N-STEPS Program

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Nutrient Scientific Technical Exchange Partnership & Support (N-STEPS) program provides technical assistance to water quality scientists who are working to develop numeric nutrient criteria to protect the designated uses of their state, territorial or Tribal surface waters. Since its creation in 2005, N-STEPS has developed materials, tools, and offered technical assistance for all stages of numeric nutrient criteria development –i.e. planning, data preparation and management, data exploration, analysis and model development, scientific literature review, and peer review.

N-STEPS Online

N-STEPS has created an online resource library for technical support information, N-STEPS Online. This resource contains information relevant to all stages of nutrient criteria development. It summarizes existing technical guidance for various waterbody types as well as state and tribal experiences with criteria development via N-STEPS technical assistance. N-STEPS Online was developed through a User-centered design (UCD) process that incorporated user feedback into all aspects of content development and design in order to ensure that user needs are met.

Technical Assistance

Technical assistance for numeric nutrient criteria derivation is available to state, territory, and Tribal water quality agencies. These entities are invited to coordinate and submit their proposals through the EPA’s Regional Nutrient Coordinators. These proposals can be tailored to address their individual needs specific to where they are in the process. Requests for proposals are generally considered each fiscal year on a rolling basis.

N-STEPS facilitates technical exchange and collaboration between the EPA, independent scientists, and state, territorial, and Tribal agencies. States, territories, and Tribes can increase their technical capacity for projects by gaining access to the EPA and independent scientists through N-STEPS. These scientists have expertise across a range of technical fields, including:
  • Limnology
  • Marine science
  • Statistical/mechanistic modeling
  • Biogeochemistry
  • Hydrology
  • Aquatic ecology
  • Biology
  • Environmental statistics

For general information regarding this program, contact Jacques Oliver (oliver.jacques@epa.gov), Office of Water, Office of Science and Technology: 202-566-0630.

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Last updated on November 12, 2024