Three Rivers QUEST (3RQ) and the WATERS Data Platform

A long-running monitoring program and free data platform covering the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Upper Ohio basins, open to any watershed group that wants to store and map its own water quality data.

Three Rivers QUEST is a project of the West Virginia Water Research Institute at West Virginia University that monitors rivers, tributaries, and headwater streams across the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Upper Ohio River basins, an area of more than 25,000 square miles spanning five states. The program grew out of monitoring work begun in 2008 after rising salt levels in the Monongahela threatened drinking water supplies, and it now brings together academic researchers, citizen scientists, and conservation groups for monthly sampling and long-term trend analysis. Parameters monitored include temperature, pH, conductivity, alkalinity, acidity, sulfate, iron, manganese, aluminum, calcium, magnesium, chloride, sodium, and total dissolved solids. 3RQ also operates WATERS, the Watershed Assessment Tool for Education and Research Studies, a free and easy to use platform any organization can use to store, retrieve, and graph its own water quality data regardless of location, with results displayed on public online maps. The geography here maps almost exactly onto the H2O service area, making 3RQ one of the most directly relevant data partners in the network's footprint.