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IDEM > Monitoring > Water Monitoring > Water Quality Assessments Water Quality Assessments

Biological Studies conduct studies of fish and macroinvertebrate communities as well as stream habitats to establish biological standards to which all other streams may be compared in order to identify impaired streams or watersheds. They also conduct fish tissue and sediment sampling to pinpoint sources of toxic and bioconcentrating substances.   Fish tissue data serves as the basis for fish consumption advisories which are issued to protect the health of sport and subsistence fishermen. Biological studies conduct toxicity bioassays and participates in the development of site specific water quality standards. The Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Program is also administered.

Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry develops sediment quality criteria,reviews pollutant monitoring data and whole effluent toxicity data and reports, evaluates requests for site specific water quality standards and reviews data gathered during investigations of toxic releases to the environment. This area also provides support in planning for compliance sampling of surface water and watershed monitoring programs for a wide range of physical, chemical, and biological parameters and providing quality assurance review of analytical data collected during field and laboratory analyses.

Surveys is responsible for sampling and assessing the quality of 35,673 miles of waterways and determining the effect of approximately 1,800 permitted point sources on receiving streams. They will provide data for models and wasteload allocations for NPDES permitting purposes as well as an assessment of nonpoint sources.

Great Lakes Basin Criteria & Values - the ambient water quality standards which apply to the surface waters in the State of Indiana.

Assessment Branch (Fact Sheet) [PDF]

Probabilistic Monitoring Program (Fact Sheet) [PDF]

Surface Water Quality Monitoring Strategy

State Fish Consumption Advisories

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