Get Kerry I&F discharge monitoring report data from FDEP OCULUS

Downloads and parses monthly Part A Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR) PDFs for the Kerry I&F Contracting Company industrial wastewater facility (NPDES permit FL0037389, Hillsborough County, FL) from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) OCULUS public document management system. Returns Average Daily Flow, BOD, Total Nitrogen, and Total Phosphorus concentration for each available monitoring month.

Usage

util_ps_getkerry(
  yr,
  search_xlsx,
  pdf_dir = NULL,
  out_file = NULL,
  quiet = FALSE
)

Arguments

yr: numeric (length 1), the monitoring year to retrieve (e.g., 2025).
search_xlsx: character, path to an OCULUS search-results spreadsheet for facility FL0037389. See Details for instructions on generating this file.
pdf_dir: character or NULL. Directory in which to save the downloaded PDFs. If NULL (default), a temporary directory is used and all PDFs are deleted when the function exits. If a path is supplied, PDFs are retained there.
out_file: character or NULL. If provided, the results data frame is written to this path as an .xlsx workbook.
quiet: logical. Suppress progress messages (default FALSE).

Value

A data frame with one row per available monitoring month, sorted by month. Calendar months for which no Part A document was found are omitted (a message is printed when quiet = FALSE). Columns:

Column	Type	Description
`yr`	integer	Monitoring year (from the PDF monitoring period).
`mo`	integer	Calendar month (1-12, from the PDF monitoring period).
`outfall`	character	Always `"FLW-3"` (the combined flow).
`flow_mgd`	numeric	Average Daily Flow (MGD), monthly average. `0` indicates no discharge (NOD).
`bod_mgl`	numeric	BOD, Carbonaceous (mg/L), monthly maximum. `NA` when ANC or not reported.
`tss_mgl`	numeric	Always `NA` (not monitored at this facility).
`tn_mgl`	numeric	Total nitrogen grab-sample concentration (mg/L). `NA` when ANC or not reported.
`tp_mgl`	numeric	Total phosphorus grab-sample concentration (mg/L). `NA` when ANC or not reported.

Details

Generating the OCULUS search spreadsheet

The search_xlsx file is an Excel export from the FDEP OCULUS public document portal. To generate it:

Navigate to https://depedms.dep.state.fl.us in a web browser.
Click Public Oculus Login (no account required).
In the search form, set:
- Catalog: Wastewater
- Profile: Sampling
- Facility-Site ID: FL0037389 (this does not go in the Permit Number field)
- Document Date: From MM-DD-YYYY to MM-DD-YYYY (covering the desired monitoring year)
- Document Type: Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR)
Run the search and export the results to Excel (use the Export to Excel button).
Save the exported .xlsx file and pass its path as search_xlsx.

The file must contain HYPERLINK() formulas in column A pointing to the individual DMR PDFs and document subject lines in column K. Both are present in any standard OCULUS search export. Also note that the search may return other reports (e.g., toxicity results), which can be safely removed from the Excel file.

Document selection

The function keeps only monthly (MO) Part A documents for the requested year. Annual summary (YR) documents are excluded automatically. If a month has multiple submissions (e.g., a revision such as "DMR (R) ..."), the most recently filed document is used.

Reporting outfall

Kerry I&F reports flow separately for three internal monitoring sites (FLW-1, FLW-2, and FLW-3). FLW-3 is the calculated combined flow (FLW-1 + FLW-2) and is the value returned here, consistent with the outfall label used in prior years' data for this facility.

No Discharge (NOD) and Acceptable Non-Collection (ANC)

NOD (No Observable Discharge) is treated as zero flow. ANC (Acceptable Not Collected) is treated as NA. Below-detection-limit values (e.g. "<2") are returned as the reported numeric detection limit (2), not halved.

Parameters not currently monitored

Total suspended solids (TSS) is not recorded at this facility and is returned as NA for all months.

Verifying results

On the initial run, supply a pdf_dir path so the downloaded PDFs are retained for inspection. Verify that the monitoring months, flow values, and concentrations in the output data frame match those in the PDFs.

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
# Retrieve 2025 Kerry I&F DMR data
df <- util_ps_getkerry(
  yr          = 2025,
  search_xlsx = "Kerry_OCULUSSearchData_2025.xlsx"
)

# Keep PDFs and save results to Excel
df <- util_ps_getkerry(
  yr          = 2025,
  search_xlsx = "Kerry_OCULUSSearchData_2025.xlsx",
  pdf_dir     = "~/Desktop/Kerry_DMR_2025",
  out_file    = "~/Desktop/Kerry_DMR_2025_results.xlsx"
)
} # }