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Watershed News
March 2006
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Watershed News is a publication of EPA's Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds. It is designed to provide timely information to groups working at the watershed level.
In this month's newsletter
1) Funding Opportunities: EPA announces Community-based Partnership Grants to Reduce Risk of Toxic Exposure-Proposals Due April 10 to EPA
2) National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Partners with NOAA Community-Based Restoration Program on North Gulf Coast Initiative - Pre-Proposals Due April 1, 2006
3) News: Supreme Court Reviews 3 Clean Water Act Cases
4) Webcasts: EPA's Watershed Academy Sponsors Webcast on Sustainable Funding
5) Izaak Walton League to host Wetlands Webcasts
6) EPA Sponsors New Webcast Series on Stormwater Issues
7) New Publications and Tools: Bacteria Monitoring Focus of Winter 2006 Issue of Volunteer Monitor
8) Outreach and Education: StormCenter Communications and Colorado TV Station Team Up for Watershed Education
9) Upcoming Conferences in 2006
Funding Opportunities
EPA announces Community-based Partnership Grants to Reduce Risk of Toxic Exposure-Proposals Due April 10 to EPA
EPA's Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) program is funding cooperative agreements on two levels. A total
of $2.7 million is available. Level 1 Cooperative Agreements are designed to help communities form broad-based partnerships
dedicated to reducing toxics in their local environment and to help this stakeholder group assess toxics problems in their
community and consider options for reducing risks. Level 2 Cooperative Agreements are for communities that already have
established broad-based collaborative partnerships and have completed environmental assessments. Level 2 helps identify
the combination of programs that best meet the community's needs and become self sustaining by attracting new funding and
partners and completing new problem assessments. Complete details can be found at
http://www.epa.gov/care.
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Partners with NOAA Community-Based Restoration Program on North Gulf Coast Initiative - Pre-Proposals Due April 1, 2006
This program encourages community-based restoration projects that will benefit living marine resources throughout
the North Gulf Coast Region extending from Apalachicola Bay (FL) across the Mississippi Sound (MS, LA). Grants are
generally in the $25,000-$50,000 range, with at least a 1:1 match of non-federal funds required. Citizen groups,
public and nonprofit organizations, watershed groups, businesses, academic institutions and local, state government
applicants are encouraged to apply. Complete details can be found at
http://www.nfwf.org/programs/north_gulf_coast.cfm .
News
Supreme Court Reviews 3 Clean Water Act Cases
On February 21, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in 2 wetlands cases (Rapanos, Carabell) and a dam/water quality certification case (S.D. Warren). The Administration, represented by the Solicitor General, argued strongly for maintaining EPA's current regulatory and non-regulatory tools to protect wetlands, tributary streams, and watersheds.
Webcasts
EPA's Watershed Academy Sponsors Webcast on Sustainable Funding
EPA's Watershed Academy sponsors monthly Webcasts to offer free for watershed practitioners around the globe. On Wednesday, March 22, Wendy Wilson, Organizational Program Development Director at the River Network and Pat Munoz, Program Director at the River Network, will present Sustainable Funding for Watershed Groups. This Webcast will explore how watershed groups can achieve long-term financial sustainability. They will review the essential elements watershed groups need to successfully raise money, examine productive fundraising strategies, and outline how to create a successful fundraising plan. On February 15, the Academy hosted a Webcast on Plan2Fund a new tool to help watershed organizations develop long-term funding strategies for watershed plans. Audio versions of these and past Webcasts are available at: http://www.epa.gov/watershedwebcasts.
The April 19th Webcast will feature Gayle Killam from the River Network who will discuss opportunities for citizen involvement in the Clean Water Act.
Izaak Walton League to host Wetlands Webcasts
The Izaak Walton League is hosting two Webcasts: "Wetland-Friendly Lawn and Garden" (March 28,
8:00-10:00pm, EST), which includes information on how to create rain gardens, install rain barrels, landscape
with native plants, and reduce pesticide and fertilizer use; and "Wet Spots into Wonderlands" (April 25,
8:00-10:00pm, EST) to discuss the benefits of having wetlands on your property, how to protect those wetlands,
and how to create vernal pools or bog gardens. Visit
http://www.iwla.org/sos/sosweb.htm
for more information. Future Webcasts include a four-part series on alternative practices for highway stormwater
management. This series begins in June.
EPA Sponsors New Webcast Series on Stormwater Issues
EPA is announcing a new series of webcast training sessions for municipal stormwater managers. Designed for those unable to attend out-of-town or multi-day workshops, this series will provide a mix of basic and advanced topics in two-hour blocks. Webcasts will occur every other month until September. The first webcast on March 8, 2006 covered Post-Construction Overview and Introduction to Smart Growth and Low Impact Development. This presentation described the post-construction program requirements and how innovative programs such as Low Impact Development and Smart Growth can be used to help meet these requirements. Future webcast topics include Construction 101, Stormwater Utilities 201, Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination and Municipal Maintenance. To find out more information about upcoming webcasts and to reserve your space visit www.epa.gov/npdes/training.
New Publications and ToolsBacteria Monitoring Focus of Winter 2006 Issue of Volunteer MonitorThe Winter 2006 issue of the Volunteer Monitor newsletter focuses on the theme of bacteria monitoring. Included in the issue are methods for bacteria testing, source tracking, both high and low-tech approaches, and several case studies and stories. The Volunteer Monitor is available online at http://www.epa.gov/owow/monitoring/volunteer/issues.htm. |
 Dan Dillon, The Volunteer Monitor |
Outreach and Education
StormCenter Communications and Colorado TV Station Team Up for Watershed Education
Chief Meteorologist Mike Nelson from Denver's KMGH 7News is now including nightly features on watersheds, weather and
the environment as part of a partnership with StormCenter Communications and the Colorado Foundation for Water Education.
The nightly features supplement the station's website dedicated to weather and watershed information, including access
to stream flow and snow fall data and information on local watershed events. There is even an exciting fly-through
feature, where visitors can get a three dimensional look at their watershed. Check out this new outreach effort at
http://kmgh.iewatershed.com/.
Upcoming Conferences in 2006
National Green Building Conference
March 12-14 2006. Hyatt Regency Albuquerque, Albuquerque, NM. Organized by the National Association of Home Builders.
http://www.nahb.org/meeting_details.aspx?meetingID=3249
Safe Drinking Water: Where Science Meets Policy
March 16-17, 2006, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC. Organized by the Carolina
Environmental Program/Drinking Water Research Center/Environmental Finance Center USA.
http://www.cep.unc.edu/symposium/2006/index.html
NPDES Permit Writers' Training Course,
March 27-31, 2006, Nashville, TN; May 1-5, 2006, Anchorage, AK; September 18-22, 2006, Albany, NY.
The objective of the course is to provide the basic regulatory framework and technical considerations that support
the development of wastewater discharge permits as required under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System (NPDES) Permit Program. This free course is designed for new permit writers. Contact Betty Peterson at
npdescourse@tetratech-ffx.com.
WORKSHOP: Marketing 101 for Stormwater and Watershed Professionals
March 29, 2006, Northern Virginia Regional Commission, Fairfax, VA. Organized by the Northern Virginia Regional Commission.
Contact: kmull@novaregion.org or http://www.novaregion.org
6th Biennial Great Salt Lake Issues Forum:
http://www.fogsl.org/
May 4, in Salt Lake City, Utah and 5&6th at the James V. Hansen Wildlife Education Center at the Bear River Migratory
Bird Refuge, Brigham City, Utah. The focus of the Forum is Range-wide Migratory Bird Conservation and Great Salt Lake´s
Role in Linking Partnerships Within the Western Hemisphere.
Collaborative Cleanups II: Protecting and Revitalizing America's Watersheds
May 4-5, 2006 Mount Washington, New Hampshire
Community, state, tribal, federal, non-government, and private stakeholders involved with the protection and revitalization
of land and water resources will work together to identify common goals, showcase collaborative strategies, and recommend
actions to promote:
- Watershed/ecosystem management and protection
- Cleanup and reuse of contaminated land, sediment, and groundwater
- Protection of drinking water sources
- Local collaborative processes that improve land/water resource protection and revitalize communities
- Coordination of inter-governmental public policy and program implementation
Sponsored by USEPA Office of Water and Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. Organized in Collaboration with River Rally 2006.
2006 National River Rally
The Mount Washington Resort near Bretton Woods, New Hampshire May 5-9, 2006
http://www.rivernetwork.org/rally/
5th National Monitoring Conference-Monitoring Networks: Connecting for Clean Water
May 7-11, 2006. San José McEnery Convention Center, San José, CA.
Organized by the National Water Quality Monitoring Council.
http://www.tetratech-ffx.com/nwqmc06/
Community Culture and the Environment: A Guide to Understanding a Sense of Place.
May 10-11, 2006. Edison College, Punta Gorda, FL. Organized by the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program.
This two day course will provide the tools necessary to build partnerships around environmental issues, including
communication, community perceptions, consensus-building and strategic partnership analysis, with a focus on the greater
Charlotte Harbor Watershed. For more information, please visit www.CHNEP.org.
EPA Science Forum 2006 Your Health, Your Environment, Your Future
May 16 to 18, 2006. Ronald Regan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, D.C. The Forum will highlight
the relationship between our environment and public health and the complementary roles of EPA and other Federal public
health agencies. For more information, please visit http://www.epa.gov/scienceforum.
2nd National Water Quality Trading Conference
http://www.epa.gov/npdes/training Pittsburgh, PA May 23-25, 2006.
The conference is being hosted by EPA and USDA. A 1-day pre-conference workshop on
Trading Basics, taught by EPA, will be held on Monday, May 22, 2006. For more information, please visit:
http://www.epa.gov/npdes/training.
2006 Southeast Watershed Roundtable & Call for Abstracts Announced
The Southeast Watershed Forum, in cooperation with the North Carolina Statewide Roundtable, is sponsoring Watershed
Management Makes Good Financial Cents: Development Tools for Sustainable Growth on August 2-4, 2006 at the Crowne
Plaza Resort Asheville, North Carolina. For more information, including the Call for Abstracts, please visit:
http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/programs/extension/wqg/roundtable/abstract.html.
Be sure to check our EPA's new Watershed Discussion Forum! This new on-line message board offers watershed practitioners and citizens a platform to exchange ideas, so that innovative solutions and ideas can be easily shared. Please visit http://www.epa.gov/watershedforum/ and join in! Anyone can view the discussion, but one must register to post messages.
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