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WaterNews for October 7, 2003G. Tracy Mehan, III WaterNews is a weekly on-line publication that announces publications, policies, and activities of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water. Inside this week’s WaterNews
Water Efficient Products Forum - Oct. 9EPA will host a Water Efficient Products stakeholder meeting on Thursday, Oct. 9, from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m at the Hotel Washington located at 515 15th Street in Washington, D.C. Information on Water Efficiency can be found at http://epa.gov/owm/water-efficiency/index.htm or to register online visit http://www.ergweb.com/projects/water/register.htm. Celebrating World Water Monitoring Day - Oct. 18EPA and others across the country will be celebrating World Water Monitoring Day on Oct. 18. To celebrate this event, Acting Administrator of EPA Marianne Lamont Horinko will be monitoring in Annapolis, MD. Assistant Administrator G. Tracy Mehan III will be monitoring in New Orleans, LA, and the Regional Administrators and Water Directors will be participating in monitoring events in their regions. For more information visit www.epa.gov/water/yearofcleanwater Governors and Tribal Leaders Invited to Nominate Projects for Watershed GrantsTo further preserve and restore the country’s waterways, the Bush Administration is calling on the nation’s governors and tribal leaders to apply for the second round of EPA’s watershed grants. This Watershed Initiative was first proposed by President Bush in his 2003 budget to protect waterways across the country. In May 2003, EPA announced the first round of nearly $15 million in grants to 20 watershed organizations selected as part of this new Watershed Initiative. President Bush has asked Congress for a $21 million appropriation for grants to support community-based approaches and activities to help local water resources. "Addressing 21st century problems like polluted runoff and suburban growth demands a collaborative approach to environmental protection–an approach grounded in innovative solutions and broad public involvement," said G. Tracy Mehan III, the EPA Assistant Administrator for Water. "The challenge of improving water quality nationwide is a task far greater than EPA can undertake alone. Success will require a sustained and coordinated commitment from our many partners." Last year, EPA selected 20 watershed organizations to receive grants averaging $700,000 each. The selected organizations were chosen to receive the awards because their work plans were the most likely to achieve environmental results in a relatively short-time period. For example: over 70 percent of the selected projects address agricultural pollution; 50 percent address urban and industrial runoff; 50 percent address the relationship between water quality and habitat restoration for wildlife and endangered or threatened species and 30 percent have projects aimed at the homeowner. Several projects will study a more innovative, market-based approach to attaining water quality and will test possibilities such as pollutant trading and crop insurance. For 2004, the Agency is continuing its focus on approaches aimed to provide quick, measurable environmental results, partnerships, innovation, and program integration. In addition, this year more emphasis will be placed on market-based approaches and other socio-economic strategies and the serious and growing hypoxia problem facing the Gulf of Mexico. Nominations by the country’s governors and tribal leaders for the second year of grants competition will be due to EPA on or before Jan. 15, 2004. The Agency will then evaluate and rank each submission based on a set of criteria outlined in the Federal Register Notice. Final selections of the watershed grantees will be announced next spring. To access the Federal Register Notice and other information about the Watershed Initiative go to: http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/initiative/. USDA Environmental Credit Trading Open ForumsThe United States Department of Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman has released Food and Agriculture Policy: Taking Stock for the New Century. This document provides guidance on future agriculture policy and identifies emerging hurdles facing farmers and ranchers across the nation. A central tenet to the natural resources conservation portion of that policy statement is the proposition that market-based solutions should be developed and implemented as a means to achieve conservation goals. The document also points out that farmers and ranchers need voluntary conservation opportunities commensurate with the regulatory challenges they face. USDA is hosting a series of forums to help identify potential opportunities for USDA involvement in environmental credit trading. These open sessions will feature discussion on key issues to help identify the potential opportunities that may exist for Departmental involvement in environmental credit trading. A series of discussion panels will be presented to provide private entity experiences with credit trading markets. Each panel will consist of people representing the interests of a buyer, seller, and aggregator of environmental credits and others involved in credit trading. Attendees will gain insight from organizations who have been involved in establishing different environmental credit trading markets. Each forum will focus on one case study and present lessons learned from experienced practitioners. These sessions are scheduled to be held in the Whitten Building on Independence Ave. as follows: October 10, 2003; 10:30-11:30 am; Room 107A; Pacific Northwest Direct Seeding Operation-Carbon Credit Trading October 23, 2003; 10:30-11:30 am; Room 108A; Tar Pamlico Nutrient Credit Trading Case Study November 20, 2003; 10:30-11:30 am; Room 107A; Iowa Farm Bureau Wetlands Banking December 16, 2003; 10:30-11:30 am; Room 107A; Winrock International-Carbon Credit Trading For more information contact Mark Colosimo at 301-504-2195 or Bill Boyer at 202-720-0307. Pennsylvania Seeks Information on Multi-Media Trading RegistryThe Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty has announced that they are seeking public comment to help guide the department in developing a multi-media trading registry that would enable substantial water quality improvements at minimum cost. For more information, visit DEP's homepage at http://www.dep.state.pa.us Redesigned STORET WarehouseThe STORET National Data Warehouse has recently been redesigned, improving speed and enabling larger and more flexible user defined queries. The STORET Warehouse is EPA's main repository for ambient water quality and biological monitoring data. The new Warehouse allows users to download raw data in a delimited text file format that can easily be imported into standard analysis software (e.g., spreadsheets, GIS). To retrieve data from STORET, simply click the "Obtaining Water Quality Data" link from the main STORET home page at www.epa.gov/storet. For more information, please contact Cary McElhinney, 202-566-1188, mcelhinney.cary@epa.gov. Morro Bay National Estuary Program Receives Award to Protect WatershedThe California State Coastal Conservancy has awarded $1.5 million to the Morro Bay National Estuary Program (MBNEP) for a major conservation easement aimed at protecting the estuary’s watershed. The MBNEP entered into an agreement with the land-owners last year to purchase an easement on the 1,860-acre Maino Ranch, located on the eastern boundary of the City of Morro Bay. The Conservancy’s grant, combined with money from The Nature Conservancy and the MBNEP, provides the necessary funding for the purchase. The conservation easement keeps the land in private ownership while provisions maintain the large site’s rural look and use as a “working landscape.” The easement protects large swaths of different habitats including woodlands, grasslands, chaparral, serpentine outcroppings, springs and streams. The easement also significantly reduces the development presently permitted on the property while allowing for continued ranching using good management practices that reduce erosion and pollution. The easement and its provisions will run with the land in perpetuity. For more information, contact Darrell Brown at 202-566-1256. EPA Participated in Health Conference in Phoenix, ArizonaThe Office of Water participated in an exhibit at a joint conference of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and the National Association of County and City Health Officials recently in Phoenix. Attendees included state, territorial, and local health agencies responsible for the health of their communities and the nation as a whole. Because many health officials coordinate bioterrorism preparedness in their communities, many visitors to the booth were interested in EPA's work to promote drinking water security and were glad to see the resources available on EPA’s website. The brochure, "Drinking Water for Household Wells," and the poster, "Protecting America's Public Health" were in high demand. For more information, please contact Sherri Umansky at 202-564-4639. Ground Water Protection Council (GWPC) Annual ForumThe Office of Water participated in the Ground Water Protection Forum held recently in Niagara Falls. The title of the meeting was "Interaction Among Ground Water Initiatives." Representatives from the United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Reclamation, United States Geological Survey, and the U.S. Department of Energy attended. They reported on joint state/federal agency efforts and the government/private sector partnerships affecting ground water protection. In addition, a number of technical presentations covering the underground injection well program, source water assessments, ground water remediation, and other case studies were presented by meeting participants. For more information, please contact Bruce Kobelski at 202-564-3888. New Security Product Guide Available OnlineG. Tracy Mehan III, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water, has announced the availability of the Environmental Protection Agency's Security Product Guide. The Agency developed the Security Product Guide especially for drinking water and wastewater utilities to assist treatment plant operators and utility managers in reducing risks and providing protection against possible natural disasters and intentional terrorist attacks. Individual products evaluated in this Guide will be applicable to distribution systems, wastewater collection systems, pumping stations, treatment processes, main plant site and remote sites, personnel entry, chemical delivery and storage, and computer or other automated control systems for water and wastewater treatment systems, including Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems. This Security Product Guide is a work in progress and will be updated regularly to ensure that the most recent information on security technologies is available. Users should check back frequently for the latest updates at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/security. For more information, please contact Curt Baranowski at 202-564-0636. Subscribe to WaterNewsPlease forward this message to your friends and colleagues who share an interest in water-related issues and would like to hear from EPA's Office of Water. To subscribe to the WaterNews listserv: Send an email message, leave the subject line blank, and address it to: In the body of the message write: Subscribe WaterNews firstname lastname (Please leave one blank space between each word, do not include any other message, and use your actual name- i.e. Subscribe WaterNews Robert Jones) A welcome message will appear in your email box once you are officially subscribed.
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