during June 1982. For most relevant parameters reported there was agreement 

 between agencies. The TDS and boron data compared extremely well, but some 

 discrepancies in pH and electrical conductivity results remained; the reason 

 for these discrepancies are being investigated. The agencies will be repeating 

 the entire intensive quality-control project, with some minor improvements in 

 project design during I983. 



East Poplar River at international Boundary 



Table 1 presents the water quality objectives recommended by the IJC and 

 the larger set of objectives recommended to the IJC by the International Poplar 

 River Water Quality Board. The corresponding number of samples collected for 

 the East Poplar River near the International Boundary by governments are also 

 shown in Table 1 . 



t' 

 Boron 



The two principle data bases (USGS and Environment Canada) report dissolved 

 boron, although it is believed the IJC recommended objective is for total 

 boron. The Committee has taken the position that total and dissolved boron 

 concentrations are essentially equal and is utilizing the more commonly 

 reported dissolved boron for the purpose of monitoring and determining com- 

 pliance with the IJC recommended objectives. 



The long-term five-year moving flow-weighted concentration is presented in 

 Figure 2. Note that each point is plotted as the midpoint of a five-year 

 period, advancing one month at a time throughout the data set, which consist 

 of March to October data. The five-year moving flow-weighted concentrations 

 for boron have not exceeded 1.5 mg/L, which is below the recommended long-term 

 objective of 2.5 mg/L. The sharp decline occurring in 1979 resulted because 

 of the above normal snowmelt runoff in April I982, which had a boron level of 

 0.73 mg/L. 



The three-month moving flow-weighted concentrations for boron have not exceeded 

 the recommended short-term objective of 3^5 mg/L for any given year as shown in 

 Figure 3. The trend in each annual curve is similar. As autumn approaches, 

 the boron three-month flow-weighted concentrations gradually rise as the 



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