NORTHEAST COASTAL AND BARRIER NETWORK ASSESSMENT OF CONTAMINANT THREATS--ASSATEAGUE ISLAND NATIONAL SEASHORE
Natural Resource Technical Report
NPS/NCBN/NRTR—2010/348

Keith R. Cooper
Rutgers University
Cook - Biochemistry & Microbiology
76 Lipman Drive
New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901

Marija Borjan
Rutgers University
Cook - Entomology
93 Lipman Drive
New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901

June 2010

U.S. Department of the Interior
National Park Service
Natural Resource Program Center
Fort Collins, Colorado
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Introduction

The Assateague Island National Seashore (ASIS) is part of the Northeast Coastal and Barrier Network. The network includes 8 coastal parks located from Massachusetts through Virginia. ASIS became a National Park in 1965, and is located a short distance from both Washington DC and Philadelphia PA. The park attracts over 2 million visitors annually, with about 60% visiting between May and August.

The 1982 General Management Plan for ASIS provides a broad framework for the improvement and management of park resources and cultural viability. Other environmental management programs currently in place at the park include Emergency Action, Hazardous Waste, Composting, Employee Training, Job Hazard Analyses and Hazard Communication.. The findings in this report are based on discussions with park personnel, a visit to the park to determine potential chemical impacts on the park from on-site and off-site activities, and a review of databases from state (MD and VA) and federal databases (USEPA, USGS, NOAA Status and Trends). Both the report by James-Pirri (2004) and Kopp et al. (2002) were used in characterizing water quality issues and provided some information on monitoring programs. The surrounding bays of ASIS have been the subject of a number of studies that have sampled sediment and tissue for chemicals of concern (COCs) and sediment toxicity to benthic organisms in these areas (USEPA 2002; Zimmerman 1996). These data are an important source for developing which COCs may be from off-site activities and give a temporal and spatial distribution in surrounding areas.

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