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Marine Pollution Monitoring Management Group (MPMMG)
The Marine Pollution Monitoring Management Group (MPMMG) is a management group with representation from all Government organisations with statutory marine environmental protection monitoring obligations. The Group is chaired by a representative from the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS). Its aim is to ensure that monitoring of the marine environment is conducted in a co-ordinated way, is as cost-effective as possible and meets national and international requirements. MPMMG was set up in 1974 by the Department of the Environment (DoE).
The world is very conscious of pollution, and the notion of the sea as a general repository for harmful wastes and contaminants provides one of the most obvious focuses for environmental concern. There is thus a continuing need for monitoring of the marine environment to determine what pollution is there, what is changing, and what are the risks to human health, ecology and man's uses of the seas. The implications are highly practical, for they influence the technical and policy aspects of pollution control and remediation, as well as helping to inform public opinion. It is therefore essential that the monitoring carried out is soundly based in science, is well targeted to obtain the most from limited resources, and is responsive to new needs and priorities as they arise. MPMMG constantly seeks to achieve these ends through its activities.
The terms of reference of MPMMG are:
1. To ensure that marine pollution monitoring programmes and surveys are designed and managed to produce the information needed by those responsible for the development and application of environmental protection policies in the United Kingdom, including that information required to fulfil agreed obligations in European and other international programmes. In particular the group would:
- review categorise and evaluate the effectiveness of existing programmes, and recommend where they should be adapted or discontinued (or new programmes started) in response to changing needs
- advise how the data obtained by monitoring the physical, chemical and biological aspects of marine pollution can be linked with other relevant scientific data, and ensure the proper co-ordination of marine monitoring activities with those in other sectors (eg. air and freshwater)
- promote the usefulness of marine monitoring data by intercalibration of methods and by encouraging standardisation of data collection
- consider and identify the requirements for research related to monitoring and assessment.
2. To examine the technical merits, and the effects within the marine environment, of on-going programmes for the disposal of wastes through pipelines, or by dumping into coastal or estuarine waters and advise on:
- the operational problems which arise
- the effectiveness of the programme in achieving their EQs
- further development of the programme in order to improve their effectiveness
The Marine Pollution Monitoring Group has reported on the following:
The National Marine Monitoring Programme
National Marine Analytical Quality Control Schemes
Sea Disposal Monitoring
Effects of Marine Fish Farming
Radioactivity in the Irish Sea
Nutrient Studies
InputsMPMMG Membership
The core members of MPMMG are representatives from the following organisations:
Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences
Environment Agency (EA)
Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (Northern Ireland)
Environment and Heritage Service (Northern Ireland)
Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions
Fisheries Research Services Marine Laboratory, Aberdeen
Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)
The National Assembly for Wales (Environment Division)
Scottish Executive Rural Affairs Department
Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Sciences
Joint Nature Conservation Committee
IACMST Marine Observations Action GroupThe following organisations have correspondence members of MPMMG:
Water Research Centre
Marine Pollution Control Unit
North West Water Ltd
Department of Trade and Industry
Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food
Water UK
Department of Health
Natural Environmental Research Council
Anglian WaterNational Monitoring Programme (NMP)
now termed the National Marine Monitoring Programme (NMMP)
In 1987-88 the MPMMG reviewed the monitoring carried out in UK estuaries and coastal waters and concluded that there would be considerable merit in the regular sampling of a network of coastal monitoring stations. It was agreed that the network of stations should include both sites that may be significantly contaminated and others that are free from anthropogenic inputs. It was envisaged that the uncontaminated sites, which were expected to lie in offshore locations, would serve as reference sites and would also provide information on the extent of natural variability in the marine environment.
In its formal response to the MPMMG review the Government accepted the need for a minimum core programme of marine monitoring to national standards for all UK waters. A network of 87 coastal monitoring stations in estuarine, intermediate and offshore locations around the UK was established. The NMP was initiated to co-ordinate marine monitoring in the United Kingdom with a view to establishing a clear overall picture of the spatial distribution of contaminants and their biological effects.
The first holistic NMP report on this spatial survey, National Monitoring Programme Survey of the Quality of UK Coastal Waters, was published in November 1998. [FRS have printed copies available for distribution, available via the library - see: http://www.marlab.ac.uk/FRS.Web/Delivery/display_standalone_with_menu.aspx?contentid=740]
The results from the first phase of the NMP have been used to determine future monitoring requirements, which include the continuation of spatial distribution studies and the selection of key sites at which trend monitoring should be undertaken.
The objectives of the first phase of the National Monitoring Programme were:
(1) to establish as precisely as practicable the spatial distribution of contaminants in different areas of UK waters and to define their current biological status, thus identifying any areas of specific concern, e.g. areas where the concentrations of one or more contaminants might affect biological processes or render fish and shellfish unfit for human consumption:
(2) to detect with appropriate accuracy trends in both contaminant concentrations and biological well-being in those areas identified as being of concern; and
(3) to measure long-term natural trends in physical, biological and chemical parameters at selected areas.
In achieving these objectives it was necessary to establish a central computerised database for contaminants in all media and for biological effects in the UK marine environment. This was established in 1996 at the Toxic and Persistent Substances Centre of the Environment Agency in Peterborough and is funded by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR). In September 1997 the database was relocated to the National Centre for Environmental Data and Surveillance of the Environment Agency in Bath.
Considerable progress has been made in co-ordinating the monitoring activities of responsible organisations in the UK. This ranges from improved dialogue between organisations to collaboration between the individual laboratories responsible for practical implementation of the work. In parallel with the co-ordination effort, quality control procedures have been developed to ensure that data from one laboratory are comparable to those from another. Another important achievement has been the establishment of a central database to store NMP data. The database has been used to produce the maps, which have facilitated presentation of the results.
The work of co-ordinating marine monitoring in the UK is, however, far from complete. Over the forthcoming years, effort will be made to build on what has been achieved to date. the present report should, therefore, be viewed as a progress report. Although it is not intended to be a quality status report, it does contain some limited assessment of the data. Its principal purposes are to summarise the information obtained so far and to use this to highlight areas, both geographical and subject, where future effort should be targeted.
National Marine Analytical Quality Control Schemes
The quality of the data is at the heart of the NMMP. as it is for any monitoring scheme. One of the problems revealed by reviewing previous arrangements was the variability in methods and the quality standards achieved under different schemes. MPMMG has tackled this through the establishment of National Marine Chemical, Biological and Ecotoxicological Analytical Quality Control Schemes, which address the ability of laboratories to provide comparable data of the quality required for the NMMP. The schemes have been highly successful both in exposing shortcomings and in improving performance. They have proven the value of a rigorous, formal approach towards quality control, and as a result have attracted participation from laboratories unconnected to the NMMP.
The three NMMP Quality Control schemes are:
National Marine Chemical Analytical Quality Control Scheme (NMCAQC)
National Marine Biological Analytical Quality Control Scheme (NMBAQC)
National Marine Ecotoxicological Quality Control Scheme (NMEAQC))Sea Disposal Monitoring
The deliberate disposal of material such as dredgings and sewage sludge requires a major investment in monitoring, to identify appropriate sites and to check that the effects of disposal are acceptable. This task is overseen by a sub-group of MPMMG, the Group Co-ordinating Sea Disposal Monitoring (GCSDM). In the last few years, this group has set out an objective scientific basis for monitoring and assessing sewage sludge disposal. Following the cessation of sewage sludge dumping in 1998 GCSDM has examined how this approach may need to be modified to be applicable to the disposal of dredged material, and has begun to also consider the monitoring and assessment of pipeline discharges. These activities are of crucial importance for ensuring the protection of operations that introduce contamination into the sea non-accidentally.
Effects of Marine Fish Farming
Expansion of the fish-farming industry, and the associated burgeoning of sea cages for salmon in some parts of the UK, raised a need for a review of the environmental impacts of this practice. MPMMG set up a sub-group which has looked into potential effects on sediments and benthic communities, water quality, microbial communities and fish populations, arising from nutrient enrichment and the use of toxic chemicals. This has helped to establish how the acceptability or otherwise of the effects due to a fish-farming enterprise might be judged, and had clarified the nature of the monitoring that might be carried out to detect impacts. It has also identified where research would be required, to fill gaps in knowledge.
Radioactivity in the Irish Sea
In response to concerns about the implications of discharging radioactive water into the sea, there has been long-term monitoring of radionuclides in UK coastal waters. MPMMG commissioned a review of the information relating to the Irish Sea, in order to identify and place into context the principal issues of concern, relating to transport and ultimate fate of radionuclides, and associated risks. This was published in 1992, as a Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) report (Kershaw et al., 1992), which will be instrumental in guiding further investigations of issues such as the possible resuspension of sediments in which radioactive material has gathered.
Nutrient Studies
The Joint Nutrient Study (JONUS) research project has been underway since 1990. Its objective was to improve understanding of how the amounts of nutrients entering rivers may be modified by various geochemical and biological processes before they reach coastal waters where they potentially may cause eutrophication problems. This research, which has focused to date on the Humber, Wash and Thames estuaries, is important for two reasons: first, it helps to demonstrate the complexity of mechanisms determining nutrient fluxes in different river estuary systems, and hence the problems involved in prediction. Secondly, it provides information to counter over-simplified assumptions about risks of eutrophication, which can have major consequences for nutrient reduction policies and their ensuing costs.
The Southampton Water Nutrient Study (SONUS) commenced in 1995 with the main objectives of determining a quantitative nutrient budget for the Southampton Water system and to establish the nutrient fluxes for this system to the English Channel.
Work on nutrient cycling is also being undertaken in Strangford and Belfast Loughs in Northern Ireland, designed to produce a budget estimating the nutrient exports to the open Irish Sea. In Scotland, nutrient modelling is being carried out in Loch Linnhe to asses the impact of nutrient enrichment from Fish Farming: additional work is being undertaken in the Scottish North Sea Coastal Zone and in the Ythan Estuary.
Inputs
In 1988, the Paris Commission decided to initiate comprehensive annual surveys of inputs of selected pollutants to Convention waters. the first survey in the UK was carried out in 1990. Study of this and the subsequent surveys have shown that, generally, there has been an overall downward trend.
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Published 8 July 1999; Last modified 27 July 2004
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