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Ecology-PSAMP Partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – Western Coastal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) 1999-2004

Environmental Management Application

The Clean Water Act requires states to report the condition of their aquatic resources. EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) developed the coastal component of the Western Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program to support states in their efforts to meet this reporting requirement.

The Western Coastal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) uses monitoring and assessment tools to create an integrated and comprehensive coastal monitoring program along the west coast. Water column measurements are combined with information about sediment characteristics and chemistry, benthic organisms, and data from fish trawls to describe the current estuarine condition. (EMAP West Research Strategy)

Background

From 1999-2004, Ecology’s Environmental Assessment and Monitoring Program partnered with EPA and other resource agencies representing California, Oregon, Alaska, and Hawaii to conduct the Western Coastal EMAP.

Sampling in Washington State included:

• 1999 – Gray’s Harbor, Willapa Bay, coastal estuaries
• 2000 – Puget Sound subtidal
• 2002 – Puget Sound and coastal estuary intertidal zones
• 2003 – Washington coast - offshore
• 2004 – resampling Puget Sound subtidal

Goals and Objectives

The objectives of the Western Coastal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (WEMAP) included:

• Creating an integrated comprehensive coastal monitoring program across the West Coast states to assess the current ecological condition of estuaries in Washington, Oregon, Alaska, California, and Hawaii

• Working with the states and others to build a strong program of ecological monitoring which will lead to better management and protection of western estuaries.

• Estimating current status of selected indicators of the West’s estuarine resources on a state and regional basis with known confidence.

• Estimating the geographic extent and distribution of the West’s estuarine resources with known confidence.

• Seeking associations between selected indicators of natural and anthropogenic stresses and indicators of the ecological condition of target resources.

• Providing a statistical summary and an assessment of the condition of the West’s estuarine resources.

Sampling Design

The sampling design is described in the QAPP, below.

Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP)

U.S. EPA. 2001. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP):  National Coastal Assessment Quality Assurance Project Plan 2001-2004. United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Gulf Ecology Division, Gulf Breeze, FL. EPA/620/R-01/002.

Publications

EMAP Data

 

Related Web Links

• EPA National EMAP web page

• EPA Region 10 EMAP web page (click on “coastal”)