Sweet, Stephen, Terry L. Wade, Junesoo Park, David Wylie and Luis CifuentesProceedings: The State of the Bay Symposium IV. January 28-29, 19992010-02-152010-02-151999http://hdl.handle.net/1969.3/25857pgs. 265-274Nitrogen compounds can have both beneficial (e.g. soil fertility, plant nutrient) and harmful effects (ozone destruction, greenhouse effect, air pollution, acid rain, acidification and eutrophication of surface waters, contamination of ground water). The EPA took these deleterious effects into account and has a mandate to evaluate and regulate nitrogen compounds under the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Drinking Water Act, etc. Beside agricultural and sewage loadings of nitrogen via river and direct discharge, deposition of atmospheric nitrogen is a major fraction of anthropogenic nitrogen loadings to coastal ecosystems. In order to fulfill the mandates of the Great Waters Program and the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (112 m), the US EPA initiated monitoring research in important and representative water bodies, including coastal waters. As part of this program the Texas Regional Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Study (TRIADS) was established with a sampling site located in Seabrook, Texas in order to monitor atmospheric deposition of contaminants to Galveston Bay.nitrogen cyclenitrogen compoundsnutrientsfertilizerseutrophicationwater analysisnitratesnitritesureaammoniacontaminationatmospheric precipitationsriver dischargewater analysisChapter