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EPA'S NATIONAL COASTAL ASSESSMENT PROGRAM
Citation:
Strobel, C J., B S. Brown, D J. Cobb, W B. Galloway, J Paul, AND G Pesch. EPA'S NATIONAL COASTAL ASSESSMENT PROGRAM. Presented at North Atlantic Chapter of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Portland, ME, April 25-26, 2002.
Description:
The National Coastal Assessment (NCA) is an environmental monitoring program initiated by the US Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Research and Development in 2000. The goal is to monitor selected ecological indicators in the nation's estuarine waters and to produce an assessment of the health of these waters. Unlike earlier programs, NCA partnered with coastal states to conduct sampling and process data. EPA's Atlantic Ecology Division, Narragansett, RI, is responsible for coordinating the effort from Delaware to Maine. Working closely with the states, the national probabilistic design was customized for each state's specific needs, while still meeting the program's goals. Existing state monitoring programs were incorporated into the NCA if they met the constraints of a probabilistic sampling design. Through individualized on-site training and coordination of sampling activities, all states successfully sampled 100 percent of their estuarine waters in 2000 and 2001. Environmental data collected throughout the northeast using a common set of ecological indicators, consistent methods, and an overall QA Plan now reside in one database. Data collected by individual states are comparable and can be collectively used in the national assessment, in a northeast assessment, and to assess the condition of the estuarine waters for each state. Planning is currently underway for 2002 sampling. This year will focus not only on the continuation of baseline monitoring, but also on the evaluation of data collected over the past two years, and the development of additional ecological indicators.