Critical analysis of water quality monitoring in the Russian Federation and former Soviet Union

Water quality in Russia has both domestic and international consequences. D omestically, it allows for appropriate management of aquatic systems; inter nationally, surface flow from present Russian and former Soviet Union terri tory into international waters (e.g., Arctic Ocean and Aral, Black, and Cas pian seas) has important implications for global contamination levels and f or developing future management plans. Although during the Soviet era the R ussian water quality monitoring network was one of the most extensive in th e world, numerous anomalies identified in Russian data by domestic and fore ign scientists have been referred to the authors for comment. A holistic as sessment of the purpose and current status of the Russian water quality mon itoring program is essential because of the difficulty that "outsiders" hav e in obtaining unbiased information about the program and because this is t he principal historical database on water quality that is available for the former U.S.S.R. and Russian Federation. Apart from chronic underfunding, t he main problems that need to be addressed are poor functioning of the syst em, including network design, choice of parameters, sample collection, anal ytical conditions and data quality, data handling, data products, and issue s of access, and the larger question of institutionalized flexibility requi red to meet local data needs.