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EPA'S COASTAL 2000 MONITORING PROGRAM IN THE NORTHEAST U.S.: CONSISTENCY IN METHODS AND QUALITY ASSURANCE
Citation:
Strobel, C J., J Livolsi, D J. Cobb, J F. Paul, G Pesch, AND W B. Galloway. EPA'S COASTAL 2000 MONITORING PROGRAM IN THE NORTHEAST U.S.: CONSISTENCY IN METHODS AND QUALITY ASSURANCE. Presented at US EPA 20th National Annual Conference on Managing Environmental Systems, St. Louis, MO, April 2-6, 2001.
Description:
As part of EPA's national Coastal 2000 effort to estimate the ecological condition of our Nation's estuarine resources, sampling of the estuaries of the northeast United States (Delaware to Maine) began in the summer of 2000. Samples and data were collected to determine water quality, sediment quality, benthic community condition, and fish health. Unlike earlier EPA monitoring programs, Coastal 2000 enlisted the assistance of coastal states for data collection. In addition, the program attempted to include many of the currently existing estuarine monitoring programs. To ensure comparability of results, all states monitored a core suite of indicators using standardized collection methods under an EPA-approved Quality Assurance Plan. Components of the QA program included, meetings to formalize QA and sampling protocols, training of all field crews by EPA personnel, the voluntary use of EPA-provided field data sheets and data entry system, the voluntary use of bar codes for sample tracking, and routine field and laboratory QA audits conducted by EPA personnel. As a result of this significant QA effort, the program succeeded in both collecting high-quality, consistent data and transmitting this information to the Coastal 2000 central information management system. Further, steps taken to standardize collection methods used by individual states serve to increase the comparability of data among the states in the estuarine Northeast United States thereby improving the quality of their 305b (Clean Water Act) submissions.