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WATERSHED CENTRAL: AN INTEGRATED WATERSHED ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT PROJECT
Citation:
WILLIAMS, J. R., S. M. CORMIER, S. LEHMAN, AND M. CHANG. WATERSHED CENTRAL: AN INTEGRATED WATERSHED ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT PROJECT. Presented at EPA's Environmental Information Symposium, Savannah, GA, December 05 - 07, 2006.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
The Clean Water Act (CWA) requires that States develop and implement pollution reduction targets for impaired or threatened waters often referred to as total maximum daily loads (TMDLs). State and local governments are faced with a broad range of technical, economic and political issues when they develop TMDLs and require or encourage actions to achieve water quality standards. Recognition of the importance of multiple loadings, land use impacts, and non-point sources that alter water quality and quantity has led water quality managers to adopt a watershed approach to achieve their restoration and protection goals. This presentation describes a joint effort of the U.S.EPA’s Office of Water (OW), Office of Research and Development (ORD), and Office of Environmental Information (OEI) to develop an integrated framework for providing watershed managers and decision-makers with the databases, models, decision support tools, and other resources needed to develop, implement and evaluate watershed management plans. This framework will be used as the basis for a centralized website to provide access to these tools and resources. Selected activities include the development of the framework, which will address goals of the CWA and the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), the identification of tools that are currently working for a wide range of watershed managers, and the identification of gaps in these tools/resources and the research needed to address those gaps. This process will ultimately result in a feedback mechanism for Agency decision-makers to use in the prioritization of research and technical support/technology transfer needs.