United States
                  Environmental Protection
                  Agency
                                           Office of Research and
                                           Development
                                           Washington, DC 20460
           EPA/620/R-00/005n
           September, 2000
&EPA   Coastal    Communications
                          NATIONAL COASTAL REPORT CARD
                   COASTAL 2000 - GULF OF  MAINE ASSESSMENT
                                  ORD/RE<&ION 1/OW
                                                                          i
                                                                          \T2.OOO
                                                          Gulf of Maine
                                                          Coastal 2000 Design
                                                        ME
Background
As part of the U.S. EPA's National Coastal Report Card's
(also known as Coastal 2000) multi-year partnership
among EPA's Office of Research and Development,
EPA's Office of Water, EPA's Regional Offices, and the
coastal States and selected Territories, EPA has
developed a coastal monitoring program with EPA Region
1 and the States surrounding the &u\f of Maine.  This
joint effort will permit, for the first time, a comparison
of conditions of coastal resources in the Sulf of Maine
with other U.S. coastal regions and provide a nation wide
assessment of coastal resources. This effort is being
coordinated by the National Health  and Environmental
Effects Research Laboratory's Atlantic Ecology Division
in Narragansett, Rhode Island.

Coastal  2000 Strategy
Coastal 2000 focuses on a strategic partnership with
all coastal states in the country.  Using a compatible,
probabilistic design and a common set of environmental indicators (see Table below), each state
is conducting the survey and assessing the condition of their coastal resources independently,
yet, these estimates can be aggregated to assess conditions at the EPA Regional, biogeographical,
and National levels. All data will be made available  for public access on the internet.  The map
illustrated here shows the sampling  sites for the Sulf of Maine coast.
        Water Quality
                                   Sediment Quality
           Biota
 dissolved oxygen
 Salinity, temperature, depth
 pH
 Nutrients
 Chlorophyll
                             Grain size
                             Total organic carbon
                             Sediment chemistry
                             Benthic community structure
                             Sediment toxicity
Benthic community structure
Fish community structure
Fish external pathology
Fish tissue analyses
Further Information
For further information, please contact Ray Thompson at EPA's New England Regional Laboratory
at (781)860-4372 or thompson.ray@epa.gov or Jerry Pesch at the National Health and
Environmental Effects Laboratory's Atlantic Ecology Division at (401)782-3007 or
pesch.gerald@epa.gov.

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