ABSTRACT
Finally, ecoepidemiology is increasingly used in the enforcement of environmental criteria.
In particular, the goal of achieving biological integrity found in the US Clean Water Act has
been used as a basis for establishing biological criteria and standards based on designated uses
of the water bodies (EPA 1991b). These biological criteria may be used in the enforcement of
permits for point-source discharges or for achieving designated uses in the face of multiple-
point and nonpoint sources. That is, the results of biological surveys may be used to help
establish that an effluent or the pollution load from all sources is causing an unacceptable
impairment. Guidance is available from the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA)
for streams and small rivers (Gibson et al. 1996), estuaries and coastal marine waters (EPA
1997b), lakes and reservoirs (EPA 1998b), and wetlands (Danielson 1998). In addition, a
semiquantitative version of the method for streams and small rivers, the Rapid Bioassessment
Protocol (RBP), has been developed (Barbour et al. 1999). The concept may be further
extended to watershed management programs that go beyond the limitations of laws and
regulations to develop a plan to reduce or eliminate physical, chemical, and biological
impairments (Serveiss 2002; EPA 2006c). These uses have inspired much of the work dis-
cussed in this chapter.
