What is the condition of my stream or lake? Whether you are preparing a report or grant application or are just curious, this page will provide tools and links to information to answer your questions about the condition of streams and lakes of interest to you. Or go directly to the Watershed Viewer, an online mapping tool full of information about watersheds, permitted dischargers, streams, lakes and 305(b) assessment data.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is offering two new online training opportunities for our nonprofit recipients and applicants. Grant Management Training for Nonprofit Applicants and Recipients is designed to introduce the grant recipient and applicant community to the EPA grant requirements and explain how to find and apply for grant opportunities. Stay Exempt is an IRS training program that provides the tools and knowledge to help keep organizations' exempt status intact. It consists of five interactive courses that can be taken individually and in any order.
EPA's Watershed Academy recently posted a free, updated online training module on "Getting In Step: A Guide to Conducting Watershed Outreach Campaigns." This module offers a tested step-by-step system to help local governments, watershed organizations and others maximize the effectiveness of public outreach campaigns to help solve nonpoint source pollution problems and protect local waterways. The module is based on EPA's free, downloadable outreach guide.
EPA's Watershed Academy: A presentation on how to conduct effective watershed outreach campaigns entitled "Getting in Step: Developing Your Message and Publicizing it Effectively," by watershed outreach specialist Charlie McPherson from Tetra Tech Inc., complete with audio, can be viewed at the Clu-In Web site at: http://www.clu-in.org/conf/tio/gettinginstep_072005/.
A presentation on "Eight Tools of Protection for Developing Areas," featuring Tom Schueler with the Center for Watershed Protection, can also be accessed at: http://www.clu-in.org/conf/tio/watershedtools_062205/. For other training opportunities on watershed management topics, visit the Watershed Academy Web site.
EPA plans to host Webcasts monthly. Future offerings will be posted on the Watershed Academy Web site at: http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/wacademy/webcasts/.
What is the future of water and wastewater treatment? Valerie Nelson, Ph.D, of the Coalition of Alternative Wastewater Treatment, provides a very insightful and forward-thinking testimony to Congress on how we might address Kentucky's needs and do it in a way that is more environmentally sound, technologically feasible and lower in cost.
Funding Announcements: For the most up-to-date information on grant opportunities, see the funding announcements page.
Watershed Management 12 lessons learned in the Chesapeake Bay cleanup Some or all of the key lessons learned by the leaders of the Chesapeake Bay cleanup effort may be transferable to the restoration efforts of other large-scale environmental management efforts.
Community-Based Watershed Handbook A new handbook is now available to help accelerate watershed protection programs. This publication is an update to a successful publication released in 1989. The handbook describes innovative approaches developed and conducted by the 28 national estuary programs, which are community-based watershed management organizations that restore and protect coastal watersheds. Topics include starting a program, identifying problems and solutions and developing plans of action.
Urban Subwatershed Restoration Manual (USRM) The Center for Watershed Protection offers a new manual series with practical, comprehensive information on watershed restoration techniques. The manuals introduce an integrated framework for urban watershed restoration, outline effective techniques for assessing urban watersheds and provide a comprehensive review of watershed restoration techniques. Each manual includes color photos, graphics and data, detailed field methods, practice specifications, costs, applicability and tips on implementation. For ordering information, visit http://www.cwp.org/.
Watershed-Based NPDES Permitting Implementation Guidance A guidance document describing EPA's recommendations for watershed-based permitting under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program is now available online. This approach is aimed at achieving new efficiencies and environmental results. The watershed approach to permitting provides a process for considering all stressors within a hydrologically defined drainage basin, rather than addressing individual pollutant sources on a discharge-by-discharge basis.
Wastewater Regionalization Regionalization of wastewater management minimizes the number of wastewater discharges into state waters. This is accomplished through prevention of new discharges when possible, connection to existing facilities or the connection of one or more existing facilities into a new or existing regional treatment facility. Find out more about this topic and what you can do to help promote sound wastewater management in Kentucky.
Stream biodiversity Past land-use activity, particularly agriculture, may result in long-term modifications to and reductions in aquatic diversity, regardless of reforestation of riparian zones. Preservation of habitat fragments may not be sufficient to maintain natural diversity in streams.
Guidance to Control Urban Runoff Pollution EPA released the "National Management Measures to Control Nonpoint Source Pollution from Urban Areas" to help local governments and other entities protect water resources from daily activities, urban development and storm water runoff. The guidance will also help municipalities and other regulated entities implement stormwater programs.
Draft Handbook for Developing Watershed Plans: EPA's Office of Water has published a guide to watershed management to help various organizations develop and implement watershed plans. The "Handbook for Developing Watershed Plans to Restore and Protect Our Waters" is aimed toward communities, watershed groups, and local, state, tribal and federal environmental agencies. You can order a free copy from the National Service Center for Environmental Publications by calling 800-490-9198 or e-mail nscep@bps-lmit.com; reference EPA document number EPA 841-B-05-005.
