Abstract |
Because of the nation-wide scope of the National Eutrophication Survey and the time frame of less than four years for the completion of the sampling of 812 lakes and reservoirs, 4,000+ tributary sites, and over 800 municipal wastewater treatment plants, the Survey sampling program necessarily deviated from what ordinarily would be considered an ideal experimental design. As the Survey progressed, and to the degree permitted by the day-to-day work load, limited comparisons of Survey results with results published by others on the same water bodies were made. More recently, a concerted effort has been made to test the validity of the data. As a result of this effort, it is concluded that the reliability of the Survey data is better than would have been expected and that data sound enough to fulfill certain of the legislative mandates of Public Law 92-500 can be obtained with much less intensive and costly studies than previously thought necessary. |