NPSINFO Discussion Forum

NPS pollution is the nation's largest remaining water quality problem—and a community of more than 2,300 individuals from federal, state and local government and numerous public and private organizations uses NPSINFO to share information on how to address this problem.

Purpose and Welcome Message

NPSINFO is a public forum for discussion of runoff pollution issues of a technical, applied or academic nature, including unregulated nonpoint source (NPS) pollution issues and regulated stormwater issues, as well as for brief on-topic announcements. It is sponsored by the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds (OWOW) and administered by OWOW's Nonpoint Source Management Branch. This list welcomes participants from across public and private sectors, including government agencies, non-profits and other organizations, researchers, educators, local water managers, industry, the agricultural community, and concerned individuals. The range of topics that are appropriate for discussing on NPSINFO include:

agricultural runoff
urban runoff
low impact development and green stormwater infrastructure
watershed planning, management, and restoration
hydrologic modification
aquatic habitat modification
NPS pollution prevention
NPS/stormwater education and outreach
funding for NPS/stormwater control
technology options for controlling NPS pollution

Your experience and input are valuable to others, and we encourage you to share it on NPSINFO. All of the following types of posts are welcome in NPSINFO, provided they are directly related to managing NPS pollution or regulated stormwater runoff:

questions, answers, and informed opinions
announcements
conference notices
news articles and job postings that are directly related to NPS/stormwater runoff issues may be posted to NPSINFO, as well

The preferred format for articles and job postings is to provide a short announcement with a Web link for more information. The goal of NPSINFO is to exchange information about nonpoint source pollution control and stormwater management. Therefore, this list is open to discussion on the wide range of NPS/stormwater topics, but subscribers who stray off-topic will be asked to continue their discussion elsewhere. In order to make the best use of subscribers' space and time, please hold personal discussions via private e-mail.

To Join NPSINFO

Send an e-mail message to listserv@lists.epa.gov and include in the subject line and the body of the message:

Subscribe NPSINFO [Your First Name] [Your Last Name] (e.g., Subscribe NPSINFO John Smith)

Leave the rest of the message blank, including signature lines. Please use your actual name when subscribing (first and last names; a nickname is fine if this is how you are commonly known). Subscription requests that lack valid names will be rejected. You will receive a confirmation message on the acceptance or rejection of your request. Confirmed subscribers will also receive an automated welcome message that includes important information about their subscription.

Contributing Messages to NPSINFO - To post a message to the list, send it to npsinfo@lists.epa.gov. Only subscribers can post messages.

Attachments Not Allowed - To greatly minimize the risk of spreading viruses or other malicious software, NPSINFO does not accept attachments. This is an EPA-wide policy for all of its topic lists. Please do not attempt to send attachments to the list. Attachments sent to the list will be automatically stripped, but may generate extremely long strings of gibberish at the end of your message. Messages posted to NPSINFO may specify arrangements for sharing files off-list (e.g., offering to send files privately upon request or providing links to websites where files may be downloaded).

To Leave NPSINFO

Do one of the following:

Follow the simple instructions at the footer appended to every posted message.
Send an email message to listserv@lists.epa.gov and include in the subject line and the body of the message:

Unsubscribe NPSINFO

Consequences for Misusing NPSINFO:

Because of the instantaneous nature of electronic lists, EPA cannot be responsible for the content of messages that appear on this list. Inappropriate or unprofessional postings will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. To err is human, but it takes modern technology to magnify that error to the thousands of NPSINFO list subscribers. Penalties can range from warnings to outright bans (removal of offending subscriber from member rolls and automated rejection of subsequent requests to rejoin the list).

Inappropriate Uses of NPSINFO

Commercial advertising is not allowed in general; however, if a product or service is directly and primarily relevant to the nonpoint source or stormwater management community, a short announcement with reference or link to more information elsewhere is acceptable. The linking page must be limited to a description of the particular product or service featured in the announcement; it is not to be a general marketing page for other products and services. Short announcements for educational webinars and webcasts that are directly and primarily relevant to the nonpoint source or stormwater management community may be posted to the list. However, announcements for presentations that are intended to promote proprietary products or services are not allowed.

If you are a vendor, consultant, or are otherwise selling a product or service, do not use contact information obtained from postings to this list to call or pay a visit on your fellow subscribers without first obtaining their permission by way of a brief e-mail request sent off-list. Subscribers to NPSINFO have an expectation that queries or information posted to an EPA list such as NPSINFO will not subject them to unwanted attention from commercial interests. Do not use this list to harvest names or other contact information from people who post to this list. EPA will investigate complaints from subscribers who report being subjected to violations of this policy. Complaints should be sent to: npsinfo-request@lists.epa.gov.

Those who violate this policy will be banned from this list. EPA further reserves the right to remove all subscribers affiliated with businesses that fail to control employees engaged in these practices.

While the expression of opposing views is a hallmark of useful discussion, it is not appropriate to use the list to send negative messages. Messages should conform to professional standards and ethics. Do not post content that infringes copyrights or violates sharing agreements for restricted content. Personal attacks, sweeping generalizations, conspiracy theories, and unsubstantiated accusations or claims are some of the things that have no place on NPSINFO. It should go without saying that it is not appropriate to post messages of a personal or political nature.

Finally, it is not appropriate to use this EPA list to advocate for EPA policy changes, including disseminating comments on EPA rule-making efforts, or to harvest names or other contact information from list subscribers for this purpose. This list is for discussion of technical issues and short announcements pertaining to controlling runoff pollution.

A Word about Security

NPSINFO is a digital community that operates over email, hosted on a server and supported by the US EPA. We are guests on this server and should behave as such. Please behave in an ethical and trustworthy manner, meaning:

Do not attempt to access, change or delete data unless you are authorized to do so.
Do not allow others to use your membership privileges.
Notify the list administrators at npsinfo-request@lists.epa.gov if you suspect or detect a security incident on the list.
Follow the rules of conduct as specified by the list administrators.
EPA's Office of Technology Operations and Planning recommends that you password-protect your subscription. If you utilize passwords, change the password every 90 days. Use at least 8 characters in the password in an alpha and numeric mix. Passwords should be memorized and not written down. Failure to follow these rules may result in penalties, such as removal from the list and loss of privileges.

Rules of Conduct for Posting to NPSINFO

Review your messages before posting them. Keep them professional and polite. Remember: "THINK" before "SEND."
Include meaningful subject headers.
Identify yourself and your affiliation. Consider providing additional contact information, as well. Do not post anonymously.
While the expression of opposing views is a hallmark of useful discussion, never use the list to send negative messages. Messages should conform to professional standards and ethics.
All posted messages must be directly related to the primary purpose of the list. The purpose for NPSINFO is to facilitate discussion of nonpoint source/stormwater runoff pollution issues. If you are uncertain about whether or not a message is appropriate for NPSINFO, contact the list administrators via npsinfo-request@lists.epa.gov.
Messages should be succinct. If the primary information resides on the Web, the message should be limited to a brief introduction or overview with a link to the Web page.
Each posted message should be limited to a single topic.
As a courtesy to your fellow subscribers, don't echo back long message strings.
Never send a message when you are angry or upset. Don't react to a flame or provocative message sent to the list by sending one of your own back to the list. If you feel that a message posted to NPSINFO is inappropriate, you may let the EPA's list administrators know by sending a message to npsinfo-request@lists.epa.gov.
Reply directly to the sender rather than the list, unless you perceive your reply to be of general interest. Don't send "Amen" messages, or other single-sentence messages that don't contribute anything useful, to the list.