Virginia Tributary Monitoring Program Quality Assurance/Quality Control Project Plan.

Quality Assurance Project Plan for the Maryland Chesapeake Bay Water Quality Monitoring Program - Chemical and Physical Properties.

Work/Quality Assurance Project Plan for (Virginia) Chesapeake Bay Mainstem Water Quality Monitoring Program.The following QAPPs cover the Maryland and Virginia Chesapeake Bay Mainstem and Tributary Monitoring Programs: Maryland DNR and Virginia DEQ have EPA-approved Quality Assurance Project Plans (QAPPs) that describe in detail the methods and quality assurance activities for this program. The accuracy and comparability of laboratory data are externally evaluated up to 12 times a year using several types of inter-laboratory performance testing and comparison samples: Bay Program Coordinated Split Sample Programs, Bay Program Blind Audit Program and USGS Standard Reference Samples. Blank, duplicate and spiked samples, and known standards are processed in the field and/or laboratory to monitor bias and imprecision in the data. Chapter IV, Mainstem and Tributary Field Procedures contains the most recent guidelines for sample collection and field measurements in the tidal waters of the Chesapeake Bay.įield and laboratory personnel continually check for random and systematic errors with quality control samples during the collection and analysis of water samples. Methods are documented in standard operating procedures that follow the Bay Program's Methods and Quality Assurance for Chesapeake Bay Water Quality Monitoring Programs. The Chesapeake Bay Program Data Integrity Workgroup is charged with the standardization of methods and the use of comparable methods for all Bay Program water quality monitoring programs. Standardized sampling and analytical methods are used to detect low levels of nutrients, chlorophyll and particulates these methods were approved by EPA in 1986 and are still used today. At each station, a hydrographic profile is made by measuring temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen at approximately one- to two-meter intervals through the water column. The tidal monitoring program is designed to represent the complexities of the estuary, with over 100 tidal mid-channel stations monitored at least once a month.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) are responsible for the collection and quality assurance of water quality monitoring data in the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries. Chesapeake Bay Mainstem and Tributary Monitoring Quality Assurance

Tidal water