Effective collection and management of water quality data provides volunteers the opportunity to recognize changes in water quality and empowers them to take appropriate action. The Texas Stream Team program promotes the use of volunteer data at the local level, by partners, volunteers, schools, government agencies, business and industry and others, for education and for use in natural resource management decisions.

Volunteers submit their data to the Texas Stream Team program directly or through the Texas Stream Team Partner. All monitoring forms are reviewed and entered into the Texas Stream Team database. In addition, data that meet the requirements of the Quality Assurance Program will be sent to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) database to be used to support and enhance professionally collected data. The TCEQ will use the quality-assured volunteer data for comparison with water quality standards and in trend analysis, for identification of water quality conditions and concerns requiring TCEQ action, and as baseline information in the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) development process.

Texas Stream Team volunteer data are available to the public through the Texas Stream Team Data Viewer.

Quality Assurance Program

All Texas Stream Team data are collected within an approved quality assurance project plan (QAPP). A QAPP document outlines the procedures a monitoring project will use to ensure that the samples and data are of high enough quality to meet project needs. Texas Stream Team monitors currently collect data using the approved Integrative Quality Assurance Project Plan (IQAPP) or the Project-Specific Quality Assurance Project Plan (PSQAPP). The goals of the group and Texas Stream Team’s support capabilities determine which plan volunteers aremonitoring within. IQAPP intended data uses include: education, research, screening and problem identification, and other uses deemed appropriate by resource managers and the TCEQ. PSQAPP intended data uses include: TMDL development, stream standards modifications, permit decisions, water quality assessments, education, research, screening and problem identification and other programs deemed appropriate by the TCEQ. Because of intensive data validation techniques that must be utilized to document and approve PSQAPP data and monitors, Texas Stream Team has limited participation to twenty-five sites. Generally, Texas Stream Team PSQAPP participants are veteran monitors who can commit to consistent monthly sampling for one year or more.