality Data Elements (WQDE)

• Physical Habitat (Streams)

– Preparing for 2008 National Conference– New directions

• Planning a MDCB meeting in conjunction with the MACOORA water-quality workshop in March 2008

• National Conference May 18-22, 2008

MDCB New DirectionsFrom Portland meeting, recent Board

conference calls, and Council meeting• Contaminants• Sensors• Event and continuous monitoring• Statistical and other analysis methods—

how to integrate discrete, probabilistic, and real-time monitoring observations

Need to prioritize based on needs of the Council and water-quality community

NEMI Update

• EPA & USGS analytical methods – backbone of NEMI

• 947 methods to date • Green Methods identified in database• Outreach

– Conference in Atlantic City (presentation)– Updates to EPA and USGS management (meetings)– ELAB and similar conferences (handouts)– Other?

New methods in NEMI

• In the queue for FY 2008:– Habitat protocols – USGS field methods (NFM)– Biological (Pop/comm)– Microbiological – Toxicity– Sediment & Tissue chemistry– Suspended sediment– Feedback welcome!

CRADA for NEMI

• Partners:– YSI – financial support interested in entering

multiparameter probes– Neptune, Inc. – analytical and statistical

methods. Web-based stats programs– Tennessee Tech U. (Martha Wells) – research

methods, University outreach– Abraxis LLC – analytical kits

WQDE Physical Habitat Update

• Developed a fantastic team of scientists lead by Faith Fitzpatrick and Revital Katznelson

• Working closely with USEPA and ESAR• Working on a minimum set of elements for

stream habitat a different habitat scales• Several experts are reviewing the list now• Will move into other habitats such as

wetlands and coastal areas in the future

Sensors

• Being used more frequently in the field

• Beginning to see “methods” that are defined by the technology

• How can we evaluate these new technologies in order to compare them?

• Enter into NEMI or some similar subset

Sensors (cont)

• Board plans to develop a white paper to outline the approach

• Create a web-site to help guide users• Develop a Board “New Technologies” workgroup• Need to bring in experts to the Board

– EPA Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) Program

– Sandia National Laboraties (SNL)– Department of Defense– Homeland Security– Private sector– Several USGS presenters at WQ Workshop at Galveston

Contaminants

• Many programs monitor many compounds• Lists of compounds change over time• Emerging contaminants – is there a process

for identifying what should be a concern? • Based on discussions at Council Network

breakout session the Board and Tracy need to look at current list for the Network ASAP

• Need to develop a short term and long term plan

Statistical Methods

• Need to determine if this is a priority of the Council???

• Need to connect with the Water Information Strategies Work Group to evaluate methods of analysis of the available data sets

• White paper and create a web site to help those use statistical methods appropriately

• How to integrate discrete, probabilistic, and real-time data sets generated from the Network

Moving Forward

• Need to determine the level of effort that the Council wants to commit for the Board to address these issues

• Need to interact with the Council’s to better understand the needs over the short term and long term—have selected Council members come to Board meetings/conference calls, etc.