Sampling site, water quality, and fish community data from multi-agency monitoring of the Illinois Waterway response to lock and dam closures, 2019-2021

Lock and dam closures along the Illinois Waterway occurred in summer of 2020, resulting in a prolonged reduction in traffic of large vessels along the Waterway. To study the response of Illinois Waterway water quality and fish community, ongoing water quality and fish Long Term Resource Monitoring (LTRMP) elements of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration program were expanded from the La Grange reach of the Lower Illinois to eight pools and reaches of the entire Illinois Waterway. This multi-agency effort occurred in each year before (2019), during (2020), and after (2021) the extended lock and dam closure. This dataset contains observations from this project, including a file of site information and LTRMP-style water quality data from each sampling unit, and another file of LTRMP-style, individual fish-level data from each sampling unit.