ACTION ITEMS
ACTION ITEMS
USGS and EPA will contact the ACWI partner organizations and set up an ad hoc work group among them to begin work of the National Council. A list of ACWI organizations will be provided to ITFM members.
Advisory Council on Water Information (ACWI) -- Tim Smith -- Begin preparation for the parent ACWI, and if possible motivate a high-level policy meeting this fiscal year.
Elizabeth will send 2 page write-up on each water indicator to all members. This is the Fact sheet report on EPA Water Indicators. ITFM members to notify EPA how many copies they want.
EPA will send thank you letters to contributors and officials in agencies which have information used in water indicators report.
A focus group will be formed to develop approach for next year's water indicators report.
To continue to develop list of potential members of the Methods Board and criteria for method selection to be ready to implement the board when the Council is formed.
Chuck Job to send out ground water focus group report when the draft is finished. Members will review and get comments back to Job.
ITFM members to review and give commends on draft report "Ground and Surface Water Interaction, Watershed Management and Monitoring" and article "The Use of Invertebrates in Ground Water Monitoring: A Rising Research Field" to Job by July 30, 1996.
In reference to his request for high level Federal agency officials attend the next ITFM, or appropriately arranged meeting, Rodney DeHan will develop agenda for what would be covered at such a meeting and what officials should be invited.
Elizabeth Fellows, Stu McKenzie, and Chuck Job will lead a team on water quality monitoring design to incorporate available water-quality data from NAWQA, NASQAN, NOAA, OGWDW, OWOW, and the states. Meeting to be held in July, 1996. This design effort will be coordinated with the CENR initiative. ITFM will then hold a short 1-2 day workshop with the purpose of developing a design for a national water quality monitoring program, building on present efforts. Also, the participants at the workshop will consider the state design questions that emerge from the 305(b) consistency workshop. This might be done in September 1996 time frame.
Doug Glysson will meet with Joanne Kurklin and select a state representative to make a presentation to the Oklahoma Federal and state agencies that might participate in the pilot study.
OWDC will distribute the CENR report to ITFM when it is available.
ITFM will be invited to attend national CENR Workshop, Emery Cleaves volunteered to be the state representative. Elizabeth Fellows and Andy Robertson are presently representing the Federal side.
Elizabeth asked that the members try "surf your watershed" and give their comments to Karen Klima. Also inform Karen of your agency's interest in linking your data to this site and if your agency would be willing to participate in a meeting to discuss standards that will be needed for letting data into the system. A work group will be developed.
Don Brady's program has written a short description of each TMDL suit and will distribute it to the members once it has been reviewed.
Elizabeth Fellows started the meeting at 6:35 p.m. and discussed the purpose of this meeting. The agenda was changed and Surf your Watershed and TMDL's were moved up in the order of the items to cover to allow guests to leave early.
Elizabeth asked for a moment of silence be observed for Russ Sherer who passed away unexpectedly since our last meeting. He will be missed by all.
Tim Smith discussed the actions on the establishment of the Advisory Committee on Water Information (ACWI): The process is now underway that will create the ACWI under FACA. While this is happening, he discussed how important it is to make early contact with the partner organizations to alert them to the activity, and to lay the ground work for operations. He suggested that we take action now. USGS and EPA will contact the partner organizations and set up an ad hoc work group among them to begin work on, for example, development of a terms of reference using the ITFM recommended term as a basis. Information to do this is available as part of the Strategy Report (Appendix C). By taking this step, the functions of the National Water Quality Monitoring Council can be institutionalized quickly. Building on the successful partnership developed by the NAWQA Advisory Council and ITFM, we will begin coordination of topics at a national and interagency level, and implement actions under existing authorities at the Federal and State levels.
ACTION ITEMS:
USGS and EPA will contact the ACWI partner organizations and set up an ad hoc work group among them to begin work of the National Council. A list of ACWI organizations will be provided to ITFM members.
Advisory Council on Water Information (ACWI) -- Tim Smith -- Begin preparation for the parent ACWI, and if possible motivate a high-level policy meeting this fiscal year.
Focus Group -- Andy Robertson and Elizabeth Fellows -- Recommend next step is to implement the indicators presented in the national report and develop a plan to: (1) provide a structure for trends for some of the indicators and (2) improve data to provide baseline for others. A focus group will be formed for this purpose.
Elizabeth passed out copies of the "Environmental Indicators of Water Quality in the United States." (Attachment A1)
ACTION ITEMS:
Elizabeth will send 2 page write up on each water indicator to all members. This is the Fact sheet report on EPA Water Indicators. ITFM members to notify EPA how many copies they want. (Attachment A2)
EPA will send thank you letters to contributors and officials in agencies which have information used in water indicators report.
A focus group will be formed to develop approach for next year's water indicators report.
Focus Group -- Herb Brass -- work has been done on recommending members for Methods Board. Because the National Monitoring Council has not been formed, not much work has not been accomplished since the last ITFM meeting. Work needs to go forward on development of the Board. A state co-chair for this group needs to be found to replace Russ Sherer. The USGS initiative on drinking water was discussed as a possible pilot to develop comparable methods. EPA and several others have been working with the GS on this. The purpose is to evaluate the difference between USGS and EPA drinking water methods.
ACTION ITEM:
To continue to develop list of potential members of the Methods Board and criteria for method selection to be ready to implement the Board when the Council is formed.
Focus Group -- Karen Klima (EPA) and Ken Lanfear (USGS) -- Finalize and populate "Surf Your Watershed," for which the initial shell has been implemented. See discussion below in these minutes.
Chuck Job reported that the guide that they have been working on is close to completion and will send to ITFM for review soon.
ACTION
ITEM:
Chuck Job to send out ground water focus group report when the draft is finished. Members will review and get comments back to Job.
Chuck handed out draft "Ground and Surface Water Interaction, Watershed Management and Monitoring" report Attachment B. This report will be considered for ITFM electronic publication once it is completed. Attached to this draft report is an article on bio-monitoring of ground water. It is a new way of thinking about monitoring ground water.
ACTION ITEM:
ITFM members to review and give commends on draft report "Ground and Surface Water Interaction, Watershed Management and Monitoring" and article "The Use of Invertebrates in Ground Water Monitoring: A Rising Research Field" to Job by July 30, 1996.
Rodney discussed a symposium that will discuss the role of ground water in a watershed. It is being organized by two national ground water associations (National Ground Water Association and Ground Water Policy Committee). He requested that the ITFM co-sponsor the meeting. He is also looking for sponsorship from several Federal agencies such as the EPA and USGS. Discussion items included how you integrate groundwater and surface water models. He felt that by the next ITFM meeting (September 1996) he will have more details as to what will be addressed at the conference. ITFM felt that this was a worthwhile conference and ITFM should support it by sponsoring it in name (no funds to be contributed). The symposium would probably take place in February 1997.
Rodney suggested that high level EPA and other agency individual attend the next ITFM meeting. The idea is to create a bridge between EPA's OWOW OSWDW, with a chance to hear from the states.
ACTION
ITEM:
In reference to his request for high level Federal agency officials attend the next ITFM, or appropriately arranged meeting, Rodney DeHan will develop agenda for what would be covered at such a meeting and what officials should be invited.
Lynn Singleton reported on a review of the redesign of the USGS' NASQAN program in which he and Elizabeth Fellows participated. The program will be redesigned to emphasize flux of constituents, rather than concentration as was done for the earlier design. Elizabeth Fellows, Dan Farrow, and John Kline (USGS) will present the recommendations to Bob Hirsch, USGS Chief Hydrologist. The USGS will respond to the review comments. Copies of the Draft fact sheet and other documents from the USGS' NASQAN internet page are Attachment C.
Because of all the effort now underway, Elizabeth suggested that a short 1-2 day workshop on brain storming a national design for water quality monitoring be held and invite others such as NOAA, NASQAN, NAWQA, etc. Stu McKenzie and Chuck Job will work on this with her. This work can help ITFM in its support of CENR.
ACTION ITEM:
Elizabeth Fellows, Stu McKenzie, and Chuck Job will lead a team on water quality monitoring design to incorporate available water-quality data from NAWQA, NASQAN, NOAA, OGWDW, OWOW, and the states. Meeting to be held in July, 1996. This design effort will feed into the CENR initiative. ITFM will then hold a short 1-2 day workshop with the purpose of developing a design for a national water quality monitoring program, building on present efforts. Also, the participants at the workshop will consider the state design questions that emerge for the 305 (b) consistency workshop. This might be done in September 1996 time frame.
Focus Group -- Steve Paulsen (EMAP), Tim Miller (NAWQA), Chris Faulkner (EPA/OW) and State volunteer to recommend joint use of reference conditions. Andy Robertson will also work on this.
Work with 305(b) Consistency Workgroup (Barry Burgan, EPA). 305(b) will go to a 5 year reporting cycle. Elizabeth handed out a Discussion Paper #1 on what the five-year reports might contain. Attachment D.
Funding Coordination -- State Members and USGS -- Investigate the possibility of funding coordination between the USGS Coop Program and the EPA 305(b) Program. USGS Oklahoma District and EPA Region 6 have discussed the possibility of doing this pilot. USGS has requested that a state ITFM representative come and give them a presentation on the worth of a state ITFM type activity. We will discuss this and get a state representative to go to Oklahoma to make this presentation sometime this summer.
ACTION ITEM:
Doug Glysson will meet with Joanne Kurklin and select a state representative to make a presentation to the Oklahoma Federal and state agencies that might participate in the pilot study.
Owen Bricker, a representative of the CENR discussed the needs of the CENR effort as preparations are made for a national workshop (end of September, 1996) that will present the CENR framework and determine the needs of the client community. They want to take what was already been established and build on it. A copy of his overheads are Attachment E.
The draft report "Integrating the Nation's Environmental Monitoring and Research Networks and Programs: A Proposed Framework" will be available soon. Copies will be distributed by OWDC as soon as they become available. (NOTE: A presentation on this effort was made at the Dec. 1995 ITFM meeting.)
ITFM should be involved with the CENR, at a minimum, in the work related to site selection and selection of variables.
ACTION ITEMS:
OWDC will distribute the CENR report to ITFM when it is available.
ITFM will be invited to attend national CENR Workshop, Emery Cleaves volunteered to be the state representative. Elizabeth Fellows and Andy Robertson are presently representing the Federal side.
ACTION ITEM:
Elizabeth asked that the members try "surf your watershed" and give their comments to Karen Klima. Also inform Karen of your agency's interest in linking your data to this site and if your agency would be willing to participate in a meeting to discuss standards that will be needed for letting data into the system. A work group will be developed.
ACTION ITEMS:
Don Brady's program has written a short description of each TMDL suit and will distribute it to the members once it has been reviewed.
NEXT ITFM MEETING TO BE HELD SEPTEMBER 10-11, 1996
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Last modified: 08:00 15AUG1996 ghc