United States
                     Environmental Protection
                     Agency
                        Office of Research and
                        Development
                        Washington DC 20460
EPA/620/R-00/005f
  December, 1999
                     Coastal  Communications
©TO
BACKGROUND
GEORGIA COASTAL ASSESSMENT
The US EPA's National Coastal Assessment (Coastal 2000) is a partnership between EPA's Office of Research and
Development and 24 coastal states and Puerto Rico to assess the condition of the coastal estuaries in each state and to
aggregate this information into a national "snapshot".  An example of one of these state partnerships is with the Georgia
Department of Natural Resources - Coastal Resources Division.  We are entering into a five-year joint effort to evaluate
the condition of Georgia's coastal resources. The sampling for this effort fits seamlessly into the larger national effort
to assess the condition of the Nation's coastal resources.

The Georgia Coastal 2000 uses a probabilistic design and a common set of survey indicators. Georgia Coastal Resources
Division will conduct the sampling and assess the condition of their  coastal resources using the indicators listed below.
The maps illustrated below show the statistically-arrayed sites that are included in the year 2000 surveys and for the
entire program.
COASTAL INDICATORS
                           Georgia
                            2000 Sampling Design
                                             Georgia
                                                2000 - 2004
                                               Sampling Design

Water Quality
Dissolved oxygen
Salinity, temperature, depth
pH
Nutrients
Chlorophyll
Sediment Quality
Grain size
Total organic carbon
Sediment chemistry
Sediment toxicity
Biota - Fish and Benthos
Community structure
External pathology
Tissue analyses
FURTHER INFORMATION
For further information, please contact Kevin Summers at NHEERL's Gulf Ecology Division at (850) 934-9244 or at
SUmmerS.kevin@epa.gOV or Stuart Stevens at the Georgia Coastal Resources Division at 912-264-7218 or Stuart-
stevens@coastal.dnr.state.ga.us.

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