FACE Coastal Water Quality Monitoring Cruises

Introduction

The FACE program envisions a series of water quality monitoring sites along Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, to be sampled monthly (or bimonthly) for a variety of chemical, biological, and physical parameters for an initial period of one year. The purpose of the sampling is to assess the health of the water in this region, to determine possible sources of nutrient input into the region, and to provide a baseline for future observations of water quality. To date, the first portion oft Boynton-Delray (South Central outfall and Boynton Inlet) has been completed. A series of eighteen water quality monitoring sites were sampled by the R/V Cable or R/V Nancy Foster approximately bimonthly from June 2007 through July 2008 (left figure below). The samples were analyzed for nutrients and biological entities. .A full description of the water quality monitoring plan is available (PDF). A final report on the Boynton-Delray monitoring program is available as a NOAA Technical Report (PDF) .

Broward County Outfalls and Inlets Monitoring program

The monitoring cruise program for Broward counties (Broward and Hollywood outfalls, Hillsboro and Port Everglades inlets) began in November 2011, employing the NOAA ship Hildebrand (Figure 1). The sampling plans are described in these documents: Broward (PDF), Hollywood (PDF). Analyses are performed by NELAC-certified laboratories.

Figure 1. NOAAResearch Ship Hildebrand

The monitoring program consists of one cruise in the vicinity of the Port Everglades Inlet and Hollywood outfall, and a separate cruise for the vicinity of the Hillsboro Inlet and Broward ouftall. These sites are shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Sampling sites for Broward (L) and Hollywood (R) sampling cruises.

Data from these cruise is of three types: 1) sea water chemistry; 2) microbiology; and 3) physical oceanography. These data are released in the form of bimonthly reports. These reports contain appendices with the full data set and some preliminary interpretation. A more complete interpretation will be forthcoming when the entire data set is availble after the termination of the monitoring cruises. Also, some data may not be ready at the time of the distribution of the bimonthly reports; these data will be presented in subsequent reports.

Broward-Hollywood Bimonthly Report 1: (September-October 2010) PDF
Broward-Hollywood Bimonthly Report 2 (November-December 2010) PDF
Broward-Hollywood Bimonthly Report 3 (January-February 2011) PDF
Broward-Hollywood Bimonthly Report 4 (March-April 2011) PDF
Broward-Hollywood Bimonthly Report 5 (May-June 2011) PDF
Broward-Hollywood Bimonthly Report 6 (July-August 2011) PDF

FACE is a part of the Coastal Environment Group in the Ocean Chemistry Division of NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory.