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AQUATIC MACROINVERTEBRATE
BIOASSESSMENT PROGRAMS
THROUGHOUT THE EASTERN RIVERS
AND MOUNTAINS NETWORK REGION:
Commonalities among Regulatory Authorities
Technical Report NPS/NER/NRTR—2008/001
Caleb J. Tzilkowski
Centre Aquatic Consultants
5412 Winchester Road
Petersburg, PA 16669
January 2008
U.S. Department of the Interior
National Park Service
Northeast Region
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
___________________________________
Abstract
The Eastern Rivers and Mountains Network (ERMN) selected benthic macroinvertebrates (BMI) as one of the 10 vital signs in the ERMN Inventory and Monitoring Program. To maximize benefits of the Program, data collected by the ERMN monitoring programs must be comparable to data collected by environmental protection agencies in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. This report summarizes and compares the BMI bioassessment and biomonitoring protocols used or advocated by state and federal agencies in the ERMN region. The report also includes access information for agency representatives, in addition to recommendations for the ERMN to develop a broadly applicable BMI sampling protocol that meets data quality criteria of agencies with jurisdiction in the ERMN region.
The Clean Water
Act of 1972 (CWA) provides states, tribes, and territories the legal
authority to use biological assessments and criteria in their water
quality programs. States must have water quality standards that consist
of designated uses (e.g., Aquatic Life Uses [ALUs]), criteria to protect
those uses, and an antidegradation policy. Measures of BMI assemblages
and other ALUs help protect intact stream communities from degradation
and are used to establish restoration goals for impaired ecosystems.
Because the EPA is the primary entity charged with achieving goals of
the CWA, that agency has been a primary source for development of bioassessment
methods. Most notably, the EPA produced and updated several volumes
of Rapid Bioassessment Protocols (RBPs) for habitat, periphyton, BMI,
and fish that all states within the ERMN region have used (to varying
extents) to develop their BMI bioassessment and biomonitoring protocols.
All states in the ERMN region use some component of the RBPs for part(s)
of their BMI monitoring programs, but the programs are much more dissimilar
than alike. One major difference among state BMI biomonitoring programs
throughout the ERMN region is the structure of the sampling design.
Although all states in the region use some kind of tiered approach to
determine sampling coverage and frequency, the designs differ considerably.
For example, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP)
has one program for BMI monitoring, and Pennsylvania and West Virginia
agencies have three main categories; whereas, the New York State Department
of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) has five subprograms (including
tissue analysis) in its BMI monitoring program. In addition to differing
at the broadest scale (i.e., program goals and sampling stratification),
state BMI monitoring programs differ at all lower levels (e.g., sampling
intensity, sampling gear, taxonomic resolution). The state program details
are described extensively and compared in this report.
The design of a BMI monitoring program for the ERMN should be based
on the national and network goals of the I&M program. The primary
motivation for state BMI and water quality monitoring programs is to
comply with standards set forth by their respective governments and,
ultimately, by the CWA. This report includes general recommendations
for the design of an ERMN BMI monitoring protocol that would meet data
quality standards of state-level regulatory authorities with jurisdiction
over water resources in the ERMN region. Although the BMI data collected
in the ERMN could (and should) aid state agencies in complying with
regulatory water quality standards, the ERMN may want more sensitivity
from its BMI program, which would require more effort at most program
levels (e.g., sampling frequency, taxonomic resolution).
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