Collaborative Assessment of Landscapes and Water Quality in the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain

WRD PROJECT #: MD189
PROJECT CHIEF: Ator, Scott W.
BEGIN DATE: 01-October-1998
END DATE: 30-September-2001

Customers currently supporting the project:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Problem

Landscape indicator development at EPA to data has relied on existing data, and indicators have been applied to very large scale watersheds with complex land use patterns without understanding the relative importance of finer resolution features spatially, or what parameters are most important at different scales. To investigate these issues, water quality data for small watershed with simple land use patterns, soil types, and geologic settings are needed. These small watersheds need to be nested within larger watersheds which also have water quality data, so that statistical significance of different parameters can be tested at each scale.

Besides the immediate need for data to develop indicators and understand spatial relationships, there is a longer term need for multimedia data sets to be used in validating EPA's Multimedia Integrated Modeling System (MIMS). The data sets developed under this agreement will be designed to be used in the MIMS validation process.

Since 1991, the USGS has been conducting water-quality assessments of large river basins and major aquifers in the National Water Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA). The USGS has been compiling the data collected from these individual study areas (known as study units) to conduct national assessments of pesticides, nutrients, volatile organic compounds, and other contaminants in both surface and ground water. The USGS is currently conducting a study in the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain to develop conceptual approaches for doing regional assessments in areas covering several NAWQA study units and several states (parts of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Virginia). The USGS needs to test different different study designs for conducting regional assessments, which would bridge an important spatial gap between the study unit assessments and the national assessment teams in developing links between landscape variables and the occurrence and distribution of pesticides, nutrients, and other important contaminants.

Objectives

1. Identify landscape variables (ie. land use, soils, geology) important to the occurrence and distribution of pesticides in streams.
2. Identify landscape and geochemical factors that affect the quality of shallow ground water and small streams in the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain.
3. Characterize the quality of shallow ground water discharging to small streams in the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain.

Approach

Both USEPA and USGS will contribute funds to this project. The initial effort will focus on the joint preparation of the research plan for peer review, site selection, and preliminary sampling. Subject to successful peer review of the research plan, the remainder of the 3-year cooperative effort will follow as outlined below and described in detail in the final version of the peer-reviewed research plan. In general, the responsibility for the conceptual development of the landscape ecology research and the landscape indicator evaluation will reside with USEPA, while the responsibility for the conceptual development of the hydrologic research will reside with the USGS. The peer review of the research plan will be a USEPA responsibility. USEPA also anticipates making contributions to hydrologic framework development. USGS will have the lead for the quality-assurance plan, and sampling and laboratory protocols.

The project has been divided into three phases, one for each year. In the first year, the emphasis is on developing and testing the sampling, analysis, and data interpretation plan at selected sites. The research plan will be developed, peer reviewed, and revised; and implementation of the plan will begin with the prototype summer study. In the second year, the emphasis is on implementing the sampling and analysis parts of the plan. In the third year, the emphasis is on interpreting data, writing journal articles, and making the data available via Internet. Although some journal articles will be prepared in the first two years of the study, the bulk of the results will be developed in this third year.The proposed research will adhere to National Exposure Research Laboratory-Environmental Sciences Division (NERL-ESD) quality-assurance (QA) plans. USGS, in conducting the USEPA supported field sampling activities, will follow guidelines provided by USEPA program-wide and project-specific QA plans. Work conducted by USEPA and USGS staff and coordinated through this Interagency Agreement (IAG) includes:

1. Preparation of research plan for external peer review.
2. Revisions to the technical research plan in response to peer review comments.
3. Preparation of sampling and analysis standard operating procedures, and a project-specific quality-assurance plan in accordance with USEPA guidelines.
4. Selection of sampling sites (regional and local-scale).
5. Measurements for preliminary study (February 1999-February 2000; selected sites; ions, nutrients, suspended sediments, and pesticides).
6. Analysis of preliminary data and modeling.
7. Revision of sampling strategy based on preliminary results.
8. Winter and spring measurements for full-scale study (February-June, 2000; regional and local scale sites; ions, nutrients, suspended sediments, and pesticides).
9. Analysis of full-scale study results and modeling.
10. Preparation of journal articles and report.