United States
                     Environmental Protection
                     Agency
                                                Office of Research and
                                                Development
                                                Washington DC 20460
EPA/620/R-01/001I
  November, 2001
>&EPA   Coastal  Communications
                            National Coastal Assessment:
                                    South Carolina
                    ORD/SCDNR/SCDHEC/Region 4/OW/NOS
                                                                                  2000J
                                                              South Carolina
                                                              NCA 2000/2001 Design
                                                             South Carolina
Background
The U.S. EPA's National Coastal Assessment (NCA) is a multi-
year partnership among EPA's Office of Research and
Development (ORD), EPA's Office of Water (OW), EPA's
Regional Offices, all coastal states, and selected territories.
As part of this effort, ORD has developed a coastal monitoring
program with EPA Region 4 and the South Carolina Department
of Natural Resources (SCDNR). This program integrates
elements of the South Carolina Estuarine and Coastal
Assessment Program (SCECAP), which is jointly administered
by the SCDNR and the South Carolina Department of Health
and Environmental Control (SCDHEC). The National Ocean
Service (NOS) Charleston Laboratory is also a participant in
the joint NCA and SCECAP monitoring program initiatives. This
joint effort will determine the condition of estuarine waters in
South Carolina and permit comparison to other U.S. coastal
areas.  The effort is being coordinated by the ORD National
Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory's (Sulf
Ecology Division in Sulf Breeze, Florida.

National Coastal Assessment Strategy
The National Coastal Assessment 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 2000-2001 survey and  the number of sampling sites in estuarine waters
of South Carolina.
                                                                     .0  Q   10  10  30 ]
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
Benthic community structure
Fish community structure
Fish external pathology
Fish tissue chemical analyses

Further Information
For further information, please contact Bob Van Dolah at the SCDNR at (843) 762-5048, or
vandolahr@mrd.dnr.state.sc.us; or Jim Harvey at the ORD National Health and Environmental Effects
Laboratory's Sulf Ecology Division at (850) 934-9237, or harvey.jim@epa.gov.  Visit the coastal communications
web site at http://www.epa.gov/ged/crc.htm.

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