How will this information be used?
This information will be used by resource managers to make decisions
related to best management practices, by regulators to set priorities
for the studies needed to set future standards and chemical-use licensing,
by industry to make decisions related to manufacturing and chemical-use,
and by the public to obtain a better understanding of the way human
activities affect the release of contaminants to our water resources.
This information will be used by a broad range of user communities,
and feedback is sought to help guide future USGS research on this and
other emerging water quality issues. This study can be used to guide
future efforts to characterize contaminant distributions in the Nation's
rivers, to prioritize chemical and chemical mixtures that should be
the subject of further studies of health and ecological effects, and
to identify sites that may provide good opportunities to study the environmental
behavior of these compounds.
