Meeting between EPA and FDEP 7/27/2010

RE:  FDEP data screening process for reference sites

Attendees:

EPA:  Betsy Behl (OST/HECD); Lester Yuan (OST/HECD)

FDEP:  Drew Bartlett; Daryl Joyner; Russ Freydenborg; Ken Weaver

Contractor Support (TetraTech):  John Hochheimer; Michael Paul

The purpose of this meeting was for EPA and FDEP to discuss in detail
the process that FDEP used to identify and screen data used to develop
the distribution of reference sites used by FDEP in deriving criteria
for Florida streams. Steps identified are summarized below.

Stream Reference Data Set

Process for selection of FDEP Reference Sites:

Initial data set – FL Storet and GWIS (1989 – 2008) (this was
noticed in the proposal)

QA sort by “org” code and select the appropriate organizations (FDEP
will provide the list of appropriate organizations that have established
QA programs in place)

Apply FDEP QA rule 62-160 process for ensuring the data quality; use
“Process for Determining Data Usability” (FDEP to provide)

“All Streams” data set is the result from step 2. (approximately
280,000 observations or 9,401 org stations)

Screen All Streams to remove any lakes (screen by waterbody type)

Begin to apply screens:

Sites with TN or TP data – 6,706 org stations

Sites with LDI < 2 (which implies that these sites all exist in streams,
checked by locating in the NHD+ data set) (614 WBIDs or 1516 org
stations)

Apply 303(d) screen – 413 WBIDS or 869 org sites (decide which list,
FDEP or EPA)

BPJ screens – District biologist screen and FDEP BPJ (site visits,
Ken’s aerial surveys, FDEP staff discussion, and Tt analysis of LDI)
– 322 WBIDs or 673 org sites

NO3 screen (NO3< 0.35 mg/L) – 290 WBIDs or 565 sites 

LDI in watershed <3 – 287 WBIDs or 550 sites

SCI > 40 – 261 WBIDs or 460 sites

QA screen for nonsensical data (15 mg/L TP or 100 mg/L TN) – 261 WBIDs
or 460 sites

 Note – the number of WBIDs and org sites result from preliminary
analysis, values need to be re-run

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