Monitoring

Introduction
When solving a water quality problem many things need to happen:

	The baseline conditions need defined
	The problem must be clearly defined and recognized
	The pollutant or pollutants causing the problem must be identified
	The cause-and-effect relationship between the pollutant and the water quality effect must be determined
	The sources of pollutant must be detected
	The pathway of the pollutant from its source to the water body must be described
	The appropriate control practices identified
	The control BMPs must be selected and implemented
	Progress of efforts and impacts of BMPs need to be determined

Monitoring of programs like those in the Indian Lake Watershed Project are being conducted to track effectiveness and impact on improving water quality. Monitoring is a time-consuming process which needs to be conducted long-term to build upon the base-line data to use as guides in measuring trends in water quality.

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