• Assess the current status and condition of individual waters of the state and determine whether water quality standards are being met. 
• Provide data to support the MDEQ water quality protection programs (i.e., National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, Nonpoint Source (NPS), and Site Remediation) and evaluate their effectiveness. 
• Detect new and emerging water quality problems. 

In FY 2012, the WRD intends to target the majority of our monitoring resources to those watersheds highlighted in the map on this web page to remain consistent with our watershed permitting process and monitoring strategy.  However, we will consider surface water quality monitoring recommendations for other Michigan watersheds, including the Great Lakes and their connecting channels.  We are particularly interested in designing and conducting monitoring studies to help evaluate the effectiveness of individual NPS water quality improvement/protection projects that were funded using Clean Michigan Initiative or federal section 319 monies. 

The availability of Clean Michigan Initiative - Clean Water Fund monies have allowed the WRD to greatly enhance its water quality monitoring capabilities.  As a result, several types of monitoring activities can be recommended for consideration, including: 

• Water chemistry monitoring. 
• Sediment chemistry monitoring. 
• Fish contaminant monitoring. 
• Caged fish chemical bioconcentration studies. 
• Fish and/or macroinvertebrate community assessment studies. 
• Aquatic toxicity tests (ambient waters or effluents). 
• Nuisance aquatic plant or algae growth assessment studies. 
• Inland lake trophic status investigations. 
• E. coli bacteria monitoring. 
• Channel morphology studies.