Project:

Regional Water Data Banks - Water Quality Information Enhancement

The USGS has conceptualized and implemented a variety of technical activities as part of the Regional Water Data Banks Project, a project of the Multilateral Working Group on Water Resources of the Middle East Peace Process. Several of these activities focused on enhancing water quality information in the region, including field determinations, quality assurance, laboratory reviews, and others.

1. The USGS helped the partners listed below to design, and then had constructed, three water-quality mobile laboratories that were delivered to the Region in 1997.
2. About 24 regional laboratories participate in the USGS Standard Reference Sample program. Since September 1996, the participants have received, semiannually, water samples with known concentrations of constituents that are analyzed and compared to the results from about 250 other laboratories.
3. The USGS formed and hosted a local Water Quality Subcommittee that met periodically to discuss various water quality issues of regional concern.
4. To assure comparable technical methods, the Water Quality Subcommittee implemented a program to jointly make field measurements of selected water quality determinations, collect water samples, split the samples, and have multiple regional laboratories analyze the same water sample.
5. The USGS conducted multilateral training on use of a mobile water-quality laboratory, field measurements, laboratory quality assurance, evaluation of quality assurance data, and preparation of a laboratory quality assurance plan.
6. The USGS initiated and hosted a team to conduct physical reviews of a series of participating laboratories.
7. Advised the Palestinian Water Authority on the design of their current water-quality laboratory.
8. The USGS is working with the listed partners to help them develop and adopt a water quality field manual that is region specific.