United States
                        Environmental Protection
                        Agency
                                            Office of Research and
                                            Development
                                            Washington, DC 20460
EPA620/R-02/001d
August, 2002
                      Coastal  Communications
            National  Coastal  Assessment:  Virginia
               ORD/VA-DEQ/CBP/Region  3/OW
                                                            Virginia
                                                      National Coastal Assessment
                                                              2002 Design
Background
The U.S. EPA's National Coastal Assessment
(NCA) Program, 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 initiated
a coastal monitoring program with the Virginia
Department of Environmental Quality (VA-DEQ)
in 2000. Now in its third year, this program
integrates elements of existing Virginia estuarine
and coastal monitoring and assessment efforts,
including data provided from the Chesapeake Bay
Program (CBP). The joint effort is determining
the condition of estuarine waters in Virginia and
allows comparison to other U.S. coastal areas.
This collaborative effort is being coordinated
by the ORD National Health and Environmental
Effects Research Laboratory's &u\f Ecology
Division in Sulf Breeze, Florida.

National Coastal Assessment Strategy
The National Coastal Assessment is a strategic
partnership among EPA, 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 above shows the estuarine waters of Virginia and
the locations of sampling sites for the 2002 survey, including CBP sites.
                                           PraruradBy:
                                           USEPA
                                           USQSMWRC
                                           GuWBrMtePralMt Office
                                           1S*UneW«lld Drive
                                           Outf Breeee. Florid* 325*1
Water Quality
Dissolved oxygen
Salinity, temperature, depth, pH
Suspended solids
Nutrients
Chlorophyll
Light transmittance/PAR
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 Don Smith of the VA-DEQ at (804) 698-4429 or
dhsmith@deq.state.va.us ; Richard Batiuk of the Chesapeake Bay Program at (410) 267-5731 or
batiuk.richard@epa.gov; or Jim Harvey of the EPA/ORD National Health and Environmental Effects
Research 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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