The National Rivers and Streams Assessment (NRSA) is a survey designed to assess the water quality of our rivers and streams on a national scale every five years. Coordinated by the Environmental Protection Agency, state and tribal partners collect information on randomly selected river and stream locations throughout the US. Staff from the DANR Watershed Protection program perform the field work necessary to carry out the NRSA in South Dakota. The goals of the NRSA are to determine the extent to which rivers and streams support a healthy biological condition and the extent of major stressors that affect them. The survey supports a longer-term goal: to determine whether our rivers and streams are getting cleaner and how we might best invest in protecting and restoring them. More information about the National Rivers and Streams Assessment such as survey results and data, project design, and field manuals can be found on the EPA website.
To learn how, when, where, and why we collect data for the National Rivers and Streams Assessment, scroll through the storymap below or view it in fullscreen here.