US EPA Mid-Continent Ecology Division
Research Project Summary
Environmental Monitoring and Assessment of Great River Ecosystems
Overview
EPA Collaborates with States to Assess the Mississippi River System
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Research and Development is
conducting an ambitious research program to improve the science and practice of assessing
ecological conditions in the Mississippi River system. The program will yield an
unprecedented baseline of ecological conditions to which future conditions may be
compared. Such information is required to understand the consequences of management
decisions and is the basis for restoration accountability. In addition, the program is assisting
states in their Clean Water Act responsibilities by demonstrating cost-effective approaches
for assessing large inter-state rivers. Since 2004, state and federal crews have been
sampling biological assemblages, nutrients, contaminants, and aquatic habitats of the Upper
Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri Rivers - from Montana to Pennsylvania and from Minnesota
to Missouri. In 2007, sampling will begin in the Lower Mississippi River. This work is part of
EPA's Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP), a national program
working in partnership with states to research and demonstrate scientifically-robust
characterizations of aquatic resources.
Because the size and complexity of the Mississippi River system make it impossible to
measure everything everywhere, a statistical process similar to taking a public opinion
survey, is used. Measurements made at relatively few randomly selected sites are
representative of conditions throughout the river. Figure 1 shows how sites are distributed
throughout the Upper Mississippi River system. In most cases, a minimum of 30 sites are
collected in each state.
Numerous partners are participating in the research on the Upper Mississippi River system.
Scientists from several EPA Labs and Region Offices and the USGS Biological Resources
Division and Water Sciences Centers are helping to collect and analyze samples. State
partners include the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission; Departments of
Natural Resources in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa; the Missouri Department of
Conservation; the Nebraska Game and Fish Commission; North Dakota Department of
Health; the Universities of Iowa and Louisville; and Missouri State University. In 2007,
similar partnerships are being created with Lower Mississippi River states.
Key Products
Program products include indicators of condition, including reference (or least disturbed)
conditions. Reference data are required to quantify changes in river conditions over time or
divergence from management or restoration goals. While current condition reports are
important, developing methods that efficiently yield representative and relevant data is the
ultimate program objective. Reports and reference condition characterization will be
completed at various state and river scales.

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The program's website (www.epa.gov/emap/greatriver) contains copies of our regular
newsletter, the Field Operations Manual (2006; EPA/620/R-06/002), presentations from a
conference on river reference conditions, and other program information.
Figure 1
Key Products
Angradi, TR, editor. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Great River Ecosystems
Program (EMAP-GRE) Field Operations Manual. 2006. EPA/620/R-06/002.
http://www.epa.gov/emap/greatriver/fom.html
Publish initial assessment of a section of Upper Missouri.
Provide technical assistance to state partners.
Publish assessment of the Mississippi River system,
www.epa.aov/emap/areatriver
For further information on this research contact:
David Bolgrien
bolarien.dave@epa.Qov
218-529-5216

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