the needed information is available for hazard assessment, as stewards of 

 the nation's biological resources, the USFWS must increase its efforts in 

 determining which of the many pollutants are reaching or may reach the re- 

 sources we are charged with protecting. To make this determination, the 

 Service is developing its priorities, emphasizing the resources that can 

 least afford to be lost. If a contaminant or polluting activity is not 

 likely to affect a priority resource, we need not waste valuable time and 

 effort in studying it. 



We now have all of the components for a framework to address environ- 

 mental contaminant impacts on living resources. Implementation of the 

 approach requires that the components be placed together in a logical se- 

 quence to achieve proper perspective, set priorities, and then act. Con- 

 ceptually, we progress through a logical continuum of four steps: a) prob- 

 lem identification, b) definition of scope of problem, c) research to pro- 

 vide data or fill information gaps, and d) interpretation and application 

 of results. 



Information elucidating potential contaminant problems that threaten the 

 well-being of fish and wildlife resources come from a variety of sources: 



1. Resource managers - Federal and state management personnel 

 identify contaminant problems, often from obserservation of 

 mortality of fish or wildlife in the environment. Declines 

 in populations may be observed and reported. Through resi- 

 due surveys or in concert with USFWS Research monitoring ac- 

 tivities, "hot spots" are identified. Follow-up research 

 studies are initiated to elucidate the full scope and effects 

 of observed problems. 



2. Other government agencies - The most obvious source of input 

 suggesting contaminants of concern comes from the EPA. Under 

 the Toxic Substances Control Act, EPA is charged to "regulate 

 conmerce and protect human health and the environment by re- 

 quiring testing and necessary use restrictions on certain chem- 

 ical substances...". The total of 129 priority compounds now 

 on the EPA toxic substance list for environmental hazard evalu- 

 ation includes the following major chemical families: chlori- 

 nated benzenes, chlorinated naphthalene, haloethers and halo- 

 methanes, nitrophenols, phthalate esters, nitrosamines, poly- 

 nuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, organochlorine pesticides, poly- 

 chlorinated biphenyls, and selected metals. 



3. Research scientists - Scientists who are expert in research on 

 environmental contaminant effects have particularly valuable 

 insight regarding contaminants that require further study. Ob- 

 servations and results obtained through carefully planned re- 

 search often provide the researcher only with parts of the ans- 

 wer being sought. New questions arise which may be answered by 

 further research to provide additional insight. 



