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WaterNews for February 3, 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:
President’s Budget Highlights Water InitiativesPresident Bush’s 2005 Budget provides $7.76 billion for EPA, a $133 million increase over the 2004 budget request. To ensure cleaner and safer water, the President’s budget includes: $45 million for the Great Lakes Legacy Program, almost five times the 2004 level of $10 million, for sediment remediation located at as many as six sites, helping to keep toxics such as PCBs and heavy metals from entering the food chain, where they may cause adverse effects on human health and the environment. $25 million for the Targeted Watersheds Program, a $10 million - 67 percent increase over the 2004 Consolidated Appropriations legislation level, allowing for competitive grants to communities to implement watershed protection and restoration plans and funding a $10 million regional pilot program to help publicly-owned treatment works implement nonpoint source projects to comply with nutrient discharge limits in the Chesapeake Bay. $20 million for a new water-quality monitoring initiative to provide $17 million in grants and $3 million in technical assistance to help States and Tribes develop and implement statistically representative water quality monitoring programs. This consistency across programs will eventually allow EPA to make a national determination of water quality and ensure resources target the highest priority problems. The budget also provides funding to advance sustainable infrastructure practices, including efforts to promote water conservation through a voluntary labeling program for water efficient products and appliances (“Water Star”). Office of Water and Office of Solid Waste Emergency Response Discuss Collaboration At National MeetingNational and regionally based managers of the Office of Water and Office of Solid Waste Emergency Response met last week at a national meeting in Tampa, Fl to discuss ways in which they can work together on hazardous site clean-up and source water protection. Specific opportunities were discussed on coordinating efforts. Assistant Administrator Marianne Horinko of Solid Waste and Emergency Response and Acting Assistant Administrator Benjamin Grumbles of Water gave remarks. “This meeting opens up exciting, new opportunities for us to collaborate with our governmental and nongovernmental partners,” said Grumbles. Draft Water Quality Criteria for Chloroform AvailableEPA has announced the availability of a draft Revised Human Health Ambient Water Quality Criteria for Chloroform. The Agency is accepting scientific views on the draft until March 22nd. Revised according to EPA’'s Methodology for Deriving Ambient Water Quality Criteria for the Protection of Human Health, the criteria changes reflect recent advances in scientific information. You can find the document and more information on the Internet at http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/humanhealth/chloroform/. New Television Special about Watersheds Premiers on The Weather ChannelThe premier of the new ½ hour television special about watersheds co-produced by the Environmental Protection Agency and The Weather Channel will air tomorrow night, Wednesday, Feb. 4, at 8pm and 11pm Eastern Standard Time (EST). Viewers are encouraged to visit the EPA web site – www.epa.gov/weatherchannel - for more information about what they can do, including a free brochure about stormwater pollution. 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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