One of the significant challenges to testing and evaluating models is the limited amount of data available for comparing model predictions with measured data. Increasing awareness of the lack of available data for model evaluation and the increased use of on-line journal access has prompted making data available to the public. Providing data access to scientists and modelers not affiliated with the original research will encourage additional investigations into the data by researchers with differing backgrounds and expertise. The data contained in PLEAD have been used by several research groups in multiple research studies to address important modeling questions relevant to P management planning. The uniqueness of PLEAD is that it contains event-based data at the field scale. Because total annual P loss is oftentimes dominated by a relatively few significant runoff events, the development of a P loss database such as PLEAD, which includes individual runoff events, will provide a unique data set against which field-scale P loss models can be evaluated. Moreover, the development of new databases expands the quantity of data available to investigators researching the factors controlling P loss from agricultural fields and investigating methods for improving the mathematical descriptions of these processes. We foresee these data being used to address similar questions with different models. We also anticipate that these data will be used to evaluate P indices as states respond to the new USDA-NRCS 590 Nutrient Management Standard which directs states to evaluate the accuracy of their P index. These data can also be used to investigate correlations between land management practices and P loss from agricultural fields.