United States
                      Environmental Protection
                      Agency
                                                 Office of Research and
                                                 Development
                                                 Washington DC 20460
EPA/620/R-02/001C
       May, 2002
                      Coastal  Communications
                   Halves ton Bay, Texas National Estuary Program
                           ORD/OW/Region 6/GBNEP/TPWD
                                                          Galveston Bay, Texas
                                                             National Estuary Program
                                                             2001 Intensive Sampling Design
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. The effort described here is conducted in
special partnership with the Salveston Bay National
Estuary Program (SBNEP). This joint effort will evaluate
the changing condition of tributaries to and coastal areas
of the SBNEP. Information will also be shared with Texas
Parks and Wildlife Division (TPWD) and EPA Region 6, and
contribute to state and regional assessments. 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 or NEP 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 2001
survey and the number of sampling sites in estuarine waters of the (Salveston Bay NEP.
                                                       Legend
                                                      I Site Locations
                                                      Estuaries
                                                        |  Water
                                                                 1:8QO,QOO
Water Quality
Dissolved oxygen
Salinity, temperature, depth
pH
Nutrients
Chlorophyll
Sediment Quality
Srain 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 Jim Simons at the TPWD at (512) 912-7034 or
james.simons@tpwd.state.tx.us; or Steven Johnston at the Salveston Bay NEP at (281) 316-3005 or
sjohnsto@tnrcc.state.tx.us; or Bill Walker at the ORD National Health and Environmental Effects
Laboratory's Sulf Ecology Division at (850) 934-9247 or walker.bill@epa.gov. Visit the coastal
communications web site at http://www.epa.gov/ged/crc.htm.

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