PUBLIC LAW 102-567—OCT. 29, 1992 106 STAT. 4295

"(1) identification and analysis of the status of environ-
mental quality in the Nation's coastal ecosystems, including
but not limited to, assessment of—

"(A) ambient water (Duality, including contaminant lev-
els in relation to criteria ana standards issued pursuant
to title III or the Federal Water Pollution Control Act
(33U.S.C. 1311 et sea,.);

"(B) benthic environmental quality, including analysis
of contaminant levels in sediments in relation to criteria
and standards issued pursuant to title III of the Federal
Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1311 et seq.); and

"(C) health and quality of living resources.
"(2) identification of sources of environmental degradation
affecting the Nation's coastal ecosystems;

"(3) assessment of the impact of governmental programs
and management strategies and measures designed to abate
or prevent the environmental degradation of the Nation's
coastal ecosystems;

"(4) assessment of the accumulation of floatables along
coastal shorelines;

"(5) analysis of expected short-term and long-term trends
in the environmental quality of the Nation's coastal ecosystems;
and

"(6) the development and implementation of intensive
coastal water quality monitoring programs in accordance with
subsection (d).
(c) MONITORING GUIDELINES AND PROTOCOLS.—

"(1) GUIDELINES.—Not later than 18 months after the date
of the enactment of this title, the Administrator and the Under
Secretary shall jointly issue coastal water quality monitoring
guidelines to assist in the development and implementation
of coastal water quality monitoring programs. The guidelines
shall—

"(A) provide an appropriate degree of uniformity among
the coastal water quality monitoring methods and data
while preserving the flexibility of monitoring programs to
address specific needs;

"(B) establish scientifically valid monitoring methods
that will—

"(i) provide simplified methods to survey and
assess the water quality and ecological health of coastal
waters;

"(ii) identify and quantify through more intensive
efforts the severity of existing or anticipated problems
in selected coastal waters;

M(iii) identify and quantify sources of pollution that
cause or contribute to those problems, including point
and nonpoint sources; and

"(iv) evaluate over time the effectiveness of efforts
to reduce or eliminate pollution from those sources;
"(C) provide for data compatibility to enable data to
be efficiently stored and shared by various users; and

"(D) identify appropriate physical, chemical, and
biological indicators of the health and quality of coastal
ecosystems.

"(2) TECHNICAL PROTOCOLS.—Guidelines issued under para-
graph (1) shall include protocols for—