Introduction

Throughout the website, stream locations will be referred to either by their Group (1-3) or by their location (NY-PA or PA-MD).  Group 1 streams are those streams that have been judged to have the most potential for degradation due large drainage areas or historical pollution. These sites are sampled most frequently. Group 2 streams are those streams that have been judged to have moderate impacts, while Group 3 streams are those that have low potential for impacts.  Additionally, there are nine sites on four large rivers (Cowanesque, Chemung, Tioga, and Susquehanna) that cross state borders. The river sites are analyzed separately and are compared to the other river sites.

Beginning in 2008, the Interstate Streams project changed from the traditional fiscal year approach to a new calendar year reporting period. Consequently, the current report contains analyses on monitoring data collected between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009. SRBC staff collects water quality samples at Group 1 sites quarterly, while habitat and macroinvertebrates are sampled annually in July. Group 2 streams are visited once annually in July, when water quality samples are collected, along with habitat assessments and macroinvertebrate samples. Group 3 streams are visited annually in May. 2008 data can be found in the calendar year 2008 (CY-08) archive on the Interstate Streams web page. For a more in-depth description of sampling schedules, visit the Methods page. Calendar year 2010 (CY-10) will include samples from January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010. In addition to routine field sampling and data analysis, fish sampling will occur in May 2010 at Group 1 and 2 streams that were not electrofished in 2009.

For more introductory information, click here.