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                                        Fact Sheet

               EPA Collaborates with State and Federal Partners to Study
                               the State of the Great Rivers

      The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Research and Development is embarking
on an ambitious research program to demonstrate methods for assessing and monitoring the ecological
condition of the Great Rivers in the central United States.  Beginning in July 2004, field crews from
cooperating state and federal agencies will sample biological organisms, water, and sediment in the
Upper Mississippi River system, Ohio River, Missouri River from Montana to Missouri, and Mississippi
River from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Cairo, Illinois. This work is part of EPA's Environmental Monitoring
and Assessment Program, a national program working in  partnership with states, other federal
agencies, tribes, and local groups to develop the science to inventory natural resources and report their
condition. Better methods will yield better information for making more informed management decisions
for the rivers.

      Because the size and complexity of these rivers make it impossible to measure everything
everywhere, a statistical process similar to taking a public opinion survey will be used. Measurements
at randomly selected sites will provide representative information about large sections of river or an
entire river within a state. The project is designed to report conditions at large scales. Crews will have
appropriate state and federal collection permits and will be working with state resource managers.

      This project will show how to produce a Great Rivers "report card." The first report card will
show how the rivers are doing today. Future report cards will show whether conditions are getting better
or worse. "Grades" or indicators of river condition will be developed from the diversity of biological
communities, contaminants in fish tissue and sediments, water quality, and shoreline features. While
condition reports will be useful to managers, demonstrating how to compile the reports in the future is
an important project goal. Samples will be collected in the summers of 2004 and 2005. Some samples
will be taken within the main-channel, while other samples will be taken along half-mile-long sections  of
shore. EPA expects to produce a report on the condition of these Great River ecosystems in 2006. In
the end, better monitoring methods will make more information available to better manage the rivers.

      A partnership of state and federal  agencies has been assembled to conduct this research.
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Biological Resources Division in La Crosse,
Wisconsin, and Water Resources Division Districts in Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and
Montana will help EPA coordinate the project and collect the samples. Other important partners are:
Ohio River Valley Sanitation Commission, Departments of Natural Resources in Wisconsin, Minnesota
and Iowa, Illinois Natural History Survey, Missouri Department Of Conservation, the Nebraska Game
and Fish Commission, North Dakota Department of Health, South Dakota Department of Environment
and Natural Resources, Universities of Iowa, Louisville, and Southwestern Missouri State, Stroud Water
Center, and private contractors.

Contact:  Dr. David Bolgrien, EPA National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory,
Mid-Continent Ecology, Duluth, Minnesota, 218-529-5216orbolgrien.dave@epa.gov

April 15, 2004
                  Buikfing a scientific foundation for sound environmental decisions

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