EMAP
March
3,
2003
The
Environmental
Monitoring
and
Assessment
Program
(
EMAP)
is
a
research
program
to
develop
the
tools
necessary
to
monitor
and
assess
the
status
and
trends
of
national
ecological
resources.

Purpose:
EMAP's
goal
is
to
build
the
scientific
basis,
and
the
local,
state,
and
tribal
capacity,
to
monitor
for
status
and
trends
in
the
condition
of
the
Nation's
aquatic
ecosystems.
To
date
it
is
the
only
statistically­
valid
approach
to
determining
state
and
national
aquatic
ecosystem
condition.
It
uses
biological
indicators
(
e.
g.,
fish
and
benthic
community
structure)
as
integrators
of
aquatic
ecosystem
condition;
establishes
measurable
baselines
for
health
of
aquatic
ecosystems
and
assesses
trends
in
condition;
identifies
most
important
areas
and
stressors;
and
provides
monitoring
designs
for
consistent
aggregation
of
data
from
local
to
national
levels.
The
EMAP
approach
can
help
establishing
the
condition
of
aquatic
ecosystems,
and
the
potential
stressors
affecting
them.

Data:
There
are
uncertainties
associated
with
the
use
of
an
EMAP
approach
in
identifying
industrial
sectors
for
effluent
limitation
guidelines.
In
part,
because
of
cost
considerations,
analyses
of
chemical
contaminants
in
sediments
or
surface
waters
has
been
limited
in
most
EMAP
or
Regional
EMAP
(
R­
EMAP)
studies.
Also,
because
of
the
scale
of
the
studies
(
i.
e.,
an
eight
state
area
in
the
case
of
MAIA)
and
the
random
site­
selection
process,
the
sampling
did
not
readily
target
point
sources.
EMAP
can
provide
a
ranking
of
the
different
stressors
associated
with
impaired
aquatic
conditions,
but
these
are
not
cause­
effect
relationships.
The
cause
of
the
impairments
must
still
be
diagnosed.
While
ORD
is
currently
working
on
an
approach
to
help
deal
with
this
issue
(
through
developing
an
improved
303(
d)
listing
process
for
use
with
TMDLs)
that
approach
is
not
ready
for
use
in
the
current
planning
process.

Contact:
Mike
McDonald
(
919)
541­
7973
Short­
term
Followup:
Meet
with
EMAP
staff
to
determine
ways
to
utilize
information
already
collected
or
generated
using
EMAP
to
identify
ecological
stressors
and
sources
of
those
stressors
at
a
national
level.
Discuss
use
of
some
of
the
more
integrated
approaches
ORD
is
now
working
on
to
support
the
planning
process
by
identifying
possible
industrial
sectors
in
different
watersheds
that
might
require
effluent
guidelines.
With
the
assistance
of
EMAP
staff,
this
information
could
be
used
at
the
screening
level
tool
for
identifying
national­
level
concerns
or
trends
in
the
environment.

Long­
term
Followup:
Discuss
with
EMAP
staff
the
possibility
of
using
this
approach
for
indepth
evaluation
of
the
stressors
identified
in
the
short­
term
(
and
their
possible
sources)
to
support
the
more
detailed
investigation
phase
of
the
304(
m)
planning
process.
The
long
term
application
of
EMAP's
approach
depends
heavily
on
state
acceptance
of
the
approach,
and
OW's
use
of
the
tool
may
affect
that
acceptance.
