Links to Related Contaminant Biology Webs

Programs

Interagency

	Alaska Marine Mammal Tissue Archival Project (AMMTAP) determines the baseline levels of chlorinated hydrocarbons and trace elements, including heavy metals, in Arctic marine mammal species.
	Clean Air Status and Trends Network (CASTNET) provides atmospheric data on the dry deposition component of total acid deposition, ground-level ozone and other forms of atmospheric pollution in rural areas of the United States.
	Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) establishes trends in visibility levels and identifies sources of anthropogenic impairments to National Parks and Class I wilderness areas.
	National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) monitors wet atmospheric deposition at over 220 National Trends Network sites throughout the United States. The NADP also administers two national networks: Mercury Deposition Network (MDN) measures weekly concentrations of total mercury in precipitation and the seasonal and annual flux of total mercury in wet deposition; and Atmospheric Integrated Research Monitoring Network (AIRMoN) collects wet and dry deposition since 1992.
	National Irrigation Water Quality Program is an inter-bureau program that collects chemical data from water, bottom-material, inorganic and organic biological samples from the 26 study areas.
	Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Program works with states and tribes to establish TMDL programs and set water quality standards.

National Park Service

Park Research and Intensive Monitoring Network (PRIMENet) provides effects of environmental stressors on ecological systems nation wide. This network, formerly known as DISPro, consists of 14 monitoring and research sites in National Parks which air quality, including ozone, wet and dry deposition, visibility, and meteorology.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA)

	USEPA Endocrine Disruptors Initiative
	Acid Rain Program (ARP) The overall goal of the Acid Rain Program is to achieve significant environmental and public health benefits through reductions in emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx).
	Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) is a research program to develop the tools necessary to monitor and assess the status and trends of national ecological resources. EMAP's goal is to develop the scientific understanding for translating environmental monitoring data from multiple spatial and temporal scales into assessments of ecological condition and forecasts of the future risks to the sustainability of our natural resources.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

• DEQ Division of Environmental Quality

U.S. Geological Survey

• Toxic Substances Hydrology Program The goal of the Toxics Program is to provide scientific information on the behavior of toxic substances in the Nation's hydrologic environments.

Data/Databases

• Acid Rain in the Northeastern United States This database contains spring (April-June) and summer (July-September) nitrate and sulfate wet deposition records for 1980-90, at the state and county levels, for the northeastern states.

• Acid Rain Emissions Tracking System (ETS) This database contains SO2, NOx, and CO2 emissions from electric Power Plants and other generation facilities throughout the United States.

• Acute Toxicity Database provides a relative starting point for hazard assessment of contaminants and is required for federal chemical registration programs such as the Federal Insecticide Fungicide Rodenticide Act (PL 80-104) as amended by the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act of 1972 (7 USC 136-136y) and the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (PL 94-469) (USGS).

• AIRData gives access to air pollution data for the entire United States (USEPA) and provides annual summaries from EPA databases. Aerometric Information Retrieval System (AIRS) database provides air monitoring data - ambient concentrations of criteria air pollutants at monitoring sites, primarily in cities and towns. Data is also accessible from Envirofacts. This system is managed through the Office of Air Quality and Standards. Emissions and Air Quality Data (TTNWeb) database provides estimates of annual emissions of criteria air pollutants from point, area, and mobile sources.

• Groundwater and Soil Contamination Database is a large comprehensive bibliographic database on groundwater and soil contamination (GeoRef Information Services, American Geological Institute).

• Biocatalysis/Biodegradation Database University of Minnesota. Microbial biocatalytic reactions and biodegradation pathways primarily for xenobiotic, chemical compounds.

• California Wildlife Exposure Factor and Toxicity Database (Cal/Ecotox) is a compilation of exposure factors (i.e., ecological and physiological data) and toxicity data for a number of California mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles.

• Databases and Software from the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (USEPA).

• Database of the Occurrence and Distribution of Pesticides in Chesapeake Bay provides data, derived from the scientific literature, about the occurrence and distribution of pesticides in the Chesapeake Bay and its estuaries. The compounds included in this data base were initially limited to twelve target pesticides: alachlor atrazine carbofuran chlordane chlorpyrifos chlorothanonil diflubenzuron linuron metolachlor permethrin simazine toxaphene (Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia).

• Ecotox Database System is a source for locating single chemical toxicity data for aquatic life, terrestrial plants and wildlife (USEPA).

• Envirofacts - A large data warehouse designed to retrieve environmental information from numerous databases (USEPA).

• Environmental Conservation Online System (ECOS) is an Internet based program that incorporates data systems across the Division of Ecological Services, as well as other government sources (USFWS).

• Environmental Fate Database (EFDB) Biodegradation and chemical fate (USEPA, DuPont, Procter & Gamble).

• Environmental Residue-Effects Database (ERED) is a compilation of data, taken from the literature, where biological effects (e.g., reduced survival, growth, etc.) and tissue contaminant concentrations were simultaneously measured in the same organism. Currently, the database is limited to those instances where biological effects observed in an organism are linked to a specific contaminant within its tissues (USACE/USEPA).

• HazDat Database  includes: site characteristics, activities and site events, contaminants found, contaminant media and maximum concentration levels, impact on population, community health concerns, ATSDR public health threat categorization, ATSDR recommendations, environmental fate of hazardous substances, exposure routes, and physical hazards at the site/event (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry).

• LC50 Center for Exposure Assessment Modeling LC50 (lethal concentration, 50%) estimates LC50 values using the Trimmed Spearman-Karber Method (USEPA)

• National Contaminant Occurrence Database (NCOD) is designed to track contaminants in drinking water (public water systems) (USEPA).

• National Listing of Fish and Wildlife Advisories (NLFWA) The database provides fish and wildlife advisories for both state and federal (USEPA).

• Contaminated Sediment (USEPA)

• National Sediment Inventory (NSI) dataset describes the accumulation of chemical contaminants in river, lake, ocean, and estuary bottoms and includes a screening assessment of the potential for associated adverse effects on human and environmental health (USEPA).

• National Sediment Quality Survey Database represents information from 1980 to 1999 from more than 4.6 million analytical observations and 50,000 stations throughout the United States. The database contains information on sediment chemistry, tissue, and the lethal and sublethal effects of contaminants in environmental media on various test organisms (USEPA). 

• National Water Information System (NWISWeb) is selected water-resources data from 1857 to present. A new USGS software for presentation of real-time data and retrieval of historic surface-water, water-quality, and ground-water data and statistics (USGS).

• STOrage and RETrieval (STORET) is a repository for water quality, biological, and physical data and is used by state environmental agencies, EPA and other federal agencies, universities, private citizens, and many others (USEPA).

• Water Quality and Criteria Standards (WQSBD) a single point of access to EPA and State water quality standards (WQS) information (USEPA).

• Wildlife & Contaminants Online is the new gateway page for the Contaminants Exposure and Effects--Terrestrial Vertebrates Database, the Biological and Ecotoxicological Characteristics of Terrestrial Vertebrates Residing in Estuaries site, and Utility and Vulnerability Ranking Program for Terrestrial Vertebrates. These databases are a designed to help evaluate the threat of contaminants and other anthropogenic activities to terrestrial vertebrates residing in or near estuarine and coastal habitats. 

• Wildlife Mortality Information: Wildlife Organophosphate/Carbamate Poisoning (OP/CARB) portrays the incidence of wildlife organophosphate and carbamate poisoning in the United States and Avian Lead Poisoning portrays the incidence of avian lead poisoning in the United States (USGS).

Monitoring

• National Air Monitoring Stations/ State and Local Air Monitoring Station (NAMS/SLAMS) measures air criteria pollutants, visibility, fine particulates, toxic chemicals, and Ozone (USEPA).

• Photochemical Assessment Monitoring Stations (PAMS) measure ozone and ozone precursors in areas known to have persistently high ozone levels (non-attainment areas (USEPA).

• NOAA's National Status and Trends (NS&T) Program This program was initiated to determine the current status and to detect changes in the environmental quality of estuarine and coastal waters.

  • The Benthic Surveillance Project measures concentrations of contaminants in sediments and tissues of bottom-dwelling fish at 75 estuary sites. . 

  • The Mussel Watch Program collects mussels and/or oysters annually from approximately 200 sites nationwide to concentrations of trace metals, DDE, PCBs, aromatic hydrocarbons, and radionuclides. . 

  • Bioeffects assessment studies consist of sediment toxicity surveys, evaluation and application of biomarkers, development of effect-based numerical guidelines to infer toxicological relevance of sediment contamination, and formulation of indices to describe the condition of the coastal ecosystems . 

• National Water Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA) collects and analyzes data on over 50 major river basins and aquifers across the Nation The NAWQA Data Warehouse houses data from national and regional analysis (USGS).

• National Stream Quality Accounting Network (NASQAN) measures nutrients, major ions, dissolved and sediment loaded trace elements, and hydrophilic pesticides on the Nations large rivers (Columbia, Rio Grande, Colorado, and Mississippi) (USGS).

• National Contaminant Biomonitoring Program (NCBP) Database documented trends in the occurrence of persistent toxic chemicals that may threaten fish and wildlife resources from the 1960s to 1986 (USGS).

• Hydrologic Benchmark Network (HBN) established in 1963 to provide long-term measurements of stream flow and water quality in areas that are minimally affected by human activities (USGS).

• Long Term Resource Monitoring Program (LTRMP) implemented by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the five Upper Mississippi River System states (Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin), with guidance and overall Program responsibility provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Databases resulting from the LTRMP are the Upper Mississippi Basin Loading Database (Sediment and Nutrients) and the Sediment-Contaminant Database for the Upper Mississippi River System and Selected Tributaries

Reference Sources

• Better Assessment Science Integrating Point and Nonpoint Sources (BASINS) provides access to water quality and biological data converted into a Geographical Information System (GIS) format (USEPA).
• Compendium of Pesticide Common Names  the only place where all of the ISO-approved (International Organization for Standardization) names are listed. It also includes approved names from national bodies for pesticides that do not have ISO names.
• EXTOXNET Pesticide Information Profiles. EXTOXNET is a cooperative effort of University of California-Davis, Oregon State University, Michigan State University, Cornell University, and the University of Idaho. Primary files are maintained and archived at Oregon State University. Various types of pesticide toxicology and environmental chemistry information.
• NPS Environmental Contaminants Encyclopedia
• Contaminant Information Management and Analysis System (CIMAS)
• Pesticide Product Information System (PPIS) - contains information concerning all pesticide products registered in the United States.

Other Contaminant-Related Websites

• North American Reporting Center for Amphibian Malformations
• FrogWeb
• Agricultural Lands and Pesticide-Use Estimates SQL Data (NOAA) Use estimates for 35 agricultural pesticides on 76 crops in the nation's major estuarine watersheds.
• The National Response System (NRS) is for emergency response to discharges of oil and the release of chemicals into the navigable waters or environment of the United States and its territories. The previous system know as the Emergency Response Notification System (ERNS) has been redesigned and now resides in the NRS.
• Potential Priority Watersheds for Protection of Water Quality from Nonpoint Sources Related to Agriculture A series of maps were developed to assist decision-makers in identifying priority watersheds for water quality protection from nonpoint sources related to agriculture. The maps identify where the greatest potential exists for water pollution based on factors known to be important influences on soil and chemical loss from farm fields, such as climate, soil characteristics, and pesticide and nitrogen loadings from agricultural sources.

Societies

Mercury links

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