diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index bac3603061cae83e5140e47f1e1c4b99d14d951a..4dbde26a90c898a1d3a76ea9a5be78db84a87cab 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ Package: dataRetrieval
 Type: Package
 Title: Retrieval functions for hydrologic data
 Version: 1.4.0.9000
-Date: 2014-09-22
+Date: 2014-09-26
 Author: Robert M. Hirsch, Laura De Cicco
 Maintainer: Laura De Cicco <ldecicco@usgs.gov>
 Description: Collection of functions to help retrieve USGS data from either web
@@ -20,7 +20,8 @@ Imports:
     XML,
     RCurl,
     dplyr,
-    reshape2
+    reshape2,
+    lubridate
 Suggests:
     xtable,
     EGRET,
diff --git a/NAMESPACE b/NAMESPACE
index a5e7611328958fcbaa3b66705f2b746d7cc2ff66..a01b7035e507c862c88466dc212740c6ed920e2c 100644
--- a/NAMESPACE
+++ b/NAMESPACE
@@ -55,3 +55,4 @@ import(XML)
 import(reshape2)
 import(zoo)
 importFrom(dplyr,rbind_all)
+importFrom(lubridate,parse_date_time)
diff --git a/R/basicWQPData.R b/R/basicWQPData.R
index 470b5403681739381d0f3416b36fd84fbc1ae1c4..aa13897af0a5aa1510ea3f24b51acaa5556b5bd2 100644
--- a/R/basicWQPData.R
+++ b/R/basicWQPData.R
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 #' start and end times.
 #' @export
 #' @import RCurl
+#' @importFrom lubridate parse_date_time
 #' @examples
 #' # These examples require an internet connection to run
 #' rawSampleURL <- constructNWISURL('USGS-01594440','01075', '1985-01-01', '1985-03-31',"wqp")
@@ -39,7 +40,6 @@ readWQPData <- function(url){
                               colClasses='character', 
                               fill = TRUE,nrow=1)
       classColumns <- setNames(rep('character',ncol(namesData)),names(namesData))
-      classColumns["ActivityStartDate"] <- "Date"
       
       classColumns[grep("MeasureValue",names(classColumns))] <- NA
       
@@ -62,6 +62,18 @@ readWQPData <- function(url){
       timeZoneStart[is.na(timeZoneStart)] <- ""
       timeZoneEnd[is.na(timeZoneEnd)] <- ""
       
+      if("ActivityStartDate" %in% names(retval)){
+        if(any(retval$ActivityStartDate != "")){
+          suppressWarnings(retval$ActivityStartDate <- as.Date(parse_date_time(retval$ActivityStartDate, c("Ymd", "mdY"))))
+        }
+      }
+
+      if("ActivityEndDate" %in% names(retval)){
+        if(any(retval$ActivityEndDate != "")){
+          suppressWarnings(retval$ActivityEndDate <- as.Date(parse_date_time(retval$ActivityEndDate, c("Ymd", "mdY"))))
+        }        
+      }
+
       if(any(!is.na(timeZoneStart))){
         if(length(unique(timeZoneStart)) == 1){
           retval$ActivityStartDateTime <- with(retval, as.POSIXct(paste(ActivityStartDate, ActivityStartTime.Time),format="%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S", tz=unique(timeZoneStart)))
@@ -101,11 +113,7 @@ readWQPData <- function(url){
           }
         }
       }
-      
-      if(any(retval$ActivityEndDate != "")){
-        retval$ActivityEndDate[retval$ActivityEndDate != ""] <- as.Date(retval$ActivityEndDate[retval$ActivityEndDate != ""])
-      }
-      
+          
       return(retval)
       
     } else {
diff --git a/R/getNWISSites.R b/R/getNWISSites.R
index a1cf2ab18cbbf3b79595b40ad200eb76a7fd8940..708a26db675d67c5e01280e3098d0c9a668aa807 100644
--- a/R/getNWISSites.R
+++ b/R/getNWISSites.R
@@ -24,5 +24,15 @@ getNWISSites <- function(...){
 
   retval <- getRDB1Data(urlCall)
 
+  if("dec_lat_va" %in% names(retval)){
+    retval$dec_lat_va <- as.numeric(retval$dec_lat_va)
+  }
+  
+  if("dec_long_va" %in% names(retval)){
+    retval$dec_long_va <- as.numeric(retval$dec_long_va)
+  }
+  
+  retval$queryTime <- Sys.time()
+  
   return(retval)
 }
diff --git a/R/getWQPSites.R b/R/getWQPSites.R
index 218811a7b87e8827ade69249534a802399f44c6a..3db5d6baf3bf9a8a626e26d7b287f1541a569802 100644
--- a/R/getWQPSites.R
+++ b/R/getWQPSites.R
@@ -59,6 +59,16 @@ getWQPSites <- function(...){
       
       if(actualNumReturned != numToBeReturned) warning(numToBeReturned, " sites were expected, ", actualNumReturned, " were returned")
       
+      if("LatitudeMeasure" %in% names(retval)){
+        retval$LatitudeMeasure <- as.numeric(retval$LatitudeMeasure)
+      }
+      
+      if("LongitudeMeasure" %in% names(retval)){
+        retval$LongitudeMeasure <- as.numeric(retval$LongitudeMeasure)
+      }
+      
+      retval$queryTime <- Sys.time()
+      
       return(retval)
       
     } else {
diff --git a/inst/doc/dataRetrieval.Rnw b/inst/doc/dataRetrieval.Rnw
index 0e5c361355590dd43d6b4c3a08d251f7acea0b23..5432158041474cfaeeb8debdda4edae8c4055160 100644
--- a/inst/doc/dataRetrieval.Rnw
+++ b/inst/doc/dataRetrieval.Rnw
@@ -181,7 +181,7 @@ addSpace <- function(x) ifelse(x != "1", "[5pt]","")
 %------------------------------------------------------------
 \section{Introduction to dataRetrieval}
 %------------------------------------------------------------ 
-The dataRetrieval package was created to simplify the process of loading hydrologic data into the R environment. It has been specifically designed to work seamlessly with the EGRET R package: Exploration and Graphics for RivEr Trends. See: \url{https://github.com/USGS-R/EGRET/wiki} for information on EGRET. EGRET is designed to provide analysis of water quality data sets using the Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge and Season (WRTDS) method as well as analysis of discharge trends using robust time-series smoothing techniques.  Both of these capabilities provide both tabular and graphical analyses of long-term data sets.
+The dataRetrieval package was created to simplify the process of loading hydrologic data into the R environment. It has been specifically designed to work seamlessly with the EGRET R package: Exploration and Graphics for RivEr Trends. See: \url{https://github.com/USGS-R/EGRET/wiki} or \url{http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/tm4A10} for information on EGRET. EGRET is designed to provide analysis of water quality data sets using the Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge and Season (WRTDS) method as well as analysis of discharge trends using robust time-series smoothing techniques.  Both of these capabilities provide both tabular and graphical analyses of long-term data sets.
 
 
 The dataRetrieval package is designed to retrieve many of the major data types of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) hydrologic data that are available on the Web. Users may also load data from other sources (text files, spreadsheets) using dataRetrieval.  Section \ref{sec:genRetrievals} provides examples of how one can obtain raw data from USGS sources on the Web and load them into dataframes within the R environment.  The functionality described in section \ref{sec:genRetrievals} is for general use and is not tailored for the specific uses of the EGRET package.  The functionality described in section \ref{sec:EGRETdfs} is tailored specifically to obtaining input from the Web and structuring it for use in the EGRET package.  The functionality described in section \ref{sec:userFiles} is for converting hydrologic data from user-supplied files and structuring it specifically for use in the EGRET package.
diff --git a/inst/doc/dataRetrieval.pdf b/inst/doc/dataRetrieval.pdf
index 79241a6cf35a9767c84309da885f9ac66a573649..ba94ac345fe83f8ae7795b7a9e8dfd23ffee34bf 100644
Binary files a/inst/doc/dataRetrieval.pdf and b/inst/doc/dataRetrieval.pdf differ
diff --git a/vignettes/dataRetrieval.Rnw b/vignettes/dataRetrieval.Rnw
index 0e5c361355590dd43d6b4c3a08d251f7acea0b23..5432158041474cfaeeb8debdda4edae8c4055160 100644
--- a/vignettes/dataRetrieval.Rnw
+++ b/vignettes/dataRetrieval.Rnw
@@ -181,7 +181,7 @@ addSpace <- function(x) ifelse(x != "1", "[5pt]","")
 %------------------------------------------------------------
 \section{Introduction to dataRetrieval}
 %------------------------------------------------------------ 
-The dataRetrieval package was created to simplify the process of loading hydrologic data into the R environment. It has been specifically designed to work seamlessly with the EGRET R package: Exploration and Graphics for RivEr Trends. See: \url{https://github.com/USGS-R/EGRET/wiki} for information on EGRET. EGRET is designed to provide analysis of water quality data sets using the Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge and Season (WRTDS) method as well as analysis of discharge trends using robust time-series smoothing techniques.  Both of these capabilities provide both tabular and graphical analyses of long-term data sets.
+The dataRetrieval package was created to simplify the process of loading hydrologic data into the R environment. It has been specifically designed to work seamlessly with the EGRET R package: Exploration and Graphics for RivEr Trends. See: \url{https://github.com/USGS-R/EGRET/wiki} or \url{http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/tm4A10} for information on EGRET. EGRET is designed to provide analysis of water quality data sets using the Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge and Season (WRTDS) method as well as analysis of discharge trends using robust time-series smoothing techniques.  Both of these capabilities provide both tabular and graphical analyses of long-term data sets.
 
 
 The dataRetrieval package is designed to retrieve many of the major data types of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) hydrologic data that are available on the Web. Users may also load data from other sources (text files, spreadsheets) using dataRetrieval.  Section \ref{sec:genRetrievals} provides examples of how one can obtain raw data from USGS sources on the Web and load them into dataframes within the R environment.  The functionality described in section \ref{sec:genRetrievals} is for general use and is not tailored for the specific uses of the EGRET package.  The functionality described in section \ref{sec:EGRETdfs} is tailored specifically to obtaining input from the Web and structuring it for use in the EGRET package.  The functionality described in section \ref{sec:userFiles} is for converting hydrologic data from user-supplied files and structuring it specifically for use in the EGRET package.
diff --git a/vignettes/figure/egretEx.pdf b/vignettes/figure/egretEx.pdf
index f42cd96770911ed2ecb7777508ad00d71e1afc8c..2b74285fd7de68e5a23b1cf2c98574b89877af36 100644
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diff --git a/vignettes/figure/getNWIStemperaturePlot.pdf b/vignettes/figure/getNWIStemperaturePlot.pdf
index 0928119a77a42de2606498470844f7bc9bea2db4..86c9793ba058f459ceafe2992c7f0ee5bdff6884 100644
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diff --git a/vignettes/figure/getQWtemperaturePlot.pdf b/vignettes/figure/getQWtemperaturePlot.pdf
index b72d9d183ad5dbdff0a9695cfde7b0bfbd9a4b52..02c128eb0cc6bab168544d805540ab85651ab893 100644
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