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Water Headlines for September 15, 2008Benjamin H. Grumbles Water Headlines 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 Water Headlines:
World Water Monitoring Day Starts Sept. 18
Thursday, September 18th, is the kick off the 5th Annual World Water Monitoring Day, a month-long international effort aimed to increase public awareness and involvement in water monitoring and protecting water resources around the world. World Water Monitoring Day engages people of all ages in monitoring the condition of local rivers, streams, estuaries and other waterbodies. Conducting simple monitoring tests teaches participants about some of the most common indicators of water health and encourages further participation in more formal citizen monitoring efforts. Hains Point Park in Washington, D.C. will be the site of a national celebration of World Water Monitoring Day 2008 on Thursday, September 18, at 9:00 a.m. This year’s program features a special hand washing campaign to recognize the United Nations’ "International Year of Sanitation." The event is coordinated by the Water Environment Federation and the International Water Association, with partners including the USEPA, U.S. Geological Survey and many more. World Water Monitoring Day runs from Sept. 18 until Oct. 18. For more information about WWMD 2008 and to find about how you can participate, visit http://www.WorldWaterMonitoringDay.com 23rd Annual International Coastal Cleanup on September 20thEPA and NOAA are joining Ocean Conservancy in the International Coastal Cleanup, the world’s largest volunteer event of its kind. Since 1986, the International Coastal Cleanup has gathered six million volunteers to remove more than 100 million pounds of marine litter from 170,000 miles of beaches and inland waterways. This year, the event takes place worldwide on Saturday, September 20. The EPA and NOAA marine debris programs have helped fund the International Coastal Cleanup for several years and through the partnership with Ocean Conservancy have helped promote litter prevention and improve the health of the ocean and waterways by shining a spotlight on the worldwide marine debris problem. "Ocean trash is a tragedy that can be prevented locally and globally if we all do our part," said EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Benjamin H. Grumbles. "Land-based pollution has a hand-based solution: Reduce waste and put litter in its place, off the street and out of the stream."
Last year, 378,000 volunteers in 76 countries removed six million pounds of marine debris. Trash in the ocean continues to threaten millions of seabirds, fish and wildlife every year. Last year’s volunteers found 81 birds, 63 fish, 49 crabs and lobsters, 30 mammals, 11 reptiles and one amphibian entangled in debris that included discarded fishing line, fishing net, rope, and plastic bags. Through data collection, the International Coastal Cleanup teaches us the behaviors that cause the problem in the first place. Each year, volunteers gather data on the types of debris collected. Ocean Conservancy produces the results in an annual report, which is the most comprehensive collection of volunteer marine debris data in the world. The report helps the public, industry, and government officials understand the issue, and helps spread the message about how to best address litter issues at the source. For more information, visit http://www.oceanconservancy.org EPA Publishes its 2008 Effluent Guidelines Program PlanEPA published its final 2008 Effluent Guidelines Program Plan in the Federal Register today. Effluent guidelines are industry specific national regulations that control the discharge of pollutants to surface waters and to publicly owned treatment works. The Plan announces that EPA will conduct focused detailed reviews in 2009 and 2010 for the steam electric power generating industry; the coalbed methane extraction portion of the oil and gas extraction industry; and unused pharmaceutical disposal in the health services industry. EPA has already initiated a study on pharmaceutical disposal practices at health care facilities, such as hospitals, hospices, long-term care facilities, and veterinary hospitals. A draft information collection request on unused pharmaceuticals management in the health service industry was published in the Federal Register in August for comment. The preliminary effluent guideline plan was published for public comment in October 2007. To see a copy of the Federal Register notice and other related documents, visit EPA's web site at http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/guide/304m/. Contact Carey Johnston at 202-566-1014 or email him at johnston.carey@epa.gov for more information about the 2008 Plan. EPA Seeking Scientific Views on Revised Water Quality Criteria for Acrolein and PhenolToday in the Federal Register, EPA published draft revisions to its national recommended water quality criteria for acrolein and phenol. Scientific views will be accepted on these criteria revisions for 45 days before they are finalized. EPA recalculated the human health criteria based on EPA’s Methodology for Deriving Ambient Water Quality Criteria for the Protection of Human Health (2000). The revised criteria represent a partial update and integrate new reference doses for acrolein and phenol from the Agency’s Integrated Risk Information System. You can get copies of the Federal Register Notice by visiting EPA’s web site at http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/criteria/humanhealth/. If you have comments or questions, please contact Heidi Bethel at 202-566-2054 or send an e-mail to her at bethel.heidi@epa.gov. Preparing Water Utilities to Respond to DisastersEPA has been working with stakeholders to ensure that drinking water and wastewater utilities are prepared to respond to disasters – both natural and man-made. The Agency has provided training on Incident Command System (ICS) basics and the National Incident Management System (NIMS) tailored to the water sector to more than 1500 people in 48 states over the past 3 years. EPA is making these training materials available on-line to help drinking water and wastewater utilities better understand the ICS structure, coordinate with other first responders within an expanding ICS structure, and implement NIMS concepts and principles. The training is available at http://cfpub.epa.gov/safewater/watersecurity/home.cfm?program_id=8#nims and information about opportunities for on-site training is available at http://www.horsleywitten.com/ICStraining/. Understanding the ICS and NIMS concepts will also help utilities provide mutual aid and assistance to one another. Encouraging the development of state-wide mutual aid and assistance agreements has been a priority of EPA and water associations. The number of state Water/Wastewater Agency Response Networks (WARNs) has grown from 3 three in 2005 to 31 today, with more in the planning stages. EPA has developed a tabletop exercise facilitator guide to help WARNs practice and exercise their WARN operational plans and procedures. The guide includes instructions for planning, organizing, and conducting an exercise and includes sample materials, such as scenarios (flood, hurricane, and earthquake), discussion questions, and presentation slides. By practicing the functionality and operations of activating their mutual aid and assistance agreement, a WARN will be able to respond more effectively and efficiently during an actual incident. The guide and other information about Mutual Aid are available at http://cfpub.epa.gov/safewater/watersecurity/home.cfm?program_id=8#maa Watershed Academy Webcast on Gulf HypoxiaOn October 7, 2008, EPA’s Watershed Academy will present a Webcast entitled, Moving Forward on Gulf Hypoxia. The Webcast will provide a general introduction to the hypoxia problem in the Gulf of Mexico, improvements outlined in the newly released 2008 Action Plan, and an overview of actions EPA and other federal agencies and state agencies are taking to reduce nutrient pollution and improve water quality in the Mississippi River Basin. EPA’s Assistant Administrator for Water, Benjamin H. Grumbles, will join several leading experts on hypoxia, including Dr. Nancy Rabalais, Executive Director and Professor with the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. Dr. Rabalais first identified and mapped the Gulf hypoxic zone in 1985 and is one of the leading researchers on Gulf hypoxia. Other presenters will include Darrell Brown, leader of EPA’s Gulf Hypoxia Team responsible for coordinating EPA’s efforts to reduce the hypoxic, and John Kessler with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Mr. Kessler will discuss his work as part of the Gulf Hypoxia Task Force and his role on the Ohio River Basin Steering Committee. To register, visit: http://www.epa.gov/watershedwebcasts/. EPA’s Watershed Academy Webcasts reach thousands of federal, state and local practitioners with the latest training on watershed management topics through convenient on-line training. The Webcasts build local, state and regional capacity to achieve measurable water quality improvements, targeted to meet Strategic Plan objectives. All EPA Webcasts are archived on the Watershed Academy Webcast Web page at http://www.epa.gov/watershedwebcasts/. Subscribe to Water HeadlinesPlease 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 Water Headlines listserve: Send an email message, leave the subject line blank, and address it to: In the body of the message write: Subscribe Water Headlines first name last name (Please leave one blank space between each word, do not include any other message, and use your actual name- i.e. Subscribe Water Headlines Robert Jones)
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