From the desk of an unlikely USGS hero, an invaluable service for river lovers

Even though Ken Lanfear can't thread a steep creek in West Virginia, and even though he'd be lost trying to match the hatch on Montana's Yellowstone River, he's nevertheless a cult hero to paddlers and anglers nationwide. The mild-mannered hydrologist for the U. S. Geological Survey has earned his bona fides among hard-core river rats by developing an Internet system that doles out the Information Age equivalent of manna from heaven: free, live waterflow data from USGS gauging stations that peg the precise height and volume of 5,000 streams and rivers from Maine to Hawaii. "I would go so far as to say it has probably saved lives," says Carl Ramstrom, 45, an avid whitewater rafter from California. "The data is the difference between paddling down a mellow Class II river and drowning in a raging Class IV cauldron."

A specialist in mathematical modeling at the USGS headquarters in Reston, Virginia, Lanfear, 53, originally developed the system to serve engineers and other professionals who depend on waterflow data. When the information debuted with a limited menu of options on the Montana USGS office's Web site in 1995, the service received 1,100 hits in the first week. "We wondered what was happening out there," recalls Lanfear. "There are not 1,100 engineers in Montana who would be interested in this stuff. We thought the cows were logging on."

When he finally determined that the flash flood of interest came from eager kayakers, rafters, and fly fishermen, Lanfear set about creating a user-friendly Web resource (water.usgs.gov). The system rolled out in 1996, and ever since, Lanfear has been conducting a Pygmalion-like quest to perfect his creation—a goal he may finally achieve this spring when, for the first time, the site will be fully customizable, meaning that users can retrieve only the information they desire. Meanwhile, the system has inspired additional services from the USGS. Recently, the agency has partnered with Microsoft to provide downloadable topo maps for anywhere in the United States ($7.50 each, plus a $45 base charge; www.terraserver.microsoft.com). There are also discussions about posting pH levels and water temperatures on the site—a boon for anglers. "We're delighted by the interest," says Lanfear, who gets dozens of e-mails thanking him each week. "It shows that good information can have value far beyond its original intent." —ALEX SALKEVER

Photo: Clay Ellis