A coated wire ion selective electrode for nitrate (nitrate-CWE_ was constructed using epoxy resin, ion exchanger and plasticizer as a polymer membrane. It's stility, the composition of a polymer membrane, the response characteristics, the selectivity were examined and applied to the environmental analysis. The nitrate-CWE was prepared using a copper wire, wihch was coated with epoxy resin being incorporated with the nitrate ion exchanger and plasticizer. The best composition of the polymer membrane for the nitrate-CWE was obtained by mixing epoxy resin, ion exchanger and plasticizer in the ratio of 2:1:0.4. The potential (56.3$\pm$0.5 mV) of stick form nitrate-CWE in this composition was close to that (59.2 mV) of Nernstian response. The detection limit for nitrate ion were found to the about $6 \times 10^{-5}M$ and the useful pH was 2.5 $\sim$ 10.3. Furthermore, the selectivity of iodide and perchrorate for the nitrage-CWE was also much improved compared with that for a liquid membrane nitrate electrode. The nitrate-CWE was used to determind $NO_x$ in stack gas. The results were in good agreement with those obtained either by electrode method or by the improved NEDA method within a relative error of 4.0%.