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WaterNews for March 18, 2003WaterNews 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
The New "Elements of a State Water Monitoring and Assessment Program” ReleasedOn March 14, 2003, EPA released Elements of a State Water Monitoring and Assessment Program. This guidance document recommends ten basic elements of a holistic, comprehensive monitoring program that serves all water quality management needs and addresses all water body types. The elements provide a basic framework that may be tailored to the specific needs of States or other organizations. The elements include important activities such as developing a strategy that integrates the efforts of monitoring partners, articulating monitoring objectives, designing networks and selecting indicators that serve management needs, ensuring the quality and integrity of data and analyses, managing and reporting data, conducting program evaluations and documenting resource needs to ensure effective program implementation. The final document is being sent to the printer and posted on the EPA web site at http://www.epa.gov/owow/monitoring/. Office of Water Seeks Comment on Draft Strategic Plan for National Water ProgramEPA recently released for public review and comment a draft Strategic Plan for the years 2004-2008. The draft Strategic Plan is built around five goals, centered on the themes of air, water, land, communities and ecosystems, and compliance and environmental stewardship. These themes reflect EPA's mission, "to protect human health and the environment." In each goal, key objectives are defined (i.e. what change in the environment or public health is expected to be accomplished by 2008). In addition, a narrative strategy explains how EPA, States, Tribes and others will work together to accomplish environmental and health improvements. Goals and strategies for the National Water Program are found in Goal 2 of the new Strategic Plan. In addition, some key water programs are found in Goal 4, including the National Estuary Program, the Great Waterbody Programs (i.e. the Great Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico, and Chesapeake Bay), and the wetlands program. The Office of Water would very much like to hear comments or suggestions on the draft strategy. Comments are due by April 25th and may be filed electronically. The draft Strategic Plan is available on the Internet at http://www.epa.gov/ocfo/plan/plan.htm. EPA will be submitting a final Strategic Plan to Congress in September 2003. Final Withdrawal Of 2000 TMDL Rule; Existing Rules Make Progress Cleaning Up Impaired WatersIn an action strongly supported by agriculture, forestry, states, industry, and the U.S. Congress, EPA Administrator Christie Whitman on March 13 withdrew a controversial rule that would have revised EPA's program for cleaning up impaired waters – the July 2000 final Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) rule. The 2000 rule was determined to be unworkable based on reasons described by more than 34,000 comments and was challenged in court by some two dozen parties. Congress stopped the rule's implementation, and the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council (NRC) found numerous drawbacks with the July 2000 rule. "In order to ensure that this nation's bodies of water are cleaned up, we need an effective national program that involves the active participation and support of all levels of government and local communities," EPA Administrator Christie Whitman said. "Unfortunately, the 2000 rule, designed to implement the TMDL program, fell short of that goal and others. We have an existing TMDL program, and this action will not stop ongoing implementation of that program, development of water quality standards, issuance of permits to control discharges, or enforcement against violators. EPA and states will continue to cooperate to identify impaired waters and set protective standards for those waters. EPA will continue to work diligently on ways to improve this program to ensure that we meet our goal of purer water." An overwhelming majority of comments (more than 90 percent) supported EPA's proposed action to withdraw the July 2000 rule. These comments came from a broad cross-section of stakeholders, including agricultural and forestry groups, business and industry entities and trade associations, state agencies, professional associations, academic groups and private citizens. The Clean Water Act requires states to identify waters not meeting water quality standards and to develop plans for cleaning them up. The Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program provides a process for determining pollution budgets for the nation's waters that, once implemented, will assure that Clean Water Act goals will be met. EPA is continuing efforts to improve the TMDL program in order to further enhance the quality of the nation's waters. In 2001 and 2002 combined, more than 5,000 TMDLs were approved or established under the current TMDL rule. The number of TMDLs approved or established annually has steadily increased in the last four years jumping from 500 in 1999 to nearly 3,000 in 2002. EPA has been working steadily to identify options to improve the TMDL program, including addressing problems reported by the National Academy of Sciences. The agency has conducted several public meetings and is reviewing its ongoing implementation of the existing program with a view toward continuous improvement and regulatory changes in light of stakeholder input and the NRC recommendations. The Final Rule will be published in the federal register soon. For more information please visit the TMDL website at http://www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl/ Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water Addresses Two GroupsAssistant Administrator G. Tracy Mehan, III, traveled on March 17 to Tampa, Florida to address the Food Industry Environmental Council and the American Meet Institute and Environmental Committee. Today he will speak to the National Association of Conservation Districts in Washington, DC. Chesapeake Bay Environmental Justice Forum to be held in Washington, DCThe EPA Chesaspeake Bay Program and the D.C. Department of Health have joined together to host a Chesapeake Bay Environmental Justice Forum on March 22 from 9am-5pm at George Washington University in Washington, DC. The Chesapeake 2000 Agreement recommits Bay partners to address the challenges of achieving Bay restoration. The Agreement outlines two very important goals relating to minority communities: increasing outreach and education in minority communities; and identifying specific actions to address challenges in communities where poor water quality has impacted public health and economies. The purpose of this forum is to facilitate discussion and promote active community involvement concerning these two significant environmental justice issues affecting citizens and water quality in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Panel discussions will foster dialogue on both the public health concerns surrounding the continued practice of high consumption of contaminated fish among sensitive populations as well as the challenge of obtaining and maintaining water and wastewater infrastructure. At this forum participants will also have the chance to contribute during a public listening session which will be attended by Federal, state, and local governments representatives and other Bay partners. Please spread the word about this upcoming Environmental Justice Forum. For further information please visit the website at http://www.chesapeakebay.net Korean Delegation Visits EPAA group of about 20 water program managers from various municipal, area and national program offices in the Republic of Korea visited EPA on Feb. 28. The group had expressed a particular interest in the connection between watershed program management and drinking water interests. The Office of Water staff conducted an hour long presentation on Safe Drinking Water Act programs and authorities, followed by a lively discussion session. For more information, please contact George Hoessel at 202-564-3816. Now Available “Sources of Technical and Financial Assistance for Small Drinking Water Systems” ReleasedThe Drinking Water Utilities Team recently published a booklet entitled Sources of Technical and Financial Assistance for Small Drinking Water Systems. The booklet was produced to serve as a resource for small drinking water systems. To access the booklet online, go to http://www.epa.gov/safewater/smallsys/ssinfo.htm. Hard copies can be obtained from the Office of Water Resources Center or by calling the Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791. (reference Document Number EPA 816-K-02-005). For more information, please contact Andrew Bielanski at 202-564-3824. Meeting of the Contaminant Candidate List (CCL) & National Drinking Water Advisory CouncilThe National Drinking Water Advisory Council workgroup on the Contaminant Candidate List will meet on March 27-28 at Resolve, Inc., 1255 23rd Street, NW, Suite 275, Washington DC. The workgroup will discuss:1) methods to screen a large number of contaminants to a CCL, 2) appropriate data sources that could be used to assemble the universe of contaminants from which a CCL would be selected, and 3) how to incorporate advances in chemical and microbial analytical methods into the selection process. For more information, see our March 12, 2003 notice in the Federal Register(68 FR 48) or contact the Safe Drinking Water Hotline at (800) 426-4791 or email at hotline-sdwa@epa.gov. Please contact RESOLVE at (202) 944-2300 if you plan to attend the meeting. Any person needing special accommodations, including wheelchair access, should also contact RESOLVE at least five business days before the meeting so that appropriate arrangements can be made. Ninth Meeting of the U.S. Coral Reef Task ForceCraig Hooks, Deputy Director of EPA=s Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds, on Feb. 26-27 represented EPA at the ninth meeting of the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force. Actions taken at the February meeting included the adoption of resolutions calling for upgrading wastewater treatment systems in areas supporting coral reef habitat, improving water quality through the federal Everglades Restoration Plan, and promoting sustainable trade in coral reef products. The Task Force was created by executive order in 1998 to preserve and protect the Nation=s coral reef ecosystems. In 2000, the Task Force adopted the U.S. National Action Plan to Conserve Coral Reefs, laying out 13 major goals to help sustain coral reef ecosystems. In Oct. 2002, they identified land-based sources of pollution, overfishing, lack of public awareness, recreational overuse, coral reef disease and climate change as the major threats to reefs, and called for additional efforts to reduce these threats. EPA and USDA, in partnership with the states and territories containing coral reefs, are leading an effort to address the land- based sources issue. The agencies currently are planning 2 regional workshops on this topic, one for the Pacific region, which will involve representatives from Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, and one for the Atlantic/Caribbean region, which will involve Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Pacific regional workshop will take place in Hawaii on June 24. Dates and locations for the Atlantic/Caribbean workshop are still under consideration. 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 listserve: In the body of the message write: A welcome message will appear in your email box once you are officially subscribed. WaterNews will be sent to you once a 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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