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Western Airborne Contaminants Assessment Project Database
Citation:
ERWAY, M., J Schrlau, S. Usenko, L. Ackerman, K. Hageman, A. Schwindt, L. Geiser, H. Taylor, W. Hafner, D. Campbell, N. Rose, S. Simonich, D. Jaffe, C. Schreck, M. Kent, T. Blett, AND D. H. LANDERS. Western Airborne Contaminants Assessment Project Database. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/C-10/001 (NTIS PB2012-110758), 2010.
Impact/Purpose:
The purpose of the Western Airborne Contaminants Assessment Project (WACAP) was to evaluate ecological impacts of airborne contaminants in national parks using a network of sites to provide spatially extensive, site specific, and temporally-resolved information on the exposure, accumulation, and impacts of airborne toxic compounds.
Description:
WACAP has received considerable recognition from the media with over 200 local, national and international media outlets. At present count, 10 peer-reviewed papers have been published. In response to the WACAP results, the NPS convened multi-agency workshops with WACAP PIs and local and regional policy makers to discuss implications of the WACAP findings and the actions that should follow. Efforts were made by several parks to issue communications targeted at users and employees of the National Parks and how these findings might affect their experiences and working environment, respectively. Warnings have been issued in several parks in regards to human fish consumption. Source attribution regarding atmospheric contaminants was a motivating factor for initiating WACAP. The key issue was the relative importance of possible trans-pacific sources vs. other local and regional sources. WACAP determined that deposition of CUPs and HUPs is most strongly influenced by proximity to agricultural and industrial areas rather than trans- Pacific sources. Alaska, having few regional sources and minimal agriculture is mostly affected by transport from other source regions from outside the area. One of the biggest concerns regarding the WACAP findings was how representative of other similar systems near WACAP sampling site were these results? There is no way of knowing this to certainty without additional data, but experience and other specific studies of less geographic scope suggest that the WACAP results are not anomalous. Several subsequent studies were implemented in specific response to the WACAP findings, particularly those associated with intersex fish and the endocrine disruption – contaminant linkage. These efforts are primarily intended to increase the sample size for the number of intersex fish and their contaminant burdens to render more definitive statistical analyses. WACAP results regarding the impacts of current use pesticides were provided by the NPS to the Stockholm Convention Treaty in the form of a briefing statement for EPA, NPS Office of International Affairs and the U.S. State Department. WACAP results also were submitted to a Federal Register Notice requesting comment on a then proposed, now approved, endosulfan ban.