About ARM

The Acid Rain Monitoring (ARM) Project is a unique combined effort of citizen volunteers and University of Massachusetts scientists to accomplish three goals:

1. Develop a nearly comprehensive picture of the acidity status and general water chemistry of lakes and streams in Massachusetts;
2. Determine trends related to acid deposition impacts in a significant number of lakes and streams; and
3. Revisit a smaller number of these long-term trend sites to evaluate the effects of the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments.

The first of these goals was accomplished from 1983-1986; the second from 1986-1993. The third goal was added in 2001 and is ongoing.

This database represents the full water chemistry record beginning with the start of the Project in March 1983. Samples were collected monthly from 1983 to 1984, semiannually from 1985 and 1986, and quarterly from 1986 to 1993. Current samples are collected semiannually. More than 40,000 records from nearly 5,600 lakes and streams are contained in the database.

Results have been rigorously quality assured, both for field collections and laboratory analyses. The QA/QC results are presented in detail in the report on the 1983-1993 results. More recent results follow the same procedures. Also available are instructions on locating sampling sites. These are nearly complete for sites sampled from 1985 to present but not so complete for earlier sites.

The database is designed to make these data fully accessible to the user in a way that will make it easy for you to select portions for examination and further investigation. It is designed so that the user may download the desired portions and conduct more detailed analysis using commonly available software. Statistics or graphical analysis should be done in these programs; they are not included as part of this database program.