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EPA, Coast Guard and CZM to Collect Water Samples During July 11 "Parade of Sail"

Release Date: 07/06/2000
Contact Information: Peyton Fleming, EPA Press Office (617-918-1008)

BOSTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will be conducting a one-day water quality assessment of Boston's inner and outer harbor during the Tall Ships "Parade of Sail" on Tuesday, July 11. The sampling is being done in cooperation with the U.S. Coast Guard and Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM).

The sampling is being done in concert with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and CZM, which are providing free sanitary discharge pumpout services to private marine crafts along the parade line of the Parade of Sail. EPA New England will be complementing that effort by collecting water samples along each side of the parade line.

Working from two boats, sampling will be done on an hourly basis from early morning until late afternoon. Samples be sent to the EPA New England's biological lab for fecal coliform bacterial analysis.

"Collecting these samples will help enormously in evaluating the water quality during the course of the day and whether the pumpout services are helping to keep the harbor clean," said Denise DePierro, communications coordinator at EPA New England's Regional Laboratory in Lexington.

For information about the state's pumpout services during the Parade of Sail, visit www.state.ma.us/czm/ , then click onto SailBoston 2000. For more information about EPA's sampling effort, contact Denise DePierro at 781-860-4365.