549 



for some time to come will continue to be, the basis for evaluation and 

 enforcement of water quality standards. The standards criteria — 

 actual measurements of water quality parameters — in many cases yet 

 have to be tested for adequacy in the estuaries where so much knowl- 

 edge is lacking. This is probably the most important area of neglected 

 study indicated by the inventory. 



Use damage identification requires information on many aspects of 

 the estuarine environment; this is one reason there is so little avail- 

 able at the present time. It not only requires a detailed study of water 

 quality and sources of pollution, but it also demands an economic 

 analysis of the damage involved. 



The identification of use damages requires the measurement of 

 various uses at different times. This kind of information is collected 

 most efficiently through a routine program of data collection such as 

 that administered by the Bureau of the Census. Such a program of 

 data collection cannot only show when use damages have occurred, 

 but, when the information is studied as it is collected, such a routine 

 basic data collection program can provide the information to illumi- 

 nate damaging trends so as to counteract them before a catastrophe 

 occurs. 



WATER QUALITY AND SOURCES OF POLLUTION 



In the final analysis, the greatest deficiency in basic information on 

 estuaries is the lack of water quality data, and water quality is one of 

 the basic environmental conditions a management program should 

 protect. The collection of water quality information is particularly 

 susceptible to the kind of partial effort required by the missions of 

 many Federal and State agencies. It is easy to reduce a water sampling 

 program by a station or two or a point or two, until the maximum is 

 reached that the available personnel can do. While this is a necessary 

 approach, for other users it damages the value of the data collected. 



In any system receiving wastes, water quality data are of severely 

 limited value unless coupled with data on the sources of pollution 

 which may affect water quality. 



To evaluate effects of waste discharges on any receiving body of 

 water there are certain basic items of information which must be ob- 

 tained. This information may be grouped into three general categories. 

 First, there is the nature of the waste material itself ; second, there is 

 the manner of its movement within the estuarine system ; and third, 

 there is the way in which it interacts chemically and biologically with 

 the estuarine environment. 



None of the characteristics of waste discharges are unique to wastes 

 discharged to the coastal environment. What is unique is that small 

 variations in volume, concentration, or composition of wastes can have 

 much more impact on an estuarine environment, where wastes may re- 

 main in one area for extended periods of time, than in a freely flowing 

 river, where wastes are being constantly carried away from an outfall. 

 This means that waste discharges into estuarine and coastal environ- 

 \ ments must be more constantly and carefully monitored than those 

 discharged into rivers. 



The obvious means to acquire information would be (1) a stringent 

 and wide-spread monitoring program, or (2) development of a man- 



