Water-quality assessment of the Albemarle-Pamlico Basin, North Carolina and Virginia; chemical analyses of organic compounds and inorganic constituents in streambed sediment, 1992-93
In 1991, the U.S. Geological Survey began full-scale implementation of the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program. Long-term goals of the NAWQA program are to describe the status and trends in the quality of a large, representative part of the Nation's surface-water and ground-water resources and to describe the primary natural and human factors that affect these resources. One of the first assessment phases of the NAWQA program is to examine the occurrence and distribution of organic and inorganic constituents in streambed sediment. Streambed sediment was collected at 22 stations in the Albemarle-Pamlico drainage basin that drains into the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds, the second largest estuarine system in the United States. Streambed-sediment samples were analyzed for 35 organochlorine and 63 semivolatile compounds; 44 major, minor, and trace elements; and forms of organic carbon.