United States
                     Environmental Protection
                     Agency
                    Office of Research and
                    Development
                    Washington DC 20460
EPA/620/R-00/005e
  December, 1999
 &ERIV    Coastal  Communications
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NATIONAL COASTAL REPORT CARD
COASTAL 2000 - GULF OF MEXICO
Background
The US EPA's National Coastal Report Card (also known as Coastal 2000) is a multi-year partnership among
EPA's Office of Research and Development, EPA's Office of Water's Sulf of Mexico Program and the natural
resource agencies of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. This joint effort will evaluate the
condition of coastal resources along the Sulf of Mexico. This effort is being organized by the National
Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory's Sulf Ecology Division in Sulf Breeze, Florida.

Coastal 2000 Strategy
The strategy for Coastal 2000 focuses on a strategic partnership with all five coastal states bordering the
Sulf of Mexico. Using a compatible, probabilistic design and a common set of survey indicators, each state
will conduct the survey and assess the condition of their coastal resources independently, yet, these
estimates can be aggregated to assess conditions at the EPA Regional, biogeographical, and National levels.
The maps illustrated below show the states included in the survey and the intended number of sampling sites
in each state for 2000-01.
                                                                 Sampling locations
                                                                 in the five Gulf of
                                                                 Mexico coastal
                                                                 states participating
                                                                 in Coastal 2000.
Coastal Indicators
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
Community structure
External pathology
Tissue analyses
Further Information
For further information, please contact Kevin Summers at the National Health and Environmental Effects
Laboratory's Sulf Ecology Division at (850) 934-9244 or at SUmmerS.kevin@epa.gov. Seneral information
on the US EPA EMAP and Coastal 2000 is available at http://WWW.epa.gov/emap.

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