United States
                    Environmental Protection
                    Agency
                                                  Office of Research and
                                                  Development
                                                  Washington DC 20460
EPA/620/R-00/005q
   December, 2000
OS9J9
                    Coastal  Communications
                            NATIONAL COASTAL REPORT CARD
                 COASTAL 2000  -  ALBEMARLE-PAMUCO ASSESSMENT
                                OR&/REGION 4/OW/APNEP
                                                          Albemarle - Pamlico
                                                             Coastal 2000 Design   __—
Background
The U.S. EPA's Coastal 2000 is a multi-year partnership among EPA's
Office of Research and Development, EPA Regional Offices, EPA's
Office of Water, coastal states and selected territories to assess
the condition of coastal resources. The effort described here is
conducted in special partnership with the Albemarle-Pamlico National
Estuary Program (APNEP). This joint effort will evaluate the changing
condition of Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds, the Neuse and Pamlico
Rivers, and their tributaries as part of a region wide assessment for
EPA Region 4.  EMAP has collected earlier baseline data in 1994-
1996.

Coastal 2000 Strategy
The strategy for Coastal 2000 focuses on a partnership with all
coastal states within the United States.  Using a compatible,
probabilistic design and a common set of survey indicators, each state
or NEP will conduct the survey and assess the condition of their
coastal resources independently, yet, these estimates can be
aggregated to assess conditions at the EPA Regional, biogeographical,
and National levels. The map illustrated here shows the coastal resources included in the survey and the
intended number of sampling sites in the Albemarle-Pamlico system for 2000. Since  the study design is
probabilistic, the condition of the entire NEP study area can be described using the indicators below. For
example, the confidence of that condition information for the entire NEP based upon the 31 stations
sampled provides a confidence level of about 90%. The addition of only 10 more stations would increase the
confidence in the data to nearly 95%.  Information will be available at the EMAP/Coastal 2000 website for
the results of the 2000 survey in the late summer of 2001.  Data of the 1994-1996 and  2000-2001 surveys
will allow the examination of recovery of this system from recent extreme climate events, e.g., hurricanes.
Water Quality
Dissolved oxygen
Salinity, temperature, depth
pH
Nutrients
Chlorophyll
Sediment Quality
Grain size
Total organic carbon
Sediment chemistry
Benthic community structure
Sediment toxicity
Biota
Community structure
External pathology
Tissue analyses
Further Information
For further information, please contact Kevin Summers at the National Health and Environmental Effects
Laboratory's (Sulf Ecology Division at (850) 934-9244 or SUmmerS.kevin@epa.gov.  General information
on the U.S. EPA EMAP is available at http://WWW.epa.gov/emap.

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