United States Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development Washington DC 20460 EPA/620/R-01/001b May, 2001 &EFW Coastal Communications COASTAL 2000 - GULF OF MEXICO Veracruz Pilot Program Background The U.S. EPA's Coastal 2000 Program is a multi-year partnership among EPA's Office of Research and Development, EPA's Gulf of Mexico Program, and natural resource agencies of the five U.S. Gulf States (FL, AL, MS, LA, TX). This joint federal-state effort is evaluating the condition of coastal resources along the Northen Gulf of Mexico. In an effort to fully characterize the condition of the coastal resources of the entire Gulf of Mexico, EPA proposes to collaborate with Mexican federal, state, university, and private organizations to extend the Coastal 2000 program to include the six Mexico states that border the Southern Gulf of Mexico. U.S./Mexico Gulf Strategy This Gulf of Mexico-wide monitoring effort can only be accomplished through development of a strategic partnership between U.S. federal (EPA, NOAA, DOI) and Mexico state and federal officials. Through such a partnership, we propose to conduct a pilot Coastal 2000 monitoring project in Veracruz, Mexico to evaluate and, if necessary, modify Coastal 2000 logistics and sampling protocols for efficacy in assessing the condition of Mexico's coastal resources. With experience and data from the pilot, a "Framework for and Integrated and Comprehensive Monitoring Plan for the Coastal Resources of Mexico" will be developed. It will incorporate a compatible, probabilistic sampling design and a common set of condition and exposure indicators to assess the condition of coastal resources for each Mexican state. Because of the common sampling design and indicators, the state data can be aggregated to also assess the condition of the Southern Gulf of Mexico and, combined with monitoring data from the Northern Gulf of Mexico, can assess the condition of the coastal resources of the entire Gulf of Mexico. The map illustrated at right shows the intended number and location of sampling sites for a pilot survey in Veracruz. Similar designs would be developed for each of the remaining states. The number of sites in each state would remain constant in future years, but the sampling locations will change. Please note that the pilot for 2001 will only include Veracruz. Coastal 2000 Design - Mexico Veracruz Coastal Indicators Water Quality Dissolved oxygen Salinity, temperature, depth pH Nutrients Chlorophyll Sediment Quality Grain size Total organic carbon Sediment chemistry Benthic community structure Sediment toxicity Community structure External pathology Tissue analyses Further Information For further information, please contact Kevin Summers at the National health and Environmental Effects Laboratory's Gulf Ecology Division at (850) 934-9244 or at surnrners.kevin@epa.gov. General information on the U.S. EPA EMAP and Coastal 2000 is available at http://www.epa.gov/ernap. ------- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Coastal 2000 Design - Mexico Veracruz .v • MUNICIPIO DE TAMIAHUA| / tado De eracruz Bahia De Campeche MUNICIPIO DE VERACRUZ*"" MUNICIPIO DE COATZACOArCOE Sample Site Symbology O < 1 SQ. Kilometers < 10> 1 SQ, Kilometers < 100 > 10SQ.Kilometers > 100 SQ.Kilometers Estuary Classes SQ.Kilometers ] <10>1 SQ. Kilometers < 100 > 10 SQ Kilometers > 100SQ Kilometers Marine Land -200to -1000 -1000(0-2000 -2000 to -3000 -SOOOto-4000 Produced By National Wetlands Research Center Quit Breeze Project Office This map was produced tjy the N WRC/QBPO. This is a 'Working map" and has not been subjected to formal review procedures NWRC does not accept responsibility for erroneous data displayed on this map. ------- |