Environmental Contaminants

Two people working with water quality monitoring equipment When hazardous substances enter the environment, fish, wildlife, and their habitats can be injured. The Environmental Contaminants program consists of three related focus areas.

Prevention, investigation and monitoring

This area performs oil spill response to protect natural resources from contaminant exposure and field studies to determine sources of pollution, to investigate pollution effects on fish and wildlife and their habitat, and to investigate fish and wildlife die-offs.

Natural resources damage assessment (NRDA)

The focus of this area in on identification of the natural resources injured, determines the extent of the injuries, recovers damages from those responsible, and plans and carries out natural resource restoration activities.

Technical support

This area focuses on providing technical support both within the Service and externally on a number of ecological issues. These include endangered species listing and recovery, ESA Sec. 7 and Sec. 10 consultations, Refuge land acquisitions and cleanups, and hazardous waste site remediation.

FWS Division of Environmental Quality

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Programs & Issues