United States
                     Environmental Protection
                     Agency
                                               Office of Research and
                                               Development
                                               Washington DC 20460
EPA/620/R-01/001n
    February, 2002
>&EPA    Coastal  Communications
                                                                                  ft
                         National  Coastal Assessment:
                                      Delaware
                          ORD/Region 3/OW/DNREC
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                                                         Delaware
                                                       NCA Design (2001)
                                                       PA
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 the state of Delaware, EPA Region 3, and the
Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental
Control (DNREC). This joint effort will determine the
condition of estuarine and inland bay waters in Delaware, and
permit comparison to other U.S. coastal areas.  This effort is
being coordinated by the ORD National Health and
Environmental Effects Research Laboratory's Atlantic Ecology
Division in Narragansett, Rhode Island.

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 survey and the number of sampling sites intended for the estuarine and inland bay waters of
Delaware.  Selected sampling sites from the existing Delaware Bay Monitoring Program were incorporated
into this NCA survey.
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 Ben Anderson at the DNREC, (302) 735-4590, or
bcnandcrson@dnrcc.stQtc.de.us; or Jim Butch at the U.S. EPA, Region 3, (215) 814-2762, or
butch.jim@cpa.gov; or Jerry Pesch at ORD's National Health and Environmental Effects Research
Laboratory's Atlantic Ecology Division, (401) 782-3007 or pesch.gerald@epa.gov. To learn more about the
NCA program, including the Delaware Bay NCA monitoring program, visit the ORD web site at
http: //www. epa. gov/gcd/crc .htm.

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