Guest Commentary - South Carolina Water Quality Monitoring Data Elevated for Research, Decision Making, and the Internet of Water

Abstract

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Water Quality Exchange (WQX) and the Water Quality Portal (WQP) are the nationally accepted data systems used for submitting, storing, and retrieving water quality data. They were designed using strict water quality data standards, facilitate accessibility, and make the data discoverable as recommended by the Internet of Water (IoW). The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC), along with their community partners, have demonstrated successful data publishing and incorporation of federal, state, tribal, and community partner data from WQP into research studies and decision making. We encourage all water quality partners in South Carolina, especially authors who publish their research in the Journal of South Carolina Water Resources, to make their data publicly available through WQX/WQP because it allows others to build on original research, increases data inclusion in SCDHEC water quality assessments, and facilitates the public communication of water quality information through EPA’s How’s My Waterway.