WATER-QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF THE CENTRAL NEBRASKA BASINS: SUMMARY OF DATA FOR RECENT CONDITIONS THROUGH 1990

IDENTIFIERS: *Platte River, *Nebraska, *Water Quality Data

ABSTRACT: Among the first activities undertaken in each National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program study-unit investigation are compilation, screening, and statistical summary of available data concerning recent, general water-quality conditions in the study unit. This report (1) identifies which of the existing water-quality data are suitable for characterizing general conditions in a nationally consistent manner, and (2) describes, to the extent possible, recent, general water-quality conditions in the Central Nebraska Basins. The study unit consists of the area drained by the Platte River between the confluence of the North Platte and South Platte Rivers near North Platte downstream to its confluence with the Missouri River south of Omaha.

The report includes (1) a description of the sources and characteristics of water-quality data that are available, (2) a description of the approach used for screening data to identify a subset of the data suitable for summary and comparisons, (3) a presentation of the results of statistical and graphical summaries of recent, general water-quality conditions, and (4) comparisons of recent, general water-quality conditions to established national water-quality criteria, where applicable. Stream- and lake-water data are summarized for selected sampling sites, and data are summarized by major subunits of the study unit (the Sandhills, Loess Hills, Glaciated Area, and Platte Valley subunits) for streambed-sediment, fish-tissue, aquatic- ecological, and ground-water data. The summaries focus on the central tendencies and typical variation in the data and use nonparametric statistics such as frequencies and percentile values.

NO. PAGES:          179
NO. ILLUSTRATIONS:   27
NO. TABLES:          16
NO. REFERENCES:      84


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