Station Information Files

• WQ_STAS.DAT is the master index to the 679 national network stream water-quality stations, and gives the following attributes for each station:
  Station number
  Station name
  Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC)
  Drainage area
  FIPS code (state/county)
  Latitude
  Longitude
  Network identifier (NASQAN=N, HBN=B)
  Begin/End dates of station
  Basin population density for 1990
  Urban land for 1987 (% of basin)
  Crop land for 1987 (% of basin)
  Pasture land for 1987 (% of basin)
  Forest land for 1987 (% of basin)
  Range land for 1987 (% of basin)
  Farm land for 1987 (% of basin)
  Other land for 1987 (% of basin)
  Indicator of the watershed used to estimate population and land-cover statistics (station watershed or accounting unit)
  HUC basin name
  
  See the WQ_STAS.FMT file for details of the file layout.

• WQ_RELOC.DAT gives a list of 48 NASQAN water-quality stations that were relocated during their period of operation. This file gives the 8-digit station number, station name, and dates of network operation. This information may be used to identify stations where records may be suitable for merging.
  See the WQ_RELOC.FMT file for details of the file layout.

• WQ_MVNET.DAT lists 2 stations that belonged to both national networks (NASQAN and HBN) during their periods of operation.
  See the WQ_MVNET.FMT file for details of the file layout.

• WQ_FLOW.DAT contains information on the availability of daily streamflow data for each of the 679 water-quality stations (daily flow data are available for 654 of the stations). Alternate streamflow stations or relocated NASQAN sites with daily streamflow data (located in the vicinity of the water-quality monitoring stations) are identified for 79 NASQAN stations where such data are not collected.
  See the WQ_FLOW.FMT file for details of the file layout.

• FLOWSTAS.DAT is the master index of 61 alternate stream gaging stations located in the vicinity of NASQAN monitoring stations. Daily mean streamflow data from these alternate stations are suitable for estimating daily streamflow at NASQAN sites where such data are not collected.

  For each station, the following information is provided:

  Station number
  Station name
  Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC)
  Drainage area
  FIPS code (state/county)
  Latitude
  Longitude
  HUC population density for 1990
  Urban land for 1987 (% of accounting unit)
  Crop land for 1987 (% of accounting unit)
  Pasture land for 1987 (% of accounting unit)
  Forest land for 1987 (% of accounting unit)
  Range land for 1987 (% of accounting unit)
  Farm land for 1987 (% of basin)
  Other land for 1987 (% of basin)
  Indicator of watershed used to estimate population and land-cover statistics (station watershed or accounting unit)
  HUC basin name
  
  See FLOWSTAS.FMT for details of the file layout.