The historical database files include all available files for data
collected in the Chesapeake Bay watershed before the birth of the
Chesapeake Bay Program in 1984. Before the start of the Bay Program,
the EPA awarded grants to state government agencies and academic institutions
to begin research on the health of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed in
a variety of categories including point and nonpoint source pollution,
toxics, human population growth, land use, and living resources. These
data sets are the results of those grant projects. The date range
for each project varies and data can often be incomplete. After the
formation of the Chesapeake Bay Program in 1983 new monitoring initiatives
were begun. Those data can be found in the CBP
Data Hub.
All datasets are currently Access flat files which were originally
SAS datasets. The files were sorted by subject into the following
categories: BMP, Coliform, Culture, Discharge, Flow, Nutirents, Physical,
Point Source, Living Resources, Sediment, and Toxics. Most data sets
include a summary file containing metadata, a contents file which
lists the titles of the fields, and a means file which contains the
calculated averages of each column. Some data sets also have a stations
file that lists the geographic locations of each sampling station
for that particular study. All informational files appear on the More
info page in viewable text format.