WaterNews for October 14, 2003

G. Tracy Mehan, III
Assistant Administrator
Office of Water

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

• EPA Celebrates The First World Monitoring Day - Live Webcast
• EPA Proposes Federal Water Quality Standards for Oregon
• EPA Awards Grant to Northern Arizona University
• Calling all Governors and Tribal Leaders
• Subscribe to WaterNews

EPA Celebrates The First World Water Monitoring Day

Acting Administrator Horinko Monitors in Edgewater, MD:
To celebrate the first World Water Monitoring Day, Acting EPA Administrator Marianne Horinko, President of America's Clean Water Foundation Roberta Savage, Smithsonian Undersecretary for Science David Evans, and Ross Simons, Director of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center will join local high school students from C. H. Flowers High School in Prince George's County and South River High School in Anne Arundel County on a water monitoring excursion on the Rhode River and the Chesapeake Bay on Friday, Oct. 17, from 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, MD.

The students, who are enrolled in the Student Training in Aquatic Research (STAR) program at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Maryland, will sample fish, plankton and water quality. World Water Monitoring Day is an event designed to educate people of all ages, in all nations, about the value of clean water and the role of water quality monitoring.

In recognition of the global importance of World Water Monitoring Day, Smithsonian will be webcasting the days events live on their web site http://smithsonian.tv/videos/serc/

Assistant Administrator Mehan Monitors in Louisiana:
G. Tracy Mehan III, EPA’s Assistant Administrator for Water and Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, John Paul Woodley, Jr. will tour areas of Louisiana’s coast by air on Thursday, Oct. 16, as they are briefed on the State’s dramatic land loss and efforts to address it. Scientists and State officials will fly the group over vanishing coastal wetlands and restoration sites, landing at the Caernarvon Freshwater Diversion Project to view ongoing monitoring activities associated with this project.

The tour is part of the America’s WETLAND Technical Summit being held in New Orleans on Oct. 16 and 17, and will focus on the National significance of Louisiana’s land loss challenge. The tour also focuses on how water monitoring tracks the effects of coastal restoration efforts in Louisiana as we prepare to celebrate World Water Monitoring Day on Oct. 18.

Assistant Administrator Mehan Monitors in Mississippi:
Assistant Administrator Mehan and Bryon Griffith, Acting Director, Gulf of Mexico Program, Stennis Space Center will join students taking the AP Environmental Science class at Hancock High School on Oct. 15 at 8 a.m.. to do water quality monitoring on Bayou LaTerre (on the bridge at Firetower Road on Highway 603 in Kiln, Miss.) to help celebrate World Water Monitoring Day in the Year of Clean Water.

EPA Proposes Federal Water Quality Standards for Oregon

EPA has just proposed federal water quality standards for the State of Oregon that include use designations, temperature and intergravel dissolved oxygen water quality criteria, methods for the antidegradation policy, and certain provisions for federally-owned or operated dams. The State intends to adopt revised standards in December 2003 and submit them to EPA for review and, if EPA approves them, it will withdraw the proposal. You can find the Federal Register notice at http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/standards/. For more information, see EPA Region 10's web site at http://www.epa.gov/r10earth/federaloregonwqs.htm or send an e-mail to Cara Lalley at lalley.cara@epa.gov

EPA Awards Grant to Northern Arizona University

G. Tracy Mehan III, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water, announced a grant of $25,000 to Northern Arizona University's Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals to develop the Tribal Wastewater Training Center located on the University’s campus in Flagstaff. The funding for this year will enable the Tribal Wastewater Training Center to provide on-site assistance for Tribes on the Colorado Plateau, including the Hopi Reservation and Navajo Nation. Additionally, the Training Center has planned four on-campus training courses and is also planning a pilot training course targeting Native American elected officials and tribal government employees. Finally, the Training Center will continue to develop a Native American wastewater operator certification program. For more information, please see http://www4.nau.edu/itep/twwtc.html

Calling All Governors and Tribal Leaders

Following the completion of a successful inaugural year, EPA has announced the call for nominations for the second round of Watershed Initiative grants. The Watershed Initiative program, an integral part of the agency’s watershed approach to clean water, provides assistance to state and local community groups to protect inland and coastal watersheds. To continue this endeavor, $21 million has been requested for this year’s budget for grants to support community-based approaches and activities to protect and restore local water resources. This request is now before Congress.

Last year the Agency selected 20 watershed organizations to receive grants averaging $700,000. The selected organizations were those with workplans that were most ready-to-go and were likely to achieve environmental results in a relatively short time period. 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 (1) market-based approaches and other socio-economic strategies, and (2) the serious and growing hypoxia problem facing the Gulf of Mexico.

Governors and Tribal Leaders are being invited to submit nominations for projects that would promote and advance the successes of existing watershed work. Nominations are due by Jan. 15, 2004, after which the Agency will evaluate and rank each submission based on a set of criteria outlined in the notice. Final selections of watershed grantees will be announced next spring. The Federal Register Notice and other information about the Watershed Initiative is available at http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/initiative/.

Subscribe to WaterNews

Please 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:

waternews-join@lists.epa.gov

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.
WaterNews will be sent to you once a week.

Reference Information | Web Satisfaction Survey

EPA Home | Privacy and Security Notice | Contact Us