WELCOME, INTRODUCTIONS AND OPENING REMARKS: Eighteen representatives of four agencies attended the meeting to discuss Federal activities involving spatial water data. The agenda is attached at the end of this text. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) /Water Information Coordination Program (WICP) sponsored the meeting in consultation with representatives of the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC). Nancy Lopez, Chief of the Office of Water Information Coordination, chaired the meeting. A list of attendees is below:
PURPOSE OF THE MEETING: The group met for the following purposes:(1) To exchange information about spatial data requirements for watershed assessment and restoration, (2) to identify water-related spatial data issues that need to be coordinated among the agencies and with other organizations, and (3) to discuss selected spatial data activities of the Federal Government including the National Elevation Dataset, watershed and subwatershed boundary datasets, and the USGS Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Microsoft. At the request of the presenter because of a conflict and because of time constraints, the fourth presentation on the agenda (Open Access and EnviroMapper) was rescheduled to the next meeting. NEW ACTION ITEMS:
STATUS OF OLD ACTION ITEMS:
SPATIAL DATA NEEDS FOR WATERSHED ASSESSMENT AND RESTORATION. Agencies attending the meeting discussed their activities and requirements related to spatial data for watershed applications. To begin the discussion, Nancy Lopez distributed an appendix from a draft publication prepared by the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Keith McLaughin provided the draft information for distribution to the group, but was unable to attend the meeting. The appendix is entitled "Core Hydro-Meteorological Data and Information Protocols, " and it is part of a draft report that FS is currently printing entitled Interagency Protocols for Hydrologic Condition Assessment. The report is intended to be interim guidance for field offices; it will be open for comment for a year or more before the guidance is considered final. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY. Andy Battin indicated that original work on Multi-Resolution Landscape Characterization (MRLC) is not complete and needs to be wrapped up. Future efforts related to MRLC need to focus on ways to accelerate the availability and distribution of updated land cover information. Also, Andy noted that the EPA Basins Model will require hourly precipitation data spatially distributed over the watershed. He indicated that EPA does not have a national file of water bodies/reaches with the uses that are designated by States. Tod Dabolt/Monitoring Branch stated that EPA needs the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) to be completed at the 1:100,000 scale ASAP to support the President's Clean Water Action Plan, Clean Water Act Section 303(d), Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL), work related to litigation and myriads of other applications that need reach locations and identifiers. Also, Tod discussed the need for higher resolution information about the locations of riparian-wetland areas. Betsy Henry/Ground Water Protection discussed their work to obtain latitude and longitude (lat/long) data for water supply intakes nationwide. These data have not been required in the past, and data about the locations of water supply systems that are currently available at the State level generally lack quality control. The EPA is working with the Ground Water Protection Council, a national level association of State ground water managers, to improve these data. Also, EPA has contracted with the USGS/WRD to assist in efforts to improve the location data in the Safe Drinking Water Information System. Wendy Blake-Coleman/Office of Water discussed the general need to provide lat/long as a location identifier for water -related map features. In addition, she indicated that water quality assessment efforts also need information about atmospheric deposition. Thus, there is a need to define and map "airsheds" that contribute pollutants to impaired waterbodies and and their watersheds. Wendy also discussed a system called EnviroFax that is a data warehouse used by EPA. Other agencies can access the system. |