Contents of the
                                  WQ_STAS.DAT
                                     file

                                  Version 1.0
                                    09/12/96

                 There is one record (line) for each station.

              The file is sorted on station number (columns 1-8).

Columns  Format  Contents


  1-8     I8     Station number - the 8 digit station number uniquely
                    identifying the station.
  9-10    2X     Blanks.
 11-58    A48    Station name - the 48 character name of the station.
   59     1X     Blank.
 60-67    I8     Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC).  The first two digits of the HUC
                    specify the Water Resources Council region.  The data, if
                    any, for this station will be found in a sub-directory
                    based on these first two digits of the HUC.
   68     1X     Blank.
 69-76    F8.0   Drainage area in square miles (-999999 = indeterminant).
   77     1X     Blank.
 78-79    A2     State - the two character state code.  See the STATES.DAT file for
                          a list of these abbreviations.
   80     1X     Blank.
 81-83    I3     County - the code number of the county in which the gaging
                    station is located.  See Federal Information Processing
                    Standards Publication (FIPS PUBS) 6-3 for a list of these
                    codes.
   84     1X     Blank.
 85-90    I6     Latitude of the gaging station in the form DDMMSS where D is
                    degrees, M is minutes, and S is seconds.
   91     1X     Blank.
 92-98    I7     Longitude of the gaging station in the form DDDMMSS.
   99     1X     Blank.
100-101   I2     Network identifier (NASQAN=N; BENCHMARK=B)
  102     1X     Blank.
103-106   I4     Network begin year
107-108   I2     Network begin month
109-110   I2     Network begin day
  111     1X     Blank.
112-115   I4     Network end year (blank indicates station operational in 1996)
116-117   I2     Network end month (blank indicates station operational in 1996)
118-119   I2     Network end day (blank indicates station operational in 1996)
  120     1X     Blank.
121-129   F9.2   1990 basin population density (no. persons per square mile).
  130     1X     Blank.
131-138   F8.2   Basin 1987 urban land area in percent.
  139     1X     Blank.
140-147   F8.2   Basin 1987 crop land area in percent.
  148     1X     Blank.
149-156   F8.2   Basin 1987 pasture land area in percent.
  157     1X     Blank.
158-165   F8.2   Basin 1987 forest land area in percent.
  166     1X     Blank.
167-174   F8.2   Basin 1987 range land area in percent.
  175     1X     Blank.
176-183   F8.2   Basin 1987 farm land area in percent.
  184     1X     Blank.
185-192   F8.2   Basin 1987 other land area in percent (includes water,
                   rural transportation, barren land, and federal land).
  193     I1     Drainage basin used to compile land-cover and population 
                   statistics (1=NASQAN; 2=Accounting unit containing NASQAN
                   station; 3=No data reported--a Benchmark station or the
                   station is located outside of the conterminous United States--
                   a missing value indicator of a negative sign and sufficient
                   values of 9 to fill the land-cover and population field 
                   width is used).  
194-253   A60    Hydrologic unit name.


Conversion factors:

   Multiply square miles by 2.590 to obtain square kilometers.


Format descriptions:

   In    an integer field n columns wide.
   F8.x  a real (float) field 8 columns wide with x decimal places to the right
            of the decimal point.
   An    a character field n columns wide.
   1X    a single blank column.