&EPA
United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Office of Research
and Development
Washington, DC 20460
EPAA620/R-01/004a
September 2001
EMAP-West Communications
Monitoring the Condition of Surface Waters in the Western U.S.
The Challenge and Opportunity
The Clean Water Act (Section 305b) requires the Environmental
Protection Agency to report biennially on the status of water
quality throughout the U.S. This report, prepared in partnership
with the States and Tribal Nations, is intended to provide a
snapshot of the condition of all the Nation's waters and trends in
those conditions over time. EPA aggregates the data provided
into a report to Congress. In addition to describing condition of
the waters, the report includes a discussion of the relative impor-
tance of the various stresses or causes of degraded water quality.
In the past, the interpretation of this report has been challenging
because each state and tribe uses different sampling methods.
&EPA National Water Quality
Inventory
1996 Report to Congress
Solutions Found
In a unique collaborative effort between EPA's Office of
Research and Development (ORD), the Office of Water (OW)
and the ten EPA regional offices, the Environmental Monitoring
and Assessment Program (EMAP) has focused on providing
creative and scientifically defensible solutions to this challenge.
This program is developing effective indicators of ecological
condition and environmental stressors that are practical enough
to be used routinely by the States and Tribal Nations. ORD also
mounted a critical research focus on survey design - the science
behind how one can make statements about the entire aquatic
resource by sampling a select subset of sites. While these
concepts have been successfully developed and tested in the
Mid-Atlantic states, their testing and calibration for use in the
West must be done.
Moving West
EMAP-West, begun in 1999, encompasses EPA regions 8, 9, and
10 (see figure). The West represents a particularly diverse array
of settings for streams and rivers from the Northwest with its
abundant rainfall to the deserts of the Southwest and the great
plains of the upper Missouri River Basin. A key to the success of
the program will be the adaptation and application of indicators,
both biological indicators
of condition and chemi-
cal, physical, and
watershed indicators
of stress. Special
emphasis is being
placed on biological
Level III Ecoregions
for States in
EMAP-West
Surface Waters
measurements and
the process by which
the "reference" or
"expected" biological
conditions are estab-
lished. The sample survey
design applications also are a new
challenge. The natural density of streams/rivers across the West
obviously varies greatly as does the quality of the maps that depict
the extent of these systems.
Good Progress
Over 100 people representing all the states and several tribes
have completed the 4 to 5 day training sessions prior to the first
two field seasons. These specially trained field crews have
successfully sampled over 500 sites and the data are analyzed
and quality assured. The data will be made publicly available on
the EMAP web site and will be archived in STORET, EPAs
water quality database. Final reports for each state will be
completed in 2005.
The success envisioned in EMAP-West will insure that the U.S.
EPA in partnership with the States and Tribal Nations is abb to
produce reliable descriptions of our Nation's aquatic resources,
track trends over time, and determine spatial patterns and use this
monitoring data as a foundation for sound management decisions.
For further information, contact:
John Stoddard
Surface Water Lead
Stoddard.John@epa.gov
(541 )754-4441
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