Great Rivers Study
 EPA has embarked on one of the most comprehensive scientific surveys ever to be conducted on three great rivers that will provide the tools needed to help states better manage and protect these important national resources. This survey will provide the information needed to check the health status of the Missouri, Mississippi, and Ohio Rivers, three major waterways that link the upland streams of the Central Basin to the Gulf of Mexico.
EPA and its partners have sampled hundreds of miles of river and shoreline and will continue this extensive sampling next summer to provide the first-ever health check-up of the rivers. The project will enable EPA to develop the first Great Rivers Report that will provide vital statistics for how the rivers are doing today and valuable information that can be used to make more informed decisions to protect these national treasures for future generations.
To evaluate the health of these rivers, monitoring and assessment will be conducted at a much larger scale than has been done before. Grades or indicators of water quality, plants, insects, fish and other aquatic life and sediments at the bottom of the rivers will be developed. The project is part of EPA's Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP), a national research program to develop environmental monitoring data for assessments of current ecological condition and baselines for future risks to our natural resources.
With this effort, conducted in partnership with more than a dozen universities and federal, tribal, and state agencies, EPA will apply its expertise and knowledge in designing and assessing large and diverse ecosystems. The approaches and technology that are developed with this study will be transferred to states and Tribes within the Central Basin to enable coordinated monitoring of the condition of these rivers.
This information will greatly enhance EPA's ability to manage and protect these great rivers. It will also help the Agency better protect the health of people who and businesses that rely on the rivers in one way or another.
For more information on EPA's Great river study please visit http://www.epa.gov/emap/greatriver/FactSheet.pdf (PDF, 1 pp., 53 KB, About PDF)
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