This website has been authorized by the Palm Beach County MS4 NPDES (PBC NPDES) Steering Committee as a resource for all permittees within the county. It is intended that this site will provide the permittee with helpful information on understanding and complying with the requirements of the MS4 NPDES permit.
Group/Joint Activities - Water Quality Monitoring
The water quality monitoring requirement in the MS4 NPDES permit is met through a joint program. The monitoring program includes the following components:- ambient water quality sampling
- water quality data analysis
- trend analyses
- annual pollutant loading calculations in Permit Year 3
The Palm Beach County MS4 NPDES permit monitoring program includes 44 ambient water quality monitoring sites which were selected after coordination among the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), Palm Beach County Environmental Resource Management (ERM), the Loxahatchee River District (LRD), Broward County (BC), City of West Palm Beach (CWPB), and the Palm Beach County permittees.
The Watershed Boundary Maps depicts the 40 water quality monitoring site locations. Sites monitored by ERM are shown as circles, those monitored by the LRD are shown as squares, those monitored by SFWMD are shown as triangles, those monitored by BC are shown as stars, and those monitored by CWPB are shown as suns. White symbols signify marine or tidal sites and yellow symbols designate freshwater sites. The LRD monitors four marine sites and three freshwater. ERM monitors ten marine sites and fifteen freshwater sites. The SFWMD monitors five freshwater sites and CWPB monitors four freshwater sites. Broward County monitors one freshwater and two marine water sites. All of Palm Beach County’s ERM, LRD, BC, and CWPB data is in WIN/STORET and SFWMD data is in DbHydro.
The data set for the trend analyses includes approximately 22 water quality parameters and all MS4 sampling events for each site’s period of record as identified in these Excel spreadsheets.
Water quality nutrient trends for 40 water quality monitoring sites (TN, TP, and Chl-a for the period of record) is graphed in these Excel spreadsheets. The trend analyses were performed on the available calendar year data using the Mann-Kendall Test methodology. An explanation of this methodology is contained in the Joint Annual Reports.
Chlorophyll-a graphs for the four Lake Worth Lagoon Central sites are based on the ten percent threshold criteria.
Reporting on the monitoring program and more detailed information is available in the Joint Annual Report, submitted with the permittees’ Annual Report Forms each year.