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WaterNews for July 24, 2000WaterNews 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:
(1) EPA Finalizes Total Maximum Daily Loads Rule On July 11, EPA finalized the Total Maximum Daily Loads or “TMDL” rule. The rule appeared in the Federal Register on July 13. The final rule strengthens the national program for identifying polluted waters, determining the sources of pollution, and designing clean-up plans. The TMDL program is the framework for working cooperatively with the states to finish the job of cleaning up America's polluted waterways. For more information, visit the TMDL website at http://www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl on the Internet. (2) EPA Releases 1999 Beach Survey Data Under its new BEACH Watch program, established in l997 by EPA Administrator Carol M. Browner, EPA has released the results of its third annual beach survey, reflecting swimming conditions last year at nearly 1900 (1,891) beaches nationwide. According to the l999 data, over a quarter (459) of the reported beaches were affected by at least one advisory or closure, most due to elevated bacteria levels, primarily from sewage or storm water overflows. The l999 information was submitted to EPA voluntarily by state and local environmental and public health officials from all coastal and Great Lakes states. For more information, visit http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/beaches on the Internet. (3) EPA Proposes Standards for New Cooling Water Intake Structures to Prevent Large Fish Kills To help prevent large numbers of fish and other aquatic organisms from being killed or injured by industrial cooling water intake structures, EPA proposed on July 20 standards to reduce environmental impacts from the structures at new industrial facilities. It will establish new requirements to protect the most biologically sensitive areas, including tidal waters and estuaries. Issued under a court order, the proposal would apply to new facilities that draw in large amounts of cooling water from waterways, primarily facilities in the following industries: steam electric power generation, pulp and paper making, chemical manufacturing, petroleum refining, and primary metals manufacturing (including iron and steel making and aluminum manufacturing). For more information, visit http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/316b/ on the Internet. (4) Draft Action for Reducing, Mitigating, and Controlling Hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico On behalf of the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force, EPA invites public comments on the draft Action Plan for Reducing, Mitigating, and Controlling Hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. This Action Plan describes a national strategy to reduce the frequency, duration, size and degree of oxygen depletion of the hypoxic zone of the northern Gulf of Mexico. The Action Plan is the result of several years of study and discussion by the members of the Task Force and many interested officials and citizens who participated in their deliberations. EPA is requesting comment until September 11, 2000. All comments received during the formal comment period will be reviewed and delivered to the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force. For mor information, visit http://www.epa.gov/msbasin/fr-actionplan.html on the Internet.
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 listserve: * 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 at the end of each week. If you encounter difficulties subscribing to this list server or if you would like to be taken off the WaterNews list server at any time, please send your E-mail address to Gloria Posey at Posey.Gloria@epa.gov.
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