Reply to comment by T. Dreher to Giiler C, Thyne GD, McCray JE, Turner AK (2002): Evaluation of graphical and multivariate statistical methods for classification of water chemistry data

We thank the author for his comments that raise several important points (Dreher 2003). Our goal in this first paper was to offer a comparison of different graphical and statistical methodologies available for hydrogeologists in the context of a typical regional dataset and to point out the limitations of the purely graphical approach in defining hydrochemical facies. Dr. Dreher notes that consideration of the geology and chemistry of the study are minimal in our paper. We acknowledge the comment, but the article was constrained by the normal editorial procedures as to length and content. A more complete discussion of those aspects can be found in the dissertation of Giiler (2002), and a series of papers that are in review that explicitly consider the effects of both chemical and physical factors.