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WaterNews for July 20, 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:
Bush Administration Commits $15 Million to Protect and Restore America's WatershedsEPA Administrator Mike Leavitt announced yesterday 14 watersheds – representing 17 states – eligible for $15 million from EPA’s Targeted Watersheds Grant Program. The selected areas represent more than 20,000 square miles of rivers, lakes and streams across the United States. "Through this program, EPA lends a hand to local groups working to protect and restore our nation’s watersheds," said Leavitt from the banks of Gray’s Lake, part of the Upper Mississippi watershed. "With these watershed projects, we take a critical step forward in providing clean and safe water for every American." Watersheds qualifying for the program stretch from Cape Fear on the Atlantic Coast, through much of the Mississippi River Basin, all the way to Dungeness River in Washington State and the Kenai River in Alaska. Watershed health is strategically important to providing clean, safe water where Americans live, work and play. Since 2003, more than $30 million has been provided through the Targeted Watersheds Grant Program. The Targeted Watersheds Grant Program was proposed in 2002 by the Bush Administration to encourage successful community-based approaches to protect and restore the nation's watersheds. This competitive grant program provides needed resources to those watershed organizations whose restoration plans set clear goals and objectives with special consideration given to water quality monitoring, innovation, a public education component and strong community support. Special consideration was given to watersheds along the Mississippi River Basin, where market-based water quality trading pilot projects are being implemented to address excessive nutrient run-off along the River. This nutrient overload has been scientifically linked to the seasonal hypoxic – or oxygen starved – zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Effectively protecting and restoring local watersheds has a direct impact on the health of our oceans and coastal areas. The watersheds eligible to apply for the grant money made available today are: Nashua River, Massachusetts and New Hampshire Detailed information about these projects and the Targeted Watersheds Grant Program is available at: http://www.epa.gov/twg or http://www.epa.gov. For more on The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, please visit http://www.oceancommission.gov/documents/prelimreport/welcome.html Office of Water Launches New Website for Septic SystemsEPA’s Office of Water announces a new and improved website that provides information on septic systems to homeowners, state and local governments, and industry professionals. EPA's new website provides guidance, technical information, management guidelines, and a wide variety of other information to help citizens manage their septic systems and to help state and local officials strengthen their regulation and management of these potential sources of water pollution. This new site is part of EPA's ongoing effort to improve its website and to provide "one-stop" shopping on topics that are of interest to the general public. You are invited to visit our new septic systems website at www.epa.gov/owm/septic New Brochure Available Soon on Mercury in Fish and ShellfishNext month, EPA and FDA will start distributing What You Need to Know About Mercury in Fish and Shellfish, a brochure that presents the recommendations from the new joint national mercury advisory that the two agencies issued in March 2004. Now available in English and Spanish, additional languages will be available this fall. We will print about 6 million copies of the English version. We’ll distribute the brochures, with a letter signed by EPA and FDA, to over 170,000 members of the U.S. medical community as well as state, tribal, and local health departments, WICs, Pregnancy Planning Centers, and other public health organizations. You can order the brochures by contacting the EPA document distribution Center at 1-800-490-9198. For further information, visit EPA's Fish Advisory Program website at www.epa.gov/waterscience/fish. 2004 National STORET Users Conference to be Held in NovemberThe Office of Water will hold a National STORET Users Conference November 15-17, 2004, in New Orleans, LA. STORET is EPA's national repository for monitoring data. New, experienced and interested users of STORET are invited to come share experiences, present approaches to data entry and analysis, and provide input on the future of STORET. Abstracts and posters that demonstrate STORET experiences are requested by September 1, 2004. For more information about the conference, including on-line registration, visit http://www.epa.gov/storet/2004conf.html or contact Cary McElhinney at 202-566-1188. Local Limits Development Guidance is AvailableEPA has released the final Technically-Based Local Limits Guidance manual for municipalities that operate pretreatment programs. The manual provides guidance to municipalities on the development and implementation of local controls for discharges of industrial or commercial wastes to sewage treatment facilities, with specific information on:
The new guidance is available at www.epa.gov/npdes/pretreatment 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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