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WaterNews for February 3, 2006Benjamin Grumbles WaterNews 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 WaterNews:
National Water Directors Tour Urban Runoff Recycling FacilityThe first quarterly 2006 National Water Division Directors meeting was held on Jan. 31-Feb. 1 in Santa Monica, Calif. These EPA water experts met to discuss innovative ways to restore and protect our nation’s waters through sustainable infrastructure, wetlands conservation and new technologies. As part of this year’s meeting, Benjamin H. Grumbles, Assistant Administrator for Water, toured the City of Santa Monica’s Urban Runoff Recycling Facility or SMURRF. “This state-of-the-art facility sends a strong message to beach lovers and communities across America: Even runoff can be a resource if you get creative and stay committed,” said Assistant Administrator Grumbles. “The SMURRF reduces, recycles, and reuses urban runoff to protect coasts and swimmers and conserve clean water. EPA thinks that should be the clean wave of the future.” Craig Perkins, Director Environmental and Public Works Management, City of Santa Monica, led Assistant Administrator Grumbles on a tour of the high tech water runoff recycling facility. For more information on the SMURRF tour visit: Federal Partners Commit to Sustainable BuildingsA memorandum of understanding (MOU) in support of high performance and sustainable buildings was signed by the EPA and 16 Federal Agencies on Jan. 24, 2006. The document formalizes a commitment to guiding principles for energy performance, water conservation, integrated design and sustainable materials to help foster safe and healthy environments while promoting environmental stewardship. Over the next few months the Office of Water will be working with the EPA’s green buildings workgroup and other Federal agencies to develop technical guidance to help agencies apply the principles of the MOU to their own facilities. Ultimately, the guidance will be incorporated into the Whole Building Design Guideline, a public-private collaborative resource for building professionals. The MOU signatories represent about 90 percent of all Federal building space. The Federal government owns approximately 445,000 buildings with total floor space of over 3 billion square feet, in addition to leasing an additional 57,000 buildings comprising 374 million square feet of floor space. For additional information about this project, contact Stephanie Tanner 202 564-2660. For additional information about the Whole Building Design Guide, visit: www.wbdg.org. EPA’s Watershed Academy to Sponsor Webcast on Plan2 Fund Watershed ToolEPA’s Watershed Academy sponsors monthly Webcasts to offer free training and information for watershed practitioners around the globe. The next Webcast is slated for Wednesday, Feb.15, 2006. Dr. Bill Jarocki, Director of the Environmental Finance Center at Boise State University, will present the “Plan2" Fund, a new tool to help watershed organizations develop long-term funding strategies for watershed plans. Registration is available on a first-come/first-served basis and will open on Feb. 8, 2006. Each Webcast includes a Web-based slide presentation with a companion audio portion that can be accessed either by phone or by streaming audio broadcast. For more information, visit: http://www.epa.gov/watershedwebcasts. On Jan. 18, the Academy hosted a Webcast on EPA's new Draft Watershed Planning Handbook. The Webcast attracted more than 538 participants from 43 states and Canada and Peru. Audio versions of this and past Webcasts are available at: http://www.epa.gov/watershedwebcasts. The presentation can be downloaded to an IPOD or MP3 player. For more information about the Draft Watershed Planning Handbook, visit: http://www.epa.gov/owow/nps/watershed_handbook/. Navajo Nation Approved for Clean Water ProgramsEPA has approved the Navajo Nation's application to administer federal Clean Water Act programs. The Navajo Nation is the 34th tribe out of 563 tribes nationwide to be approved to administer water quality standards and a water quality certification program under the Clean Water Act. The tribe will work with EPA to develop and adopt water quality standards which, once approved, will form the basis for water quality-based effluent limitations and other requirements for discharges to waters within the tribe's jurisdiction. For more information, contact Wendy Chavez in our Region 9 office at 415-947-4248. Subscribe to WaterNewsPlease 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 WaterNews listserve: Send an email message, leave the subject line blank, and address it to: In the body of the message write: Subscribe WaterNews firstname lastname (Please leave one blank space between each word, do not include any other message, and use your actual name- i.e. Subscribe WaterNews Robert Jones) A welcome message will appear in your email box once you are officially subscribed.
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