Following are the program activities for monitoring Kentucky's surface waters.

The agency has conducted water quality monitoring of streams, rivers, lakes and reservoirs for more than 20 years. For many years, rivers and streams monitoring consisted of a statewide network of only 45 stations. However, since the implementation of the five-year rotating basin management unit (BMU) approach in 1998, much more intensive monitoring has been achieved under the rotating watershed approach. There are now 70 fixed long-term water quality monitoring stations throughout the commonwealth, and an additional 20-25 rotating watershed monitoring sites that provide more intensive scrutiny of water quality conditions per BMU.  Monitoring of lakes has remained fairly consistent since it began in 1981. The emphasis in this program is to determine the long-term water quality (and aquatic life support as it pertains primarily to sport fishing) conditions in these reservoirs/lakes.

Collection and analysis of aquatic organisms for the assessment of water quality is performed by the following programs:

Probabilistic Monitoring
Using macroinvertebrates, streams are assessed randomly within each basin to project the use support of the watershed.

Reference Reach
The Reference Reach Program collects and summarizes data from least-disturbed streams using a regional framework in order to develop appropriate criteria for bioassessment interpretation.

Watershed Biological Monitoring
This program collects and analyzes aquatic life for the assessment of water quality using fixed and variable sites within the watershed framework.

These biological sampling programs are driven by different objectives but use the same sampling techniques. Select one of the  program links to the left to learn more.  Go to the Standard Operating Procedures page for methodology details.

Bacteria are monitored in many Kentucky streams and lakes to determine the level of support for recreational uses (swimming, wading, etc.).

Fish tissue samples are collected from many sites across the commonwealth to help determine if the fish are safe for human consumption. Fish are analyzed for metals, including mercury, PCBs, chlordane, and pesticides and herbicides. Results are used to determine if there are potential problems with contaminants in fish tissue that require further sampling. The data from this analysis is then provided to state and local officials so consumption advisories may be issued when warranted. If results are not elevated, no further fish tissue sampling is conducted in that stream reach.