These briefings are co-sponsored by the Environmental
and Energy Study Institute and the Water Environment Federation
in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey. The briefings
are targeted for policy makers and open to the public.
National Liaison Committee Briefings in 2006
March 3, 2006: Pesticides
in the Nation’s Streams and Ground Water: A Decade
of Assessments Provide Information for Future Protection
The USGS National Water Quality Assessment Program
(NAWQA) will release a report documenting its nationwide
assessment of pesticides in streams and ground water from
a decade of monitoring and analysis. The report was released
at this briefing and available for briefing attendees.
The findings also provide important implications for water-quality
protection and can be used to help guide and inform state
and national regulations and policies, by reflecting actual
environmental conditions, identifying sources of nonpoint
pesticide pollution in both urban and agricultural areas,
and improving investments in water-quality monitoring and
management across the Nation’s diverse environment
and pesticide-use patterns.
Speakers: |
Dr. Robert Hirsch, USGS Associate
Director for Water |
- Describe unique design and significance of NAWQA’s
studies, providing a context for its findings.
|
Bob Gilliom, Chief, NAWQA
Pesticide Synthesis Team |
- Present the major findings and implications from
the assessment.
|
Jim Jones, Director, Office
of Pesticides of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) |
- Evaluate the implications of the assessment and
describe ways EPA and USGS have collaborated to
enhance the science base for EPA policy decisions.
|
National Liaison Committee Briefings in 2005
Briefing Series. A series of briefings focused on
Water Quality Monitoring were organized under the National
Liaison Committee in cooperation with the leadership of
the National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program. They
were held on February 25, March 4, and March 11, 2005, on
Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
February 25, 2005: Water Quality Monitoring: Answers It Provides for Water Quality Protection
This briefing explored the questions that can be answered through monitoring, the strategies that are used to provide the answers, and how federal agencies and states use data acquired through different monitoring strategies. It included discussion of the needs and options for national policy on water quality monitoring and focused on probabilistic and targeted monitoring.
Moderator: |
Robin O'Malley, Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and Environment |
Speakers: |
Tim Miller, Chief, USGS Office of Water Quality |
|
Mike Shapiro, EPA Deputy Assistant Administrator for Water |
|
Sally Knowles, South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control |
March 4, 2005: Moving from Monitoring to Prediction: The Quality of the Nation's Streams
NAWQA scientists working on the "SPARROW" model described how they are able to provide information about pollution in unmonitored streams by extrapolating from data collected from monitored sites. Specifically, they provided information about streams throughout the country with phosphorus concentrations above recommended levels, about the sources of nutrients their relative impacts on pollution in the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico, and about the water quality impacts of the concentration of the livestock industry across the country. Keith Robinson and Laura Blake described how they adapted "SPARROW" and use it to help protect the Long Island Sound from hypoxia and to control non-point pollution in the region.
Moderator: |
Eileen O'Neill, Water Environment Federation |
Speakers: |
Richard Alexander, USGS |
|
Dick Smith, USGS |
|
Keith Robinson, New Hampshire USGS |
|
Laura Blake, New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission |
March 11, 2005: Moving from
Monitoring to Prediction: The Quality of the Nation's Ground
Water
This briefing described how NAWQA has determined the likelihood
of high nitrate levels in ground water for the entire country
from monitored nitrate levels at 1,280 sites. Scot Ator
also presented predicted concentrations of nitrogen, agricultural
pesticides, and urban pesticides in ground water in the
Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain based on extrapolated monitoring
data during base stream flows. Keith Robinson described
how USGS has adapted its national methods for determining
arsenic levels in groundwater to New England conditions
and how states are using them to target drinking water wells
for monitoring.
Moderator: |
Lynn Orphan, President, WEF |
Speakers: |
Tom Nolan, USGS |
|
Scott Ator, Maryland USGS |
|
Keith Robinson, New Hampshire USGS |
A total of 145 individuals attended these briefings. At
least two news articles that were published in the Daily
Environment Report and by United Press International. The
first briefing seems to have aided, an understanding that
different strategies are required to answer different questions
and that they should be used to complement each other. The
briefings also demonstrated how modeling can be used to
expand the information gained through monitoring and how
the resulting information can then be used in water protection
policy and activities.
The briefings helped NAWQA plan for delivering its findings from the first decade of studies. Perhaps the most important lesson learned is that NAWQA needs to be able to demonstrate concrete ways that findings are used to protect or improve water quality. This means that application of findings needs to be given a higher priority in study design, planning, and implementation so that findings will be more readily usable. In this way, potential users will be involved in NAWQA's work and will develop their own plans for using the information as soon as it is available.
National Liaison Committee Briefings in 2004
Briefings on NAWQA Topics held in 2002-2003
March 7, 2003 - Policy Options for Reducing Mercury Emissions
- Ellen Brown, EPA's Office of Policy, Analysis and Review
- Development of maximum achievable control
technology (MACT) standards for utility emissions,
designed to reduce mercury emissions.
- Larry Parker, Congressional Research Service, Energy
and Environmental Policy Section
- Legislative proposals to
reduce power plant emissions of mercury
- Proposal to reduce all mercury releases
February 2, 2003 - Deposition and Methylation of Mercury
- David Krabbenhoft, USGS Scientist
- Sources, deposition and methylation of mercury
- Health effects of mercury
January 18, 2002 - MTBE
- MTBE Findings in Drinking Water Supplies
Two briefings on mercury were planned jointly, in cooperation
with NAWQA and National Liaison Committee, and the Water Environment
Federation (WEF), the Northeast Midwest Congressional
Coalition, and the Environmental and Energy Study Institute
(EESI).
Please watch the meeting schedule of the Advisory
Committee on Water Information for details on confirmed
National Liaision Committee and other subgroup meetings@
http://water.usgs.gov/wicp/upcom.html
Related Links
National
Water Quality Assessment Program
NLC Meeting
Years 2002-2003
ACWI Planned Meeting Schedule
What's
New
ACWI Members
National Water Quality
Monitoring Council
Other
Links of Interest |