The NECB routine fixed-site network consisted of nine sites in Massachusetts and Maine. The network was designed to characterize the water-quality conditions in the largest rivers in the study unit, as well as streams that drain important land uses. Large river sites draining a heterogeneous mix of land uses are termed integrator sites by the NAWQA Program, and smaller stream sites that drain homogeneous land uses are termed indicator sites. The network was designed to provide information on two main regional issues:

• Quantifying nutrient loads from the major rivers of the study unit to coastal waters. Integrator sites monitoring the Kennebec, Merrimack and Charles Rivers attempted to provide data on this subject.
  

• Defining how variation in the amount of urbanization influences stream quality in the study area. The placement of six indicator monitoring sites, having different intensities of urbanization, in eastern Massachusetts near the Boston metropolitan area addressed this subject. The six sites and amount of urbanization are:

  Stillwater River:   3.8 %
  Wading River:    18.4 %
  Neponset River: 30.1 %
  Ipswich River:    38.0 %
  Saugus River:    55.9 %
  Aberjona River:  67.3 %

Water-column chemistry and streamflow measurements are made at all nine routine fixed sites. Ecological assessments were conducted at the six indicator sites. All fixed sites were monitored from October 1998 to September 2000 on a monthly basis with additional sample collection during extreme high and low flows. Field measurements, major ions, nutrients, and suspended sediments were collected at each visit to a fixed site. Six of the nine sites were monitored on a monthly basis for a third year from October 2000 through September 2001; this additional monitoring was designed to provide data for on-going studies in the watershed.

Two sites, the Aberjona and Charles Rivers, were monitored as intensive urban fixed sites. Intensive fixed sites are used to monitor specific important land uses on a more frequent basis and for pesticides and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The Charles River was monitored every 2 weeks from October 1999 to September 2000. The Aberjona River was sampled weekly during the April – September 1999 growing season and weekly in 2000.

Ecological assessments were conducted during the summers of 1999 and 2000 at the six indicator sites. These assessments include measurements of riparian habitat, fish community, macroinvertebrates, and periphyton algae.

Four routine fixed sites (Aberjona, Stillwater, Charles, and Merrimack Rivers) have been incorporated into the National NAWQA Trends Network; these sites will be routinely monitored for the foreseeable future to establish long-term trends in national water quality. Trends monitoring began in October 2001.

Watershed characteristics for each of the sites in the network were collected or calculated and are summarized here in a Microsoft Excel file. Included are drainage area, population density, mean annual precipitation, mean annual stream flow, land-use statistics, and more.

Download watershed characteristics
(24kb Excel file)

Further details and conclusions from the study are published in the report Water-quality of selected rivers in the New England Coastal Basins in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, 1998-2000 (U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 03-4210, 45 p. by Kimberly Campo, Sarah Flanagan, and Keith Robinson, 2003). The report is available in pdf format at: http://pubs.water.usgs.gov/wri034210