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Water Headlines for November 28, 2007Benjamin 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:
EPA, Army Corps Extend Public Comment Period for Joint Rapanos GuidanceEPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) are extending the public comment period for the interagency joint guidance on the scope of Clean Water Act geographic jurisdiction following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Rapanos v. United States. The public comment period has been extended by 45 days and comments on the guidance and experiences with its implementation are now due by Jan. 21, 2008. EPA and the Corps issued the guidance in June 2007, consistent with the Supreme Court's decision in the consolidated cases Rapanos v. United States and Carabell v. United States regarding the scope of the agencies' jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act. The guidance supports a strong regulatory program that ensures no net loss of wetlands, which is one of three key elements of the Bush Administration wetlands policy. The other two elements include an active management program that will result in the restoration, enhancement and protection of 3 million acres of wetlands by 2009 and a commitment to conserve isolated wetlands such as prairie potholes. During the early implementation of the guidance, the agencies are inviting public comments on case studies and experiences in applying the guidance. Comments can be submitted to docket EPA-HQ-OW-2007-0282 through http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main . The agencies, within nine months after the Rapanos guidance has been issued, intend to either re-issue, revise, or suspend the guidance after carefully considering the public comments received and field experience with implementing the guidance. For more information please visit: http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/guidance/CWAwaters.html. Water Quality Standards Academy: Basic CourseThe Office of Science and Technology is presenting the Water Quality Standards Academy: Basic Course this week, November 26-30, 2007 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Crystal City, VA. The Water Quality Standards Academy: Basic Course is a comprehensive and highly structured course that introduces students to all aspects of the Water Quality Standards program, and is designed for those with less than 6 months experience with standards and criteria. More than 70 participants representing EPA HQ and Regions, States and Tribes are in attendance. Several federal agencies, counties and municipalities, non-profit organizations, colleges and universities, and many other regulated and environmental communities are also represented. For further information on the Water Quality Standards Academy, please go to http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/standards/academy.html EPA Sponsors Free Webcast on Dec. 6, 2007 on "Options for Expressing Daily Loads in TMDLs"EPA's Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Program is sponsoring a Webcast on Thurs. Dec. 6, 2007 at 2:00 - 4:00pm Eastern on EPA’s recently released draft document, Options for Expressing Daily Loads in TMDLs (document posted at: http://www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl/draft_daily_loads_tech.pdf). This Webcast for TMDL practitioners will provide information regarding options for developing appropriate daily load expressions during the TMDL process. In particular, the Webcast will address the calculation of daily loads for TMDLs that use allocation timeframes that are greater than daily (e.g., annual, seasonal). The Webcast is free, but you need to register in advance to participate. For registration information and the flyer on the Webcast, please go to: http://www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl/training.html. If you prefer to gather and attend as part of a group of co-workers, only one registrant per group is required. For more information, please contact Rosaura Vega at (202) 566-1514 or vega.rosaura@epa.gov. Drinking Water Training Opportunities for Tribes and Tribal OperatorsA new website is available that provides a consolidated list of drinking water training opportunities that may be of interest to tribes and tribal operators during the upcoming months. This list organizes courses from many training providers by region, and it also includes a list of trainings that are available online. This list will be updated quarterly, so if you would like to highlight an upcoming training course on this list please send an email to betanzo.elin@epa.gov. The website can be accessed at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/tribal.html. 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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