United States Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development Washington DC 20460 EPA/620/R-00/005t February, 2001 Coastal Communications NATIONAL COASTAL ASSESSMENT COASTAL 2000 - NEW JERSEY ORD/RE6ION 2/OW/NJ DEP New Jersey Coastal 2000 Design Background The U.S. EPA's National Coastal Assessment (also known as Coastal 2000) consists of a multi-year partnership among EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD), EPA's Office of Water (OW), EPA's Regional Offices, all the coastal states, and selected territories. As part of this effort, EPA has developed a coastal monitoring program with EPA Region II and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJ DEP). This joint effort will determine the condition of Atlantic Coast estuarine waters in New Jersey, and it will compare this condition with other U.S. coastal areas. 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 is a strategic partnership between EPA and the coastal states and other federal agencies. Each state uses a compatible probabilistic design and a common set of environmental indicators (see Table below) to survey its coastal resources and assess their condition. These estimates can then 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 shows the coastal areas included in the survey and the number of sampling sites intended for estuarine waters of New Jersey along the Atlantic coast. Elements of the existing NJ DEP Ambient Water Quality Monitoring Program have been integrated with the Coastal 2000 activities. DE _, Water Quality Dissolved oxygen Salinity, temperature, depth pH Nutrients Chlorophyll Sediment Quality Grain size Total organic carbon Sediment chemistry Bent hie community structure Sediment toxicity Biota Benthic community structure Fish community structure Fish external pathology Fish tissue chemical analyses Further Information For further information, please contact Leslie McSeorge at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection at (609) 292-1623 or Leslie. Mc6eorgeİdep.state. nj. us: or Darvene Adams at Environmental Sciences Division in Region II at (732) 321-6700 or adams.darveneİepa.gov: or Mike Weinstein at New Jersey Marine Science Consortium at (732) 872-1300 X21 or mikewİnjmsc.org: or Ed Santoro at the Delaware River Basin Commission at (609) 883-9500 X 268 or esantoroİdrbcl.drbc.state.nj.us: or Jerry Pesch at the National Health and Environmental Effects Laboratory's Atlantic Ecology Division at (401) 782-3007 or pesch.geraldİepa.gov. ------- |