Long-Term Instrument-Based Monitoring for Assessing Compliance with Water Quality Standards Manuscript

This paper presents a discussion on the approach for developing and implementing a long-term, instrument-based, water quality monitoring program. An effective monitoring program can be a cost-effective method of providing a large quantity of detailed information which can be used to evaluate water quality and compliance with water quality standards (WQS) especially when the ramifications of not meeting the WQS can be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. However, the development of a long-term instrument-based monitoring program is a multi-step process that requires a tremendous amount of planning and preparation. This document provides an approach that can be utilized when developing and implementing such a program. A case study of a comprehensive water quality monitoring program based on this approach is also presented.