Recent Additions

November 10, 2004

• New EPA Water Quality Trading Assessment Handbook published.

November 9, 2004

• Spotlight: Watersheds at Work - EPA's Targeted Watershed Grants Program: Upper Susquehanna River

July 19, 2004

• EPA Administrator announces 14 watersheds - in 17 states - as eligible for $15 million from the Targeted Watersheds Grant Program

May 19, 2004

• Summary information on current trading efforts in the U.S.

April 22, 2004

• Updated Watershed Academy course schedule available - If you would like us to publicize a watershed-related training course not listed on the calendar, please send info on course to: wacademy@epa.gov.

April 20, 2004

• TMDL 2005 -- Call for Abstracts from the Water Environment Federation (WEF). "TMDL 2005" will be held in Philadelphia, PA on June 26-29, 2005. WEF has issued a call for abstracts; the deadline for abstracts is July 26, 2004.

February 26, 2004

• Getting In Step: A Guide for Conducting Watershed Outreach Campaigns (PDF, 3.3MB)
  This guidebook provides some of the tools that watershed practitioners need to develop and implement an effective watershed outreach plan.

December 1, 2003

• EPA's Trading web site has been revised to add some frequently asked questions about trading and the 2003 Trading Policy, and some new links to trading information.

November 19, 2003

• Florida Department of Environmental Protection recently released a report on the Mercury TMDL Pilot Project includes data showing mercury levels have declined in Everglades fish and wildlife.

November 6, 2003

• Watershed News (November 2003)

August 15, 2003

• Water Quality Trading Assessment Handbook: EPA Region 10's Guide to Analyzing Your Watershed, EPA 910-B-03-003, July 2003, 100 pgs.
  This new Water Quality Trading Assessment Handbook is now available online. EPA's Trading Policy encourages water quality trading as a business-like way of focusing on cost-effective, local solutions to pollution problems. This handbook can help you investigate whether this tool is right for your watershed. The handbook guides you through a structured assessment of trading opportunities. It looks at the environmental,economic, and technical factors that influence your ability to create a water quality trading market.

May 15, 2003

• A detailed agenda and registration form for the National Forum on Water Quality Trading to be held in Chicago on July 22 and 23, 2003 is now available.

March 10, 2003

• The Great Lakes Trading Network (GLTN) officially changed its name to the Environmental Trading Network (ETN)

February 5, 2003

• The National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) published a new report in Dec. 2002 called Understanding What States Need to Protect Water Quality which helps support the case for more resources for water quality monitoring and state water quality programs in general. The NAPA study confirms the reliabiliy of an earlier estimate on how much states spend and what resources they need to adequately manage water quality programs. In 1998, a joint state-EPA effort, called the Water Quality Management Resource Analysis, estimated that state water quality programs are facing an annual nationwide shortfall of $735 million to $960 million. In Aug., 2002, EPA and state leaders asked NAPA to conduct an independent review of this analysis to determine whether the national estimate of the resource gap is reasonable and to recommend ways to increase the reliability of future estimates of resource needs. After a detailed review, the Academy's Panel concluded that this estimate is "reasonable and defensible." The Panel also observed that this process has been a valuable source of shared learning among the states and EPA, and is worth repeating in the future. The Panel noted that these analyses provide more reliable estimates of state workloads for implementing water programs and their associated costs. Better information on funding needs for state water quality programs-- and on the condition of the water --will build a beter case for filling these gaps. To view their report, please click here.

January 29, 2003

• EPA recently published a new document called Community Culture and the Environment: A Guide to Understanding a Sense of Place, EPA 842-B-01-003. (PDF, 30KB)

  The Guide explores the concepts of community and culture and provides tools for identifying, assessing, and working cooperatively within the social dynamics and local values connected to environmental protection. These tools will help you define your community, identify stakeholders, enhance education and outreach, build partnerships and consensus, identify resources, plan and set goals, and integrate local realities with ecological issues. The Guide is designed for people involved in community-based initiatives, including those affiliated with community and watershed-based organizations, universities, and federal, state, tribal, and local agencies.

January 23, 2003

• On Jan. 7, EPA's Assistant Administrator, G. Tracy Mehan, III, signed the Watershed-Based National Pollutant Discharges Elimination System Permitting (NPDES) Policy. The Policy describes the benefits of watershed-based permitting, the implementing mechanisms for this component of the watershed approach, and how EPA will be encouraging an increase in the use of watershed-based NPDES permits. The Policy can be seen at: http://www.epa.gov/npdes/pubs/watershed-permitting-policy.pdf (PDF, 27KB).

December 9, 2002

• New EPA Policy Memo on Committing EPA’s Water Program to Advancing the Watershed Approach

  -- Tracy Mehan, Assistant Administrator for Water, issued this policy memo on Dec. 3, 2002, calling for the creation of a "Watershed Management Council," comprised of EPA Headquarters and Regional Senior Executive Service managers. The memo calls for the Council to implement a number of specific actions listed in the memo and to generally explore ways to encourage the widespread adoption of watershed approaches to better address water quality problems.

October 18, 2002

• Happy Birthday Clean Water Act! Yes, Oct. 18, 2002 is the 30th anniversary of the Clean Water Act.

• EPA is pleased to mark the 30th anniversary of the Clean Water Act by announcing completion of the 44th Watershed Academy web-based training module called Introduction to the Clean Water Act. The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the cornerstone of surface water quality protection in the United States and this web-based training module provides an introduction to the major CWA programs in the following sequence: 1) water quality standards, 2) antidegradation policy, 3) waterbody monitoring and assessment, 4) reports on condition of the nation’s waters, 5) total maximum daily loads (TMDLs), 6) NPDES permit program for point sources, 7) Section 319 program for nonpoint sources, 8) Section 404 program regulating filling of wetlands and other waters; 9) Section 401 state water quality certification; 10) state revolving loan fund (SRF). Users may go through the entire 65 slide module on the CWA in sequence or jump to the particular CWA program of interest by going to the CWA Big Picture that is on at the top of each slide.

  For more information about the Watershed Academy Web-Based Training and Watershed Management Certificate program go to http://www.epa.gov/watertrain/.

  For more information about Year of Clean Water activities, National Monitoring Day and other events go to: http://www.epa.gov/water/yearofcleanwater/.

• EPA Administrator Christie Whitman spoke on June 26, 2002 to meteorologists from around the nation about the important role they can play in bringing environmental information to their audience. Whitman spoke as part of the "Eyes on the Environment" workshop being presented to weathercasters as part of the American Meteorological Society's 31st Conference on Broadcast Meteorology. Visit the new TV Broadcasters Share Watershed Info to see the Administrator's remarks, learn more about the workshop and see examples of how TV broadcasters are sharing watershed information.

• Over the past year, EPA conducted an assessment of state experiences in implementing statewide watershed management approaches. The findings of this assessment are summarizd in a report called A Review of State Watershed Management Approaches. (PDF Format, 173KB) The objectives of the review were threefold:
  (1) identify and describe the different statewide watershed management approaches; (2) characterize and assess the experiences of selected states using different watershed approaches; and (3) develop recommendations to improve EPA's support and states' implementation of statewide watershed management. The study assessed the watershed experiences of the following states: Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, and Washington.

June 28, 2002

• EPA' s Proposed Water Quality Trading Policy --Public comment period extended until July 15, 2002 (comments must be received or post-marked by midnight on July 15, 2002).

May 15, 2002

• EPA annouced the availability of a new Proposed Water Quality Trading Policy for pubic comment in the Federal Register today. A copy of the proposed policy, Federal Register notice and fact sheet are posted on EPA's Trading web site.

May 10, 2002

• Federal Register notice announcing Public Listening Sessions on EPA's Watershed Initiative (HTML, PDF 38KB )

May 9, 2002

• EPA's Watershed website has a new look, including new pages on Watershed Projects, Regulations, Publications, and Watershed Links.

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