United States Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development Washington DC 20460 EPA/620/R-01/001a February, 2001 &EFW Coastal Communications National Coastal Report Card Coastal 2000 - Maryland Coastal Waters ORD/MDNR/Region 3/CBP/OW 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 Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) and The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP). This joint effort will evaluate the changing condition of Maryland coastal waters with a special focus on Maryland's Inland Coastal Bays as part of a state-wide assessment for Maryland. 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 conducts the survey and assesses the condition of their coastal resources independently, yet, these estimates can be aggregated to assess conditions at the state, selected National Estuary Programs (NEPs), 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 Maryland Coastal waters for 2000-2001. Since the study design is probabilistic, the condition of all Maryland coastal waters can be described using the indicators below. For example, the confidence level of the condition estimate for the entire Maryland Inland Bays NEP, based upon the 50 stations sampled, is about 90%. Information will be available at the EMAP/Coastal 2000 website for the results of the 2000 survey in the late summer of 2001. Data from the 1990-1999 and 2000-2001 C2000 (EMAP, MAIA, CBP, NOAA) surveys will allow a comparison of the conditions of these waters over two decades. Virginia 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 Cathy Wazniak at Maryland's Department of Natural Resources at (410) 260-8638 or cwazniak@dnr.State.md.us; Richard Batiuk at the Chesapeake Bay Program at (410) 267- 5731 or batiuk.richard@epa.gov; or 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 an previous Coastal Communications is available at http://www.epa.gov/emap. ------- |