Southern Piceance Basin Water-Quality Data Repository

OBJECTIVES

To develop an open and collaborative data-sharing and water resource assessment process that includes local citizens, industry, government agencies, and other stakeholders.

To develop a public, web-accessible common data repository, providing all entities equal access to the latest information.

To publish a baseline assessment of available water resource data.

To develop regional water monitoring strategies to fill data gaps and minimize redundancies.

Approach

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with energy industry, federal, local, and State agency partners, are creating and maintaining a public, webaccessible common data repository. The repository will combine water-quality sampling data from industry, local, State, Federal, and other data sources. Data will be screened and merged from disparate locations and formats into a single uniform format. Routines to streamline future data repository updates will be developed. The quality and completeness of the incoming data will be reviewed and documented.

Using the repository, the USGS will evaluate all available water-resource data to develop a baseline assessment of the region's water resources. Assessment results will facilitate the development of regional monitoring strategies to fill identified data gaps and minimize redundancies in current and future water-resource monitoring.