In order to accomplish the goals of the Water Quality Act of 1965, it is necessary to establish water quality surveillance systems throughout the nation. It is highly imperative that the individual systems developed by the various Federal, state, and interstate agencies be compatible and their data systems be interconnected. The various inputs and decisions necessary to accomplish this task are so complex that modern systems analysis techniques should be applied to insure that each of these water quality surveillance systems are developed and designed utilizing the same criteria. This study is the initial effort to apply systems analysis techniques to the solution of this problem. Three major river basins were selected for this study in order to identify the parameters common to any basin throughout the nation. The three basins were studied by: (1) reviewing the literature associated with their water quality characteristics; (2) on-site visits to the river basin areas; (3) comparative review of the interstate water quality standards and plans of implementation; and (4) legal considerations in surveillance program design. These tasks provided the input material to develop a systems analysis framework. The systems analysis framework was applied manually to select sites for water quality surveillance stations on the major streams studied within the three river basins. (Author)

"Contract no. 14-12-476." "16090 DBJ 08/70." Includes bibliographical references (pages 159-184).