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Water Headlines for August 17, 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:
Applicants Sought for $19 million in Watershed GrantsEPA plans to award up to $19 million in grants to help clean up and restore the nation's waterways. Proposals must reach EPA by Oct. 16, 2006, for capacity-building grants and Nov. 15, 2006, for project-implementation grants. Capacity-building grants provide for education and training, whereas implementation grants involve actions such as protection and preservation. “President Bush understands that citizen-centered programs foster innovation while accelerating restoration of watersheds through Cooperative Conservation and grass-roots partnerships," said Assistant Administrator for Water Benjamin H. Grumbles. State governors and tribal leaders nominate potential recipients for implementation grants. EPA will evaluate and rank submissions based on criteria outlined in each notice. Watershed organizations receive the awards based on how likely they are to achieve environmental results in a relatively short time. Selection of the grantees will be announced in the fall. Under the Targeted Watersheds Grant Program, EPA has awarded nearly $40 million to 46 watershed organizations since 2003. In excess of $2 million has gone to five watershed capacity-building organizations to further the activities of more than 3,000 local watershed groups. For this grant cycle, the focus will be on supporting community-based approaches and strengthening local capacity to protect and clean up water resources. Watersheds currently in the program cover more than 142,000 square miles of the nation’s landscape draining into lakes, rivers, and streams. More information: Targeted Watershed Grants: http://www.epa.gov/twg. Water Quality Trading Training WorkshopThe Environmental Trading Network (ETN) is hosting a Training Workshop on Water Quality Trading on Aug. 22-24, 2006 in Cincinnati, Ohio. The overall goal of the workshop is to explore and develop a workable trading framework that could be adapted for application in the Ohio River Basin. Nationally and internationally recognized experts will provide participants training on basic principles underlying market-based approaches, practical criteria for design and evaluation of market-based programs that advance water quality improvements, EPA's trading policies, up-to-date tools for design and implementation of trading programs, and case examples of existing trading programs. U.S. EPA provided grant funds to support this training. To register for this training, go to www.envtn.org. Minnesota’s Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Program fully approvedOn July 27th, NOAA and EPA fully approved Minnesota’s Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Program under Section 6217 of the Coastal Zone Act Reauthorization Amendments of 1990 ("CZARA"), making it the 17th fully approved program in the U.S. Congress established the program in 1990 to encourage better coordination between state coastal zone and nonpoint pollution programs in the coastal zone. Coastal states must develop programs, backed by enforceable authorities, to implement a suite of management measures that will control runoff from six categories of sources: forestry, agriculture, urban areas, marinas, hydromodification (shoreline and stream channel modification), and wetlands and riparian areas. Despite being one of the last five states to participate in the nationwide program, Minnesota developed a fully approved state program more quickly than any other participating state or territory. For additional information, contact Don Waye (waye.don@epa.gov), or link to Minnesota's Approval Document at Draft Implementation Guidance for Methylmercury Fish Tissue CriterionEPA is publishing for public comment a draft of the Guidance for Implementing the Jan. 2001 Methylmercury Water Quality Criteria. When final, this document will help protect waters by giving state, territory, and authorized tribal water quality programs guidance on how to adopt and implement the fish tissue-based methylmercury water quality criteria. You can find the document at http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/criteria/methylmercury/. Office of Water Personnel ChangesMichael Deane, Senior Policy Advisor for Infrastructure Financing. Michael will begin his work in the Office of Water's Immediate Office on Aug. 28th. He will help advance one of the Administrator's highest water priorities--“developing innovative, sustainable, and market-based solutions for infrastructure financing and management.” Michael worked for the Office of Water from 1988 to 1995. Since then, he has worked extensively in the private sector demonstrating expertise in infrastructure financing and partnership building. Stephanie Daigle announced that Brent Fewell will serve as Acting Associate Administrator for the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations from Sept. through Jan. In that capacity Brent will have responsibility for managing EPA's relations with Congress as well as state and local governments. 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)
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