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Water Quality Monitoring Agreement

Environment Canada and the provincial Department of Environment and Conservation have been monitoring ambient surface water quality of selected water bodies in the province since 1986 under the Canada-Newfoundland Water Quality Monitoring Agreement (WQMA). The purpose of this Agreement was practical coordination and integration of federal and provincial water quality monitoring activities. On April 29, 1986, an Agreement was signed between the federal and provincial government to establish a joint water quality monitoring network. The WQMA provides for the regular monitoring of an index network of stations, as well as an annual recurrent study concentrating on water quality, sediment and biota in a selected watershed. Since its inception, the Agreement has seen water quality data collected at a total of 111 monitoring sites.

Classification of Canada-Newfoundland Water Quality Monitoring Agreement Sampling

Time Frame Long-term
Variable Type Physical, chemical, limited biological
Frequency of Sampling Seasonal to monthly
Hydrologic Type Surface water- rivers, streams, lakes
Sampling Media Water, limited sediment, limited biota
Objective Collect baseline water quality data
Main Information Goal Detect trends in water quality
Main Management Goal Ensure water quality is suitable for different beneficial water uses
Reporting Annual Work Schedule, Intensive Survey Reports, Trend Analysis Report, Site Documentation, Fact Sheets, Specialized Studies, CANAL web page, technical support for stakeholders

The collected information advises both federal and provincial agencies in support of:

  • water resources management programs
  • pollution control regulations
  • water quality guidelines and objectives development
  • water quality modeling (simulation and prediction)
  • environmental assessment studies
  • legislative formulations
  • federal, provincial, and international agreements and commitments

Samples are sent to the Environment Canada Laboratory in Burlington, Ontario for analysis. Physical, chemical, biological, major ion and nutrient parameters are tested for a total of 36 parameters.

Water quality parameters being monitored under the Agreement fall under four major water quality indicators are listed in the table below.

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Agreement Water Quality Variables

Physical and Chemical Parameters Major Ions Nutrients Trace Elements and Metals
Turbidity (TURB) Calcium (CAD) Nitrogen (NT) Aluminium (ALT)
Colour (COLORA) Sodium (NAD) Nitrate & Nitrite (NO3NO2) Arsenic (AST)
Conductivity (CONDL) Magnesium (MGD) Phosphorous (PT) Barium (BAT)
pH (PHL) Potassium (KD) Silica (SID) Beryllium (BET)
Dissolved Oxygen (O2D) Sulphate (SO4IC) Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) Cadmium (CDT)
  Chloride (CLD)   Cobalt (COT)
  Floride (FD)   Chromium (CRT)
      Copper (CUT)
      Iron (FET)
      Lead (PBT)
      Lithium (LIT)
      Manganese (MNT)
      Mercury (HGT)
      Molybdenum (MOT)
      Nickel (NIT)
      Selenium (SET)
      Strontium (SRT)
      Zinc (ZNT)
      Vanadium (VT)

Biological water quality parameters being monitored under the Agreement are Fecal and Total Coliforms.

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Locations of WQMA Sites

There are 109 WQMA sites in Newfoundland and Labrador. There are currently 77 active water quality sampling sites, three (3) stations are real-time stations.An additional three (3) stations are utilized as real-time stations only.There are a total of six (6) real-time stations in the Real-time Water Quality Network.The locations of all WQMA sites are shown in the following figure.

wqma

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Water Quality Monitoring Network Criteria

The criterion for designing a water quality monitoring network involves the following three components:

  1. Location: In order for the network to be representative, it must provide geographic coverage, but also take into account geological, physiological, hydrological, demographic, anthropogenic and historical water quality factors. River basins are used as the basic sampling unit under the Canada-Newfoundland Water Quality Monitoring Agreement.
  2. Frequency: The frequency of sampling is a reflection of the objectives of the monitoring network, data needs and capacity to perform the work.Simply stated, the more water quality varies, the more samples will be required to obtain reliable estimates of statistical parameters used to describe its behavior.
  3. Variables: The water quality variables tested for as part of a monitoring network are dependent on the objectives of the monitoring network, the basin characteristics and economics. The variables are consistent throughout the federal-provincial monitoring network.

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Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) Protocols Manual for Water Quality Monitoring in Canada

The province has adopted the protocols outlined in this manual PDF (2.6 MB) for the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Water Quality Monitoring Agreement sampling program. An appendix PDF (82 KB) to the manual has been developed to include documents which apply specifically to the Newfoundland and Labrador ambient water quality monitoring program. The manual was prepared to provide Canada-wide consistency in water quality monitoring.

Contour Maps

Contour maps of all water quality parameters sampled under the WQMA are available in pdf format. Follow this link to learn more about contour maps and to view these files.

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Water Quality Trends

A report entitled Water Quality Trends in Selected Water Bodies of Newfoundland & Labrador has been prepared that examines trends in 36 different water quality parameters from 65 different water quality monitoring stations located on representative rivers throughout the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. 

An examination of land and water use activities ongoing in each watershed allowed identification of likely causes and/or factors contributing to improving or deteriorating water quality trends. This report also ranks the 65 water quality stations as pristine, semi-impaired, or impaired. 

Some of the observed trends include:

  • A decrease (or improving trend) in conductivity and by extension, major ion concentration, (calcium, sodium, magnesium, potassium, sulphate, chloride) throughout the province.
  • An increase (or deteriorating trend) in colour throughout the province.
  • An increase (or deteriorating trend) in turbidity throughout the province.
  • An increase (or deteriorating trend) in nitrate/nitrite and nitrogen throughout the province.
  • A decrease (or improving trend) in arsenic throughout the province, more significantly in South Coast Rivers including the Avalon.
  • A decrease (or improving trend) in barium throughout the province.
  • An increase (or deteriorating trend) in beryllium, cadmium and molybdenum throughout the province. However, these three parameters had the highest occurrence of censored data that is believed to have had some influence on the trend analysis.
  • A decrease (or improving trend) in copper throughout the province.
  • A decrease (or improving trend) in mercury throughout the province.
  • A decrease (or improving trend) in lead throughout the province.
  • A decrease (or improving trend) in phosphorous in rivers of the Central and Eastern Region.
  • The occurrence of trend in cobalt and manganese (all showed a majority of improving trends) is most apparent in water quality stations from the Eastern Region.
  • An increase (or deteriorating trend) in nickel in rivers in non-urban areas of the Avalon and eastern rivers of the Central Region.
  • An increase (or deteriorating trend) in sulphate in urban rivers of St. John’s.
  • Frequent improving trends in zinc, strontium, lithium, and selenium throughout the province.

The report and other associated documents are available via the following links in Adobe pdf format:

PDF Note: all links below are PDFs and will open in a new window.

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Canada-Newfoundland/Labrador Aqua Link (CANAL)

Data obtained from the laboratory analysis is entered into an Environment Canada database called Envirodat.This database feeds a website that makes that data available through the internet for anyone to view.The website is called the Canada-Newfoundland/Labrador Aqua Link (CANAL).The CANAL website opens new window was developed to provide the general public and stakeholders increased access to the wealth of water quality information on ambient water bodies in NL. This website provides station profiles, the ability to download data files for all stations in the WQMA network and water quality index information.

  • User guide PDF (3.3 MB) for the CANAL / Envirodat Data Extraction Tool

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Water Quality Index

The two major challenges in disseminating water quality information to the public is that water quality data is inherently technical in nature and is made up of very large data sets.To address these issues, the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) Water Quality Index is utilized to convey water quality data to non-expert audiences in a meaningful manner.The CCME WQI was developed by the CCME in the late 1990's for the primary purpose of communicating water quality information to a non-technical audience and policy makers. Click this link to see additional information on the CCME WQI and its application in NL.

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Reports Available

There are a number of reports (in Adobe PDF format) developed by the Water Quality section in cooperation with Environment Canada:

Annual Work Schedules

PDF Note: all links below are PDFs and will open in a new window.

Progress Reports

Technical Reports

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