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Canadian Water Quality Index (CWQI)

• Canadian Water Quality Index 1.0 Calculator
• Software for Calculator Applications
• Applications of CWQI in Newfoundland and Labrador
• Reports, Publications and Presentations

A water quality index is a means to summarize large amounts of water quality data into simple terms (e.g. good or fair) for reporting to management and the public in a consistent manner. Similar to the UV index and air quality index, it evaluates and ranks the quality of water bodies for various beneficial uses of water, such as habitat for aquatic life, irrigation water for agriculture and livestock, recreation and aesthetics, and drinking water supplies.

The Canadian Water Quality Index (CWQI) is a means to provide consistent procedures for Canadian jurisdictions to report water quality information to both management and the public. A sub-committee established under the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) Water Quality Guidelines Task Group was responsible for its development. For a technical manual on the CWQI and other information please refer to the CCME website: www.ccme.ca.

Canadian Water Quality Index 1.0 Calculator

The CCME developed the original Canadian Water Quality Index 1.0 calculator.The Department of Environment, Water Resources Management Division developed a second version with the same general purposes of automating the CWQI, however, modifying its design to suit the needs for application in Newfoundland and Labrador. The aim of the Newfoundland and Labrador CWQI model is to be able to input data for a particular water body and, in turn, compute indices for various water uses such as drinking water, aquatic life and recreation simultaneously for comparison purposes.

The application of the model is an evolving process and there are plans underway to expand the model in the future to include water uses for aquaculture and agriculture.This particular version of the CWQI calculator allows the user to input site-specific objectives, or to utilize the CCME guidelines for various parameters. This is a user-friendly Excel 2002-based model programmed using Visual Basic for Applications.This model is available for download as an Excel 2002 file with documentation and three test datasets below.

• CWQI 1.0 Calculator (Including Users’ Manual)
• CWQI – Zip (Same as above in a compressed Zip File)
• CWQI Help File (stand-alone executable file – does not require installation)
• Test Dataset #1 – Testdata1.xls
• Test Dataset #2 – Testdata2.xls
• Test Dataset #3 – CCME-Example.xls

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Software for Calculator Applications

• Site Specific Water Quality Index Calculator
  The Site Specific Water Quality Index calculator is an adaptation of the CWQI that allows for the computation and use of site specific guidelines based on the CCME background concentration method.
• Forestry Water Quality Index Calculator
  The Forestry Water Quality Index calculator is an adaptation of the CWQI that allows for the planning of sustainable forest management.

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Applications of CWQI in Newfoundland and Labrador

• Drinking Water Quality
  The CWQI is used for drinking water quality reporting on a quarterly basis. A CWQI report is sent to all communities with public drinking water supplies in Newfoundland and Labrador.
• Real Time Water Quality
  The Water Resources Management Division of Newfoundland and Labrador has completed a pilot project using the CWQI for summarizing real-time water quality data.
• Ranking of WQMA Sites in NL
  WQMA sites in Newfoundland and Labrador are ranked using the CWQI.
• Relative Ranking of WQMA Site in NL
  WQMA sites in Newfoundland and Labrador are ranked relative to each other using statistical methods.

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Reports, Publications and Presentations

Province of Newfoundland and Labrador

• Application of CCME Procedures for Deriving Site Specific Water Quality Guidelines for the CCME Water Quality Index (Water Resources Management Division) (689 KB)
• Modification and Application of the CCME WQI for the Communication of Drinking Water Quality Data in Newfoundland and Labrador (1.4 MB)
• The Canadian Water Quality Index: A Tool for Water Resources Management (Water Resources Management Division) (255 KB)
• Water Quality Index Applied to the Exploits River Watershed (1.5 MB)
  The province has used the earlier BC Water Quality Index in several studies. A major application of the index was a study entitled “Water Quality Index Applied to the Exploits River Watershed.”
• "Application of the WQI to Assess the Effectiveness of Best Management Practices" presented at the Aquatic Toxicity Workshop 2003 Ottawa, ON. (PowerPoint Presentation, 1.6 Mb)
• "The Application of the CCME WQI as a Screening Tool to Evaluate the Suitability of Waters for Aquaculture" presented at the Aquatic Toxicity Workshop 2004 Charlottetown, PEI. (PowerPoint Presentation, 6.5 Mb)

National and other Jurisdictions

• Application and Testing of the Water Quality Index in Atlantic Canada
  
  A pilot study was completed by CCME as the first comprehensive attempt to apply the WQI to the four Atlantic Provinces. This report used both provincial and federal data in the WQI to reflect the state of information and knowledge of our water resources. The reports developed by this pilot study are listed below for download:
  • Report Summary (111 KB)
  • Full Report
  • Assessment of Report
  • Technical Supplement
• National Water Quality Indicators
• Environment and Sustainable Development Indicators for Canada (National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy)

SPREADSHEET DISCLAIMER

The Canadian Water Quality index has been developed by the CCME and has been adopted by the Water Resources Management Division for the application in Newfoundland and Labrador. This has been programmed to run on Excel 2002 (SP-2) using Visual Basic for Applications. Service packs, such as SP-2 mentioned above, are free downloads from Microsoft which contain improvements for licensed products.

While every effort has been made to test the electronic spreadsheet, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador makes no warranties expressed or implied, as to the performance of this spreadsheet. Users are expected to use professional judgment in the application of the spreadsheet.

For additional information on the Canadian Water Quality Index or any other water resources related topics please contact us.

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