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The Advisory Committee on Water Information (ACWI) has agreed to sponsor a conference on the science issues that arise in applying Total Maximum Daily Load's (TMDL) to specific situations. In planning and conducting the conference, ACWI wants to involve federal, state, and local government, industry, environmental organizations, public interest groups, professional associations and other interested parties. This conference is intended to help identify and clarify what science tools and information are available or needed to assist state, tribal and local organizations in listing impaired waters, developing effective TMDL plans, and implementing TMDLs. Although the conference program will organize these science issues around the TMDL program, the intent is not to limit the information and discussion to unique matters encountered only in the TMDL program. There are a host of scientific issues facing all members of the water quality community attempting to deal with water quality impairments on a watershed basis. Regardless of whether or not the management of these impairments takes place in a TMDL setting or other relevant policy contexts, the current body of available science tools and issues must be addressed.
Many TMDL meetings/workshops to date have focused on the regulatory and political issues surrounding TMDLs. The science focus envisioned for this workshop is a logical and needed effort, especially following on previous Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Federal Advisory Committee (FAC) and Western Governor's Association (WGA) workshops, which have created lists of science needs, but have had insufficient time to explore them fully. In addition, EPA has conducted stakeholder outreach sessions with state, industrial, professional, and environmental groups to get their feedback on the gaps in current scientific knowledge regarding the TMDL program. This conference would help share information on science tools that are available or lacking. It is essential to the success of a TMDL, watershed plan, or other water quality improvement effort to have appropriate data, tools, and information available and useful.
Water Environmental Federation (WEF) and Association of State and Interstate Water Pollution Control Administrators (ASIWPCA) are co-chairs in the development of a TMDL Science Conference. The target date for the conference is March 4-7, 2001, in St. Louis, Missouri with a pre-conference workshop on Sunday and the conference on Monday through Wednesday. Expected attendance is 500-700. There will be no exhibits, and the conference will have approximately 5 concurrent sessions.
The Planning Committee is expected to develop a results-oriented conference, with an expectation that participants will work together to refine identified TMDL technical needs, identify current and technically credible tools, prioritize further tool development, and explore opportunities for third party technical tool development. The conference will use EPA's draft strategic plan for TMDL technical support as a framework. The expected outcome is to provide additional tools to increase and improve the use of science in resolving TMDL issues.
The conference will be developed through invited speakers. There will not be a call for papers. The main task of the Planning Committee is to help develop ideas for sessions and identify speakers based on the objectives of the conference. Speakers will be asked to provide case studies or information on available tools to go into the conference proceedings in the place of papers.
The first conference call of the Planning Committee was held on June 1 at 11 am eastern time. Ed Wagner (CH2M Hill) and Alan Vicory (Ohio River Valley Sanitation Commission) are the Conference Planning Committee (CPC) co-chairs. The CPC will report to a Steering Committee.
The TMDL process is based on three steps: listing of impaired waters, TMDL plan development, and implementation of the TMDL plan. The following is an example of general question areas with regard to identifying existing and needed tools, prioritizing tool development, and identifying opportunities for third party tool development in the context of these three basic steps.