Monitoring environmental quality

Over the past 15 years, billions of public and private dollars have been spent on pollution control and other costs of compliance with environmental regulations in coastal and estuarine areas of the US. Much of this investment has been made without comprehensive, high quality, and continuing information about the status and trends of environmental quality in these areas. Are general conditions getting better or worse. How do existing conditions among different estuaries and coastal areas compare. Are these conditions approaching or exceeding levels that are known to be harmful to living resources. Since 1984 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has conducted a national program that will answer these questions. Progress has been made on the cleanup of conventional pollutants (oxygen-demanding materials, particulate matter and nutrients) in the water column, and now increasing attention is being directed toward toxic substances in animals and sediments. Emphasis of the National Status and Trends Program is on the measurement of these chemicals and observations of the effects they may cause. The program is measuring existing levels of toxic chemical contaminants in bivalves (mussels and oysters), bottom-fish (flounders), and associated sediments.