National Status and Trends Program: Chemical and Biological Monitoring of U.S. Coastal Waters

Abstract

In response to mounting concerns and to assess the status and trends of contaminants in coastal waters, State and Federal programs, and academic and private laboratories have monitored concentrations of contaminants in organisms and surface sediments from U.S. estuarine and coastal waters. The first national monitoring program was the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Estuarine Mollusk Program of the National Pesticide Monitoring Program conducted from 1965 through 1972 (Butler, 1973), followed by EPA’s Mussel Watch Program, conducted from 1976 through 1978 (Farrington et al., 1982). In 1984, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) initiated the Benthic Surveillance Project of the National Status and Trends (NS&T) Program for Marine Environmental Quality, and in 1986 NS&T’s Mussel Watch Program began. Since 1986, the NS&T Program has refined methods for large-scale sampling, monitored estuarine and near-shore waters, validated effects-based research in the laboratory, and conducted applied studies in areas of concern. In 1990, EPA’s Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) initiated a new contaminant monitoring program in coastal waters of the Virginian Province, from Cape Cod to the Chesapeake Bay. The NS&T and EMAP programs cooperate under an interagency agreement.