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WaterNews for June 14, 2005Benjamin 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:
International Joint Commission 2005 Great Lakes Conference & Biennial MeetingBenjamin H. Grumbles, Assistant Administrator for Water spoke at the International Joint Commission 2005 Great Lakes Conference & Biennial meeting last week at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. Grumbles discussed the Great Lakes Executive Order, which created the Great Lakes Interagency Task Force and called for the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration. The Great Lakes Regional Collaboration is developing a Strategy that will enhance and support the work with Canada under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. He also discussed the goals and status of both efforts. Assistant Administrator Gives Keynote Wetlands Address at the American Law InstituteBenjamin Grumbles, gave the keynote address at the American Law Institute, American Bar Association (ALI-ABA) course on Wetlands Law and Regulation last week in Washington, D.C. Grumbles discussed the Administration’s progress towards achieving The President’s goal of a gain of three million wetlands acres in five years announced on Earth Day 2004. The President's initiative marks a major shift from no net loss to overall gain in wetlands and directs the Federal Government to work cooperatively to restore, improve, and protect three million acres over the next five years. This plan to add wetland acres also includes a component to improve tracking and accountability of the federal partners in monitoring wetlands gains and losses nationwide. Grumbles stated that since Earth Day 2004, the agencies had restored, improved, and protected about 832,000 acres of wetlands. By October 2006, an additional 1.2 million acres of wetlands will be restored, improved, and protected. If this milestone is achieved as predicted, we will be well on our way to the President’s goal of protecting, enhancing, or restoring three million acres by 2009. Chesapeake Bay Partners Take Actions to Reduce Bay PollutionThe policies needed to clean up wastewater treatment plants in the Chesapeake Bay are in place and are working, state and federal officials said yesterday. "EPA has determined that existing regulations, coupled with the collaborative partnership outlined in the Chesapeake 2000 agreement, will get results faster than developing new federal rules," said Benjamin Grumbles, EPA's assistant administrator for Water. "Recent actions taken by Maryland, Virginia and other Bay partners will help to ensure that we achieve and maintain our restoration goals for the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries." To read the full press release see: www.epa.gov To read EPA’s response letter see: http://www.epa.gov/water/cbfpetition/index.html For more information about how EPA and its partners are restoring the Chesapeake Bay, see: http://www.epa.gov/region03/chesapeake/ and http://chesapeakebay.net/. New Hampshire Receives Beach GrantEPA’s Region 1 office awarded a grant of $205,037 to the State of New Hampshire to help keep their beaches clean on June 9, 2005 . The money will be used to monitor water quality at the state’s 16 beaches. Linda Murphy, Director of Ecosystem Protection for the New England region, said the goal of "It’s a Shore Thing," Region 1’s beach awareness program, is to keep beaches from being closed. In 2004, one-quarter of New England’s 1,000 beaches were closed for at least one day, but only three beaches New Hampshire were closed for a total of six days. The grants are provided through the Beach Act of 2000. New England states have received $5 million since the grant program began in 2001. You can find information about the water quality at New Hampshire’s beaches is available at www.des.state.nh.us/beaches/index.asp?theLink=advisories. You can learn about Region 1’s Clean New England Beaches Initiative is available at www.epa.gov/ne/eco/beaches and about the national beach protection program by visiting www.epa.gov/waterscience/beaches. 2005 National Forum on Contaminants in FishJoin your colleagues on Sept. 18-21, 2005, in the Baltimore, MD Inner Harbor to learn about the latest issues regarding chemical contaminants in fish at the 2005 7th Annual National Forum on Contaminants in Fish. Forum attendees include health and environmental officials from state, tribal, and federal agencies and others interested in presenting and discussing issues related to assessing and managing potential health risks associated with dietary exposure to bioaccumulative chemical contaminants in fish. The agenda will focus on state, tribal, and federal activities related to managing health risks and benefits of consuming fish. General sessions for the 2005 Forum include:
EPA welcomes posters on the topics mentioned above. Please submit your abstract or poster for review or contact us if you have questions. A brief description of your poster is due by August 29, 2005. For program information, please visit the Forum website at http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/fish/ or contact Jeff Bigler, USEPA at (202) 566-0389 or bigler.jeff@epa.gov. 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: 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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