Appendix
B
Comparision of Existing Lakes Protocols
Two research programs - the U.S. Geological Survey's North American
Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) and the USEPA Office of Research and
Development's Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) -
incorporate biological monitoring components similar to those of USEPA's
Biological Monitoring Programs. The following discussion compares these
programs, as well as a program implemented by the Tennessee Valley
Authority (TVA) and USEPA's Clean Lakes Program.
NAWQA, EMAP, TVA, and Clean Lakes Program
NAWQA and EMAP are scientific research programs with objectives quite
different from those of state-level biological assessment programs (USEPA
1990a, Meador et al. 1993). NAWQA and EMAP differ in the waterbodies they
address: NAWQA is designed for streams and rivers and EMAP is designed for
all environments. including streams and lakes (EMAP-Surface Waters). The
two programs are set apart by the statistical and experimental designs
used to accomplish their program.
The NAWQA and EMAP programs make assessments of the environment and
trends in environmental quality at the national or regional scales. In
these programs, USGS or USEPA scientists and technicians are directly
responsible for collecting data from the field and analyzing results.
NAWQA and EMAP also use different statistical designs to assess national
trends. The NAWQA approach is to sample repeatedly at equal time intervals
at the same stations (Gurtz 1994) and to apply nonparametric statistical
algorithms to the data, adjusted for seasonal variation (Meador et al.
1993). The EMAP approach is to overlay a region or landscape with a grid
and then to monitor a randomly selected subsample of the grid (USEPA
1991d). Both methods are useful to evaluate trends in environmental
quality.
The TVA program, which monitors ecological condition of reservoirs,also
covers a large percentage of the country. The assessment is based on
sediment quality, dissolved oxygen content (DO), chlorophyll a
concentration, a benthic macroinvertebrate index, and a Reservoir Fish
Assemblage Index (RFAI) (TVA 1994).
USEPA's Clean Lakes Program provides support to water quality agencies
for lake assessment, protection, and restoration. The program requires
assessments of dissolved oxygen (DO), chlorophyll a, Secchi disk
transparency, macrophytes, sediment chemical characterization, and
tributary streamflow measurements. A complete description of the Clean
Lakes Program recommended sampling methodology is found in the Clean Lakes
Program Guidance Manual (USEPA 1980a).
State Mandates
USEPA's Biological Monitoring and Biological Criteria Programs are
targeted to state and tribal water quality and environmental management
agencies. Monitoring data is collected at the state or local watershed
level by state agency personnel or by suitably trained organizations to
identify problems and report on control effectiveness. The Biological
Monitoring Program accomplishes its mission through training and the
translation of research techniques to rapid, efficient and defensible
protocols these techniques can be used on an operational basis by state
personnel and others to develop biological criteria that can be used in
management decision making.
The broad water quality goals of the Clean Water Act are translated by
each of the states into water quality standards designed to protect
beneficial uses (USEPA 1996a). The USEPA biological monitoring program
therefore looks to individual states and tribes rather than federal
agencies for the assessment of those beneficial uses, as they have been
designated in various administrative codes. The protocols presented in
this document are designed to assist states and tribes in making their
beneficial use assessments in biological terms. The protocols and
measurement techniques will also help states fulfill their obligation to
report to Congress biennially on the attainment of designated beneficial
uses of their surface waters (USEPA 1994f).
Monitoring Biotic Integrity
Although the statistical designs used by EMAP, NAWQA, and USEPA's
biological monitoring programs differ, the monitoring components are
generally complementary. These programs assess conditions of lakes, rather
than producing comprehensive inventories of biological resources. Some but
not all major biological assemblages - invertebrates, fish, plants, birds,
microorganisms - are sampled, identified, and counted, using a
standardized technique, during a well defined season of the year.
In this kind of monitoring, the focus is on the full array of species
captured by the sampling methods to provide cost-effective sampling and
standardization. The methods described in this document do not target rare
species. Issues of seasonal variation and bias in the sampling protocols
are standardized or "indexed" to simplify statistical analysis (Sokal and
Rolfe 1969). These monitoring programs produce sensitive and robust
estimates of the biological integrity of the aquatic system, as well as
the impacts that anthropogenic activities might have on the environment in
terms of degrading the aquatic life designated use (Fausch et al. 1984,
Karr 1991, USEPA 1989b).
It is desirable for all agencies to use similar water quality
monitoring protocols so that data can be shared and compared. The national
water quality monitoring council,(NWQMC) which succeeded the
Intergovernmental Task Force on Monitoring (ITFM) is the forum for that
kind of information exchange, and several of the recommendations of the
task force address the issue of data comparability (ITFM 1992). However,
in the case of biological monitoring, species characteristics differ
regionally, and sampling techniques are not expected to be the same across
ecoregions. In USEPA's Biological Monitoring Program and Biological
Criteria Program, sampling techniques and index period must be identical
for the reference condition and the test locations, and the use of common
techniques across agencies within a region would significantly improve the
efficiency and power of biological monitoring activities. Table B-1
compares lake habitat and biological monitoring among EMAP, TVA, and the
USEPA Biological Monitoring Program. NAWQA has not published specific
protocols for lakes and reservoirs.
Table B-1.Comparision of lakes protocols with EMAP,
TVA Reservoirs, and Clean Lakes.
Table B-1.Comparision of lakes protocols with EMAP,
TVA Reservoirs, and Clean Lakes. (continued).
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