186 Advantages of a statewide database for developing evidence in a watershed causal assessment

Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Ambassador Ballroom
Susan M. Cormier , National Center for Environmental Assessment, US EPA, Cincinnati, OH
Jeffrey Bailey , Division of Water and Waste Management, West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, Charleston, WV
Ben Lowman , Division of Water and Waste Management, West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, Charleston, WV
Jeroen Gerritsen , Tetra Tech Inc., Owings Mills, MD
Lei Zheng , Tetra Tech Inc., Owings Mills, MD
The USEPA Stressor Identification process was used to identify causes of biological impairment in the Clear Fork Watershed, West Virginia.  The State’s comprehensive database was quantitatively analyzed to develop evidence using: geographic tools, scatter plots with Spearman correlation, non-metric multi-dimensional scaling, ordinary linear regression, local weighted polynomial regression, deviance reduction changing point analysis (regression tree), conditional probability, and logistic regression.  Types of evidence included co-occurrence of stressors with observed biological impairment; plausible causal pathways, stressor-response threshold values from the statewide data analysis, and predictive models to rank multiple stressors.  Probable causes differed among tributaries in the watershed: metal contamination and acidification from mine drainage, aluminum toxicity in association with moderately acidic pH, sediment deposition, low dissolved oxygen, and organic enrichment from direct releases and from algal productivity enhanced by nutrients.  In the mainstem, combined causes impaired the river although dilution and different geophysical attributes reduced the effect.  The Clear Fork study showed that stressor-response associations from state-wide data clarify causal relationships of interconnected waterbodies in a watershed. 
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