 |
||
|
Water |  |
 |
||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
Water Headlines for May 12, 2006Benjamin H. Grumbles Water Headlines is a weekly on-line publication that announces publications, policies, and activities of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water. In This Week’s Water Headlines:
Proposed Legislation Seeks Cleanup of Abandoned MinesThe Good Samaritan Clean Watershed Act aims to remove legal roadblocks to cleaning up more than half a million abandoned hardrock mines that litter the American landscape. The legislation, introduced on behalf of the Bush Administration, would remove the potential liability for volunteer organizations willing to restore watersheds affected by acid drainage from the mines. Last August, as part of the President's Conference on Cooperative Conservation, EPA announced the Good Samaritan Initiative to encourage voluntary efforts to reduce pollution from abandoned hardrock mining sites. A "Good Samaritan" is a person or organization that neither caused the contamination nor is legally responsible for the cleanup. Inactive or abandoned mines can pose serious public safety and environmental hazards. Acid drainage from such mines, most of which are located in the western United States, damages watersheds and degrades water quality. Many of the mines are on private land, and the parties responsible for the pollution and cleanup no longer exist. Although Good Samaritans have been willing to adopt these orphaned mines, lingering legal obstacles have blocked efforts by citizen volunteers not responsible for the pollution to clean up abandoned mine sites, despite the environmental benefits. Under current law, anyone cleaning up an abandoned mine site could become liable for the entire cleanup and any runoff from the site. The Good Samaritan Clean Watershed Act maintains strong environmental safeguards. It establishes a streamlined permit process that outlines who is eligible for a permit, the sites for which permits may be issued, and what must be included in the permit. The process also provides local citizens and communities with an opportunity to provide input on any Good Samaritan project. The applicant is required to provide a plan to clean up the site that details a schedule, financial resources, and how to dispose of any waste. The plan must ensure that the project improves the environment. More information on the Good Samaritan Clean Watershed Act: http://www.epa.gov/goodsamaritan/. Tools Will Help Small Drinking Water Utilities Monitor Drinking WaterEPA has released a set of user-friendly multimedia products to help small drinking-water utilities determine federal monitoring requirements and prepare water compliance samples under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The tool kit features an interactive Rule Wizard website that provides a complete list of all of the federal monitoring requirements for a selected type and size of public drinking water system, such as a community water system serving 3,300 people using ground water as a source of supply. A companion tool, Interactive Sampling Guide for Drinking Water Operators, features a CD-ROM with a video and a slide presentation that illustrates proper sampling procedures, which users can download to their local computer. Case studies are also presented on the CD-ROM to help public water system owners and operators work with state and local agencies when contaminants are detected. The CD-ROM is available through the Safe Drinking Water Hotline (1-800-426-4791), the Water Resource Center (202-566-1729), and the National Service Center for Environmental Publications (1-800-490-9198).
Launch the RuleWizard: http://www.RuleWizard.org. National Guidance Issued to Prepare Ships as Artificial ReefsEPA and the Maritime Administration have jointly released guidance recommending environmental best management practices (BMPs) for cleaning ships that are to be sunk as artificial reefs. This guidance will promote consistency and help to ensure that obsolete and decommissioned military and commercial vessels sunk for this purpose will be environmentally sound. The guidance identifies materials or categories of materials that may be onboard ships, where they may be found, general clean-up performance goals, and information on how to achieve those goals. Verifying that the BMP goals were met can help support permit and certification decisions for vessel-to-reef projects. Reaching the clean-up goals, along with strategic site selection, will set the scene for these vessels to benefit the environment as artificial reefs. Guidance on artificial reefs: epa.gov/owow/oceans/habitat/artificialreefs/. EPA Offering AQUATOX Training Workshop in JulyAQUATOX is a PC-based simulation model for aquatic ecosystems and covers eutrophication, chemical fate, bioaccumulation, and ecotoxicology. It predicts the fate of various pollutants, such as nutrients and organic chemicals, and their effects on the aquatic ecosystem. EPA is sponsoring an AQUATOX training workshop July 25-27, 2006 in Olympia, Washington. The course will provide a detailed overview of the model, and allow ample time to work with it in a lab setting. There is no charge for the workshop, but prior registration is required, and attendance is limited. For more information, visit the AQUATOX training page at http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/models/aquatox/training/. Subscribe to Water HeadlinesPlease forward this message to your friends and colleagues who share an interest in water-related issues and would like to hear from EPA's Office of Water. To subscribe to the Water Headlines listserve: Send an email message, leave the subject line blank, and address it to: In the body of the message write: Subscribe Water Headlines first name last name (Please leave one blank space between each word, do not include any other message, and use your actual name- i.e. Subscribe Water Headlines Robert Jones)
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
