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THE MID-ATLANTIC INTEGRATED ASSESSMENT (MAIA)
Citation:
Bradley, M P. AND R. B. Landy. THE MID-ATLANTIC INTEGRATED ASSESSMENT (MAIA). ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT 63:1-13, (2000).
Description:
Since its inception, EPA has focused its research and monitoring towards its regulatory requirements?to protect air and water quality, to control the use of pesticides and toxic substances, to ensure the safe production, handling, and disposal of industrial chemicals, and to clean up abandoned hazardous waste sites. Monitoring programs were instituted by federal, state, and local governments to ensure that regulations were being properly enforced. These monitoring programs responded to programmatic requirements and were not integrated in any formal manner. While these programs could demonstrate that individual problems were being effectively dealt with, they could not provide a comprehensive picture of the condition of our nation's natural resources.
Based on critical reviews of the EMAP effort by the National Science and Technology Council's Committee on the Environmental and Natural Resources (CENR) and others, the decision was made to focus the effort to a regional scale and develop a model which could be transferred to other areas of the country. The mid-Atlantic was selected because of the data richness and strong interest of the EPA Regional Office and mid-Atlantic states. EPA Region 3 formed a joint venture with the EPA Office of Research and Development?known as the Mid-Atlantic Integrated Assessment (MAIA)?a research, monitoring and assessment initiative to develop high-quality scientific information on the condition and stressors of natural resources within the mid-Atlantic region of the United States.