Using a third-party Web integration tool, the agency created a Web site that provides access to searchable databases containing more than 2 million records on water-related topics, including groundwater levels, water quality, permits and precipitation. The system is designed to let users navigate streams of data previously available only in printed format.
"The Web site is really an offshoot of our database capabilities, so we just started to grow with it," said Chris Bader, hydrologist and database manager for the commission. "The first step was to provide a one-way flow of data to the public, but I can see it evolving to the point where, in time, we will collect permit applications online and become more interactive with the users who need this data."
A Well of Information
A key component of the system is a well inventory database, which allows users to retrieve data on 24,388 wells throughout the states. Well locations can be sorted by county, water basin, aquifer, or purpose (irrigation, observation or domestic). Clicking on a well location number yields more specific data on construction, depth and drilling date.
Perhaps more importantly, users can access recorded water levels over the past decade to track groundwater trends, and use a hypertext link to obtain a detailed water chemistry report on the amounts of dissolved solids found in the well. That feature has become popular with state health officials and private consulting firms who log on to obtain data for areas of new construction.
"We use the site to get water-quality data or look up specific drilling logs for a certain area of the state," said Scott Raddig, an environmental engineer with the North Dakota Department of Health. "The database is more up-to-date online than the older county drilling reports published back in the '70s and '80s."
While the commission has no statewide automated data-acquisition system linked to the Web site, Bader said, databases are manually updated with information obtained in the field by staff or from local water agencies throughout the state. Online data is updated more frequently for higher-priority wells that play a greater role in water-resource management.
"Particularly in areas where there's competition among local districts for groundwater, we maintain a network of observation wells and we collect that data on a monthly basis," Bader said. "It's on the Web site as essentially unbiased, third-party information for the local jurisdictions to use as a way to monitor a common aquifer."
Precipitation to Permits
Two other widely used components of the SWC site are the water-permit and precipitation-network databases. Users can query by permit number, name, county, aquifer, basin or use type (commercial, fire control, irrigation, etc.) and retrieve a list of all water permits issued for the particular criteria.
The site also contains links directing users through the water permit application process. Permit application forms can be downloaded in Adobe Acrobat format, but the forms must be submitted in hard copy. Bader admits that a paperless, online permitting process has been the subject of much debate within the agency, since applications must be signed to establish their priority. Officials are grappling with the legal issues surrounding electronic signatures.
"I think it's something we'll end up doing in the future," Bader said. "Those of us doing the programming are comfortable with it."
The site also includes searchable data from the state's Atmospheric Resource Board Precipitation Rain Gauge network, 900 observers scattered throughout North Dakota who collect and report rainfall data each month. By entering a geographic area or county, users can obtain a list of observer locations in that area. Hypertext links give reported precipitation for each location by month for the past 10 years.
In-house Solution
A hydrologist by training, Bader developed the database Web integration in-house in his spare time over a year. Building on an existing ACI Fourth Dimension server used for internal management functions, Bader resurrected a 4-year-old PowerMac 8100 to run Webstar and Netlink/4d acgi extensions to complete the bridge between his Macintosh-based network and the Internet. The total cost to implement the system was about $20,000 -- $2,300 in hardware and software and the rest in staff hours.
Commission officials are pleased with the way the site has been used. It has registered up to 1,000 hits daily, averaging between 30 and 50. Other state and federal agencies account for the majority of hits, which Bader defines as an actual search performed or the retrieval of a data record.
The Web site has met the initial goal of reducing staff time spent processing information requests, Bader said, freeing up about 200 staff hours per year for other tasks.
Encouraged by those numbers, Bader hopes to expand the Web site as budgets allow. Tentative plans call for adding more graphics, including hydrographs to display well-water levels and a map interface to allow users to graphically query for data through county and township maps.
"Unlike a lot of states, we're unique in that most of the water-resource management comes through this agency, so we have more central control of the data," Bader said. "In a lot of states, you may have more than one branch controlling data, and often they're going about it differently, so it's harder for them to manage."
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Tom Byerly is a writer based in Sacramento, Calif. Email
