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.
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