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WaterNews for October 14, 2004Benjamin Grumbles WaterNews is a weekly on-line publication that announces publications, policies, and activities of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water. In This Week’s WaterNews:
Leavitt Announces Progress in Asian Carp Control on Great LakesEPA Administrator Mike Leavitt and Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works John Paul Woodley, Jr. announced in Chicago on Oct. 13, that a funding package has been assembled to allow construction of an enhanced barrier to keep the invasive Asian carp out of the Great Lakes. The U.S. House and Senate voted to increase the cap on federal spending for the project, authorizing $6.825 million, which is 75 percent of the $9.1 million needed to complete the barrier. The Army Corps of Engineers, which is overseeing the project, says, with this authorization approved, it will be able to fund the federal share. The State of Illinois has committed $1.7 million and the Great Lakes governors have committed to funding the remaining nonfederal share of $575,000. To read the press release visit http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/b1ab9f485b098972852562e7004dc686?OpenView&Start=1&Count=30&Expand=1.1. For more information on the Great Lakes, go to http://www.epa.gov/greatlakes. Leavitt & Grumbles Kick Off World Water Monitoring Day on Oct. 17 & 18World Water Monitoring Day, an annual event commemorating the anniversary of the Clean Water Act kicks off in Washington, DC on Sunday, Oct. 17, when Benjamin Grumbles, Acting Administrator for Water, will participate in a community event in Annandale, Virginia's Wilburdale Park from 1-4 p.m. Among the scheduled Wilburdale Park activities are chemical and biological monitoring demonstrations, invasive species plant removal, tree planting, and a variety of hands-on activities for adults and kids. Partners in this event include the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District, the Fairfax Volunteer Stream Monitoring Program, Fairfax County government, EPA, the National Zoo, and Earth Sangha. On Oct. 18, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) will host an educational event from 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. at its Edgewater, Maryland location. The event will include EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt as featured speaker. Local middle and high school students will conduct hands-on water monitoring demonstrations on the Rhode River. World Water Monitoring Day affords youth and families the opportunity to get involved in local watershed activities and learn about water quality issues and water monitoring. Between Sept. 18 and Oct. 18th, citizens from all across the globe will be going out to their nearby stream, lake, bay or wetland and testing their waters for a few basic characteristics--dissolved oxygen, temperature, turbidity (water clarity) and pH. Results can then be entered into an international on-line database. For more information on World Water Monitoring Day, visit www.worldwatermonitoringday.org Contact Alice Mayio at (202) 566-1184 for more information on these events. To order flyers or educational items for distribution at World Water Monitoring Day events, visit our Celebrate Monitoring Month website at: http://www.epa.gov/owow/monitoring/volunteer/monitoringmonth.html. EPA Announces 2004 National Clean Water Act Recognition Award WinnersEPA announced the 29 first and second place winners of the 2004 National Clean Water Act Recognition Awards on Oct. 4. The ceremony took place during the Water Environment Federation’s Technical Exposition and Conference in New Orleans, La. This is the nineteenth year EPA has recognized municipalities and industries for their outstanding water quality achievements. The presentation of these awards helps raise the public's awareness of the pollution reduction efforts that their wastewater treatment plants make to improve the Nation’s waters. State water pollution control agencies and EPA regional offices make recommendations to headquarters for the national awards. To read a listing of the awards winners visit http://www.epa.gov/water/cwa_awards.html. EPA Participates in Annual Girl Scout ECO-EXPO DayEPA’s Office of Water participated in the annual Girl Scout ECO-EXPO at Greenbelt National Park in Maryland on Oct. 2. This was a day-long event that brought together environmental stewards of all ages to participate in hands-on science activities. An estimated 1000 Girl Scouts, as well as over 40 environmental groups from the private, public, and non-profit sectors came out for this special environmental festival hosted by the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital (GSCNC). EPA employee Sheryl Anayas used a table top interactive display which included jarred samples of macroinvertebraes to educate the girls about how aquatic bugs are used as water quality indicators. In addition, she encouraged the girls to take a proactive role in watershed protection by demonstrating how to use our hands-on, Water Quality Monitoring Kit to examine the water quality of their nearby creeks and streams. This fun and easy-to-use kit, allows people of all ages to measure four important water quality indicators, including: dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity (water clarity), and temperature. The Girl Scouts, troop leaders, and parents enjoyed the interactive learning benefits of the kit, as well as other engaging activities the ECO-EXPO event had to offer. The enthusiasm shared by hundreds of Girl Scouts, presenters, and organizers marks this year’s ECO-EXPO as a huge success. For more information on GSCNC, go to www.gscnc.org For more information on these events contact Sheryl Anayas at (202)566-0917. 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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