Water

The Connecticut DEEP created the Watershed Management Program to more effectively address water resource issues from an integrated watershed perspective. For purposes of water management, the state has been divided into five major watershed basins along natural watershed boundaries. DEEP Watershed Managers work within these five major watershed basins to assist communities in forming partnerships, drafting watershed based plans, and implementing environmental projects to restore and protect Connecticut's water quality on a watershed-wide scale.

Connecticut Lake Watch

Connecticut Lake Watch is a community-based science project of the DEEP Volunteer Water Monitoring Program. Volunteers are trained to monitor the water quality of local lakes and ponds across Connecticut.

Connecticut Water Quality Action Plans

The Housatonic River and Polychlorinated Biphenyls

Phosphorus Reduction Strategy for Inland Non-tidal Waters

Presentations, Comments and Summaries from two PA 12-155 Public Meetings

Mill River Remedial Activities Fairfield CT

Stressor Identification and Causal Assessment Work

Stressor identification involves defining and listing possible sources of pollution, evaluating existing data, designing a sampling program to bracket the sources if additional data are needed, characterizing the causes, and, finally, identifying the most probable cause.

Water Temperature Monitoring Project

Water temperature is very important to aquatic organisms as it can drive chemical reactions and physiological activity. In addition, water temperature is an important factor in determining which species of aquatic organisms, such as fish, are able to live in a particular section of river or stream. The Water Monitoring Group routinely monitors water temperature at wadeable river and stream locations across Connecticut. Data are collected to complement routine and probabilistic ambient biological monitoring data, to identify high quality watersheds as part of the Group’s Healthy Watersheds Initiative, and to support evaluation of temporal trends, quantification of natural variability, and testing of hypotheses and predictive models related to climate change and water resource management.

Ambient Diatom Community Monitoring Project

Stream Connectivity Monitoring

Water Monitoring Group Reports and Publications

This page provides a list of reports and publications produced by the Water Monitoring Group. The Water Monitoring Program collects and interprets physical, chemical, and biological data from State waters. One of the major functions of this program is to support designated use assessments, as required under the Federal Clean Water Act, and this is communicated through the Integrated Water Quality Report. Another key role is to provide summary information of important program elements for use by DEEP and the public.

Water Monitoring Data Availability

The DEEP Water Monitoring Group collects a large volume of data, statewide, each year. Data that have gone through the Agency's quality assurance and quality control (QAQC) review process are made publicly available through the following online databases.