Transboundary Rivers Water Quality Monitoring Program ...

• Main Author: The Department of Environment and Climate Change ECC Water Management and Monitoring Division WMMD of the Government of the Northwest Territories GNWT.
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: DataStream 2023
• Subjects: Liard; Northwest Territories
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.25976/429b-qn70; https://datastream.org/dataset/9287f7c0-d9d0-4533-9387-34667579912a

The Department of Environment and Climate Change (ECC) is responsible for monitoring transboundary waters to ensure that upstream provinces and territories are not causing downstream effects in the Northwest Territories (NWT). The Transboundary suspended sediment and water quality sampling sites were established to characterize the water quality in the major transboundary rivers flowing into the NWT. The transboundary rivers monitored under this program are the Slave, Hay, Liard and Peel Rivers.The comprehensive program has developed a solid baseline for the aquatic ecosystem of these rivers against which future changes can be measured. ... : Water and suspended sediment samples have been collected for these transboundary rivers for almost 30 years. In addition to using a water quality mutimeter probe (hydrolab or YSI), river grab samples and suspended sediment and centrifugate water were collected using a centrifuge. Sediment and water are analyzed for: •chlorinated phenolics • dioxins (polychlorinated dibenzo para dioxins, or PCDDs) and furans (polychlorinated dibenzofurans, or PCDFs) • herbicides • naphthenic acids (NAs) • organochlorine pesticides • polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) • polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) • polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) – parent and alkylated • polyfluorinated compounds (PFCs) • total and dissolved metals • nutrients • major ions • physical parameters ...