Water Quality Exchange – WQX

Version:2.1
Status:Flowing

Data Exchange Description

The Water Quality Exchange (WQX) allows Network Partners to share ambient water quality data with EPA. As the primary framework for sharing data at the national level and compiling data in the STORET Data Warehouse, WQX replaces the distributed STORET database. EPA stopped accepting submissions via the distributed STORET database in September 2009. For more information on WQX and the STORET Data Warehouse, please visit http://www.epa.gov/storet/about.html, and review the WQX Success Story.

Version 1.0 of the WQX framework allowed Partners to share the following date types:

  • Physical conditions at the time of a site visit;
  • Chemical and bacteriological analyses of the water sampled; and
  • Chemical analyses of fish tissue collected.

Versions 2.0 and 2.1 expanded the WQX framework to allow sharing of the following additional parameters:

  • Taxon abundance data including population census, frequency class, group summaries, and individual results;
  • Toxicity data;
  • Habitat assessment scores and their related metrics; and
  • Biological index scores and their related metrics.

Because many water monitoring programs use biological and habitat data as the basis for assessing water quality, WQX v2.0 and v2.1 enhance the richness of information available for data sharing, analysis, and improved decision making by watershed managers.

Version 2.1 of the WQX schema is backwards compatible with v2.0, and provides expanded data element lengths for various key description text type elements.  Please see the schema change log and Data Exchange Template for more details.

EPA is now accepting test and production submissions using WQX v1.0, v2.0, and v2.1 Partners interested in doing so should contact the WQX team at storet@epa.gov. EPA will continue to support all versions of the schema and does not have plans to discontinue support of v1.0.

The WQX data flow supports both node and node client submissions. It also provides a custom web-based client application called WQX Web. WQX Web allows users to submit flat file submissions such as text files or comma separated files (txt or csv files), that the tool then maps to the WQX schema for WQX XML file generation. WQX Web then acts as a web-client and submits the data through the WQX data flow. All users of WQX Web must access the tool in the CDX Web environment. For more information about using WQX Web, and how to sign up for an account, please visit: http://www.epa.gov/storet/wqx/wqxweb.html.

All data shared using the WQX framework can be accessed on-line in the STORET Data Warehouse. Please visit http://www.epa.gov/storet/dbtop.html for more information.

Data Flow Implementation Guide – This guide provides a high-level overview of the data flow including advice about when to consider implementing the flow and a summary of planned improvements to the flow’s design and usability.

Supplemental Information

Partners sharing WQX data via a node or node client will need to acquire a Network Authentication Authorization Service (NAAS) Account as well as a WQX Organization ID. NAAS Accounts must be set up for both test and production environments.

Please ask your organization’s Node Administrator to obtain a NAAS Account for test and production. Contact information can be found here.

Once you have a NAAS Account, please contact the STORET Team for a WQX Organization ID. The STORET Team will set up a WQX ORG ID that associates with your test or production NAAS Account. You may request an ID by contacting the STORET help desk either by email (storet@epa.gov) or by phone (1-800-424-9067). The STORET Help Desk will ask that you provide the following information in order to set up the Org ID:

  • Org ID: (Org ID is your choice and may be up to 30 characters long)
  • Organization Name
  • Contact Name
  • Contact Email
  • Address
  • Phone
  • Date Needed

NOTE: All organizations submitting data through WQX will require a new WQX Organization ID that is unique from any previous STORET Org IDs. This ensures that users do not duplicate data already within an Organization in the STORET Warehouse when submitting data through WQX.

Partners submitting data via WQX Web must sign up for a CDX Web account in order to access the tool. Note that a CDX Web account is different from a NAAS Account. Please email storet@epa.gov to request a CDX Web account.

Version Notes

Status: Supported

The WQX documentation package has been received and reviewed by the NTG Conformance Committee. The Committee has deemed the schema and supporting flow documentation acceptable for use on the Exchange Network. The most recent version of the WQX data exchange is version 2.1. The following links are to implementation resources for this most recent version. See below for links to resources for previous versions.

Resources

Contact

  • The STORET Team
    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
    800.424.9067
    storet [at] epa.gov

Other versions

Profiles and Progress

Click the map to find contact information for Exchange Network Partners and to see Partners' progress toward implementing data exchanges on the Network.
Exchange Network Map