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CCMA Weekly Report for December 19, 2007
Mussel Watch Expands Collaboration to Enhance Contaminant Monitoring of the Southern California Bight
Scientists from The Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA) Mussel Watch Program recently initiated a collaborative effort with the Southern California Coastal Water Resources Project (SCCWRP) to enhance long-term contaminant monitoring of the Southern California Bight. Starting on December 8, 2008, the 24 current Mussel Watch sites will be collected plus an additional 13 sites due to resource-leveraging based on this partnership. The Mussel Watch Program will be part of the characterization of historic contaminants and emerging contaminants of concern, i.e. the flame retardants known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). Multiple state and academic institutions will collaborate with this partnership on site identification and collection. As part of this effort CCMA, SCCWRP, and the Los Angeles Discharge District started analyzing sediment cores to determine when flame retardants first appeared in the Southern California sediment record. For more information, contact Gunnar Lauenstein at (301) 713-3028 x152 or Gunnar.Lauenstein@noaa.gov or John Christensen at (301) 713-3028 x153 or John.Christensen@noaa.gov
NOAA-EPA Collaboration Links Air, Land, and Water Pollution to Improve Environmental Management
The Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment served a major role in developing the scope and authorship of a suite of papers that link atmospheric deposition of contaminants with their transport, fate, and effects in coastal watersheds and estuaries. Individual papers focused on sulfur, nitrogen, mercury, and persistent organic pollutants and their adverse ecological impacts and human health effects. The papers were jointly authored by NOAA and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientists as well as university professors. Several papers reviewed current agency capabilities in ecological forecasting, multimedia pollution assessment, and approaches to more effective environmental management. This effort, spearheaded by a NOAA-EPA Steering Committee, is a stepping stone for closer collaboration between the two agencies in addressing key environmental pollution issues through improved monitoring, research, and modeling. The papers were published in a special December 2007 issue of the journal Environmental Management. For more information, contact Gary Matlock at (301) 713-3020 x183 or Gary.C.Matlock@noaa.gov , or Jawed Hameedi at (301) 713-3028 x170 or Jawed.Hameedi@noaa.gov .