NCCA assessment approach on the St. Lawrence River to increase Regional and States’ capacity to manage large connecting river systems in the Great Lakes Dataset

The St. Lawrence River ROAR project was developed to generate and test a probability-based assessment and monitoring approach for the St. Lawrence River. Previous work by the EPA Office of Research and Development on the Great Lakes' connecting river systems showed probability-based approaches to be cost-effective for assessing water quality and biological conditions, with similar approaches in large rivers in the nearshore Great Lakes yielding comparable data across resources. This was conducted in an effort to address two priority science needs for EPA Region 2, including datasets and methods to evaluate condition classes for nutrient concentration thresholds and benthic community indicators, and improving the ability to communicate these conditions to the public. This approach for monitoring and assessing environmental conditions can improve the ability of the Region to communicate to the public the successes and remaining challenges of remediation, restoration, and conservation work on the river, resulting in a system-based perspective of conditions to complement project-based results. Monitoring efforts in September of 2024 resulted in comprehensive datasets addressing water chemistry, contaminant, and benthic macroinvertebrate communities. These datasets will be evaluated according to nutrient concentration thresholds and benthic community indicators to differentiate condition classes to ensure assessment outcomes are management relevant.Search for CCTE records in EPA’s Science Inventory by typing in the title at this link:https://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_search_results.cfm?advSearch=true&showCriteria=2&keyword=CCTE&TIMSType=&TIMSSubTypeID=&epaNumber=&ombCat=Any&dateBeginPublishedPresented=07/01/2017&dateEndPublishedPresented=&dateBeginUpdated=&dateEndUpdated=&DEID=&personName=&personID=&role=Any&journalName=&journalID=&publisherName=&publisherID=&sortBy=pubDate&count=25

圣劳伦斯河ROAR（St. Lawrence River ROAR）项目旨在为圣劳伦斯河开发并测试一套基于概率的评估与监测方案。此前美国环境保护署（Environmental Protection Agency, EPA）研究与开发办公室针对五大湖连通河流水系开展的研究表明，基于概率的评估方法在水质与生物状况评估方面具备成本效益优势，且五大湖近岸大型河流中采用同类方法可获取跨资源可比的监测数据。本项目旨在满足美国环境保护署第二大区（EPA Region 2）的两项优先科学需求：一是构建用于评估营养盐浓度阈值与底栖生物群落指标状况等级的数据集与方法，二是提升向公众传递此类环境状况的能力。该环境状况监测与评估方法，可帮助第二大区更好地向公众通报该河流修复、恢复与保护工作的成效及尚存挑战，从而形成基于系统视角的环境状况评估体系，以补充基于单个项目的评估结果。2024年9月开展的监测工作获取了涵盖水化学、污染物及底栖大型无脊椎动物群落的综合数据集。后续将依据营养盐浓度阈值与底栖生物群落指标对该数据集开展评估，以划分状况等级，确保评估结果符合管理需求。可通过以下链接在美国环境保护署科学库存库中检索CCTE相关记录：https://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_search_results.cfm?advSearch=true&showCriteria=2&keyword=CCTE&TIMSType=&TIMSSubTypeID=&epaNumber=&ombCat=Any&dateBeginPublishedPresented=07/01/2017&dateEndPublishedPresented=&dateBeginUpdated=&dateEndUpdated=&DEID=&personName=&personID=&role=Any&journalName=&journalID=&publisherName=&publisherID=&sortBy=pubDate&count=25