U.S. EPA water news briefs

April 29, 2004 -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released several news items of interest to the drinking water treatment industry.

Final National Water Program Guidance for FY 2005

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released final guidance for the 2005 fiscal year for the full range of environmental programs, including the National Water Program.

The National Water Program Guidance for FY 2005 describes the improvements in water quality that the Agency hopes to accomplish in FY 2005 as well as the specific programs and projects that are expected to accomplish these improvements.

The Guidance will be the basis for EPA Regional offices, States, and Tribes to work together over the next several months to define State/Tribe specific program commitments for the 2005 fiscal year (starting in October of this year).

The Transmittal Memo for the Guidance from Acting Assistant Administrator Benjamin Grumbles describes key elements of the Guidance and identifies priorities.

The new Guidance can be found on the Internet at http://www.epa.gov/water/waterplan.

Also available on this website are the EPA 5 Year Strategic Plan, detailed annual plans for each of the 10 water related "subobjectives" in the Strategic Plan, Regional Plans, and a new site providing the current, FY 05 guidance for the full range of water program grants.

Ocean Policy Commission Releases Preliminary Report

The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy released their Preliminary Report on April 20, which is available for a 30-day review and comment period by the Nation's governors and interested stakeholders.

The Report sets forth almost 200 recommendations that emphasize four themes: (1) moving towards an ecosystem-based management approach; (2) improving Federal leadership and coordination; (3) strengthening science and generating high-quality accessible information to inform decision makers; and (4) enhancing ocean education.

Many of the recommendations are addressed to EPA - in particular addressing both point and nonpoint sources of coastal and ocean pollution and monitoring. The Commission is expected to issue its final report this summer, after which the Administration will have 90 days to provide a response to Congress.

The preliminary report is available at:

http://www.epa.gov/owow/oceans/.

For more information contact Hazel Groman at 202-566-1219 or Jennifer Linn at 202-566-1258.

Upcoming EPA Community Involvement Conference

The Office of Water is the chair for the 7th annual EPA Community Involvement Conference to be held in Denver, CO, June 15-18, 2004. This conference will provide a forum for participants to explore together how public education, collaborative partnerships and community involvement can result in better, more implementable environmental decisions.

The agenda includes sessions related to water issues as well as cross-agency issues focusing on stakeholder involvement, public participation and outreach, and education. More than 500 people, including staff and managers from EPA, other Federal agencies, State and local government, and businesses and communities, are expected to attend this conference.

For details on the agenda or to register for the conference, please go to:

http://www.epancic.org/2004. For additional information, please contact Theresa Trainor at 202-566-1250.

Upcoming AQUATOX Training

There will be one-day workshops on the model AQUATOX Release 2 which predicts the fate of various pollutants, such as nutrients and organic chemicals, and their effects on ecosystems, at the International Society of Ecological Modeling (ISEM) annual meeting August 22 - 24, 2004 in Quebec City, Canada, and at WEFTEC in New Orleans, October 2- 6, 2004.

For more information on the ISEM meeting go their web site at http://www.isemna.org/, and for WEFTEC, visit their site at http://wef.org/.

These one day courses will offer an overview of AQUATOX with lots of opportunity for hands-on experience.

EPA is also developing a more comprehensive 3- day course which it will be scheduling in the near future.