Mississippi River Water Quality and the Clean Water Act Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities (2008) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
7 Collaboration for Water Quality Improvement Along the Mississippi River Corridor
7 Collaboration for Water Quality Improvement Along the Mississippi River Corridor
Pages 190-211
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 190... ...
. Coordination and cooperation among states with shared surface waters is critical for effective water quality management under the Clean Water Act (USEPA, 1998b)
|
From page 191... ...
CLEAN WATER ACT COORDINATION NEEDS ON AN INTERSTATE RIVER As this report has explained, the pillars of the Clean Water Act are effective National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) point source permitting programs that achieve best available treatment technology; water quality standards comprising designated uses and water quality criteria; adequate monitoring to ensure protection of water quality and achievement of water quality standards; assessment to evaluate water quality status; and restoration programs to improve waters with impaired water quality relative to designated uses.
|
From page 192... ...
The primary corrective approach specified in the Clean Water Act is Section 303(d) , which requires assessment, identification of impaired waterbodies, and development of TMDLs to address water quality impairments.
|
From page 193... ...
Four large river systems for which states have established compacts that include water quality management as an objective are the Delaware River, the Ohio River, the Potomac River, and the Susquehanna River. Delaware River Basin Commission The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC)
|
From page 194... ...
Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service Connecticut River Flood Vermont, Massachusetts, Flood protection Control Compact Connecticut, New Hampshire Delaware River Basin New York, New Jersey, Protect, enhance, and develop Compact Delaware, Pennsylvania, water resources of the basin United States Great Lakes Basin Compact Indiana, Michigan, Development, conservation Minnesota, New York, balanced uses Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Illinois Interstate Compact for Arizona Concurrent law enforcement Jurisdiction on the Colorado River Interstate Compact on the Maryland, Pennsylvania, Water resources management Potomac River Basin Virginia, West Virginia, and interstate pollution District of Columbia, abatement United States Interstate Public Water New Hampshire, Vermont Joint public water supply Supply Compact facilities Kansas-Missouri Flood Kansas, Missouri Prevention and control of Protection and Control floods Compact Klamath River Basin California, Oregon Development, use, Compact conservation Merrimack River Flood Massachusetts, New Water storage, utilization, and Control Compact Hampshire flood control Missouri River Barge Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, River development for barge Compact Nebraska traffic
|
From page 195... ...
Although the DRBC works under the authority of its compact, several DRBC programs support Clean Water Act provisions. These programs include designating special protection waters, development of TMDLs, water quality and groundwater monitoring, biomonitoring, fish tissue analysis, ambient toxics and sediment surveys, and coordination of states' activities.
|
From page 196... ...
ORSANCO is empowered to establish treatment standards for waste discharges to interstate streams within the participating states' Ohio Valley drainage area, conduct surveys, recommend state legislation to achieve pollution abatement goals, and confer with any party that has an interest in water pollution control. ORSANCO's activities concerning Clean Water Act implementation include the adoption of water quality standards, permitting coordination, water quality and biological monitoring and assessment, TMDLs, and Gulf of Mexico hypoxia abatement.
|
From page 197... ...
The commission has undertaken various water quality monitoring, assessment, and restoration programs and participates in the EPAcoordinated, multistate effort to protect and restore water quality in the Chesapeake Bay. The SRBC's annual budget is approximately $4.5 million and it has a full-time staff of 34.
|
From page 198... ...
COOPERATIVE EFFORTS ALONG THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER A compact is not the only mechanism for enhancing cooperation among states in management of shared waters, and the mainstem Mississippi River states have undertaken several non-compact, cooperative efforts focused on Mississippi River water quality management since passage of the Clean Water Act. Some of these have limited goals, whereas others are aimed at broader goals and long-term planning and cooperation.
|
From page 199... ...
. In that study, the follow ing characteristics were identified that provide a "compelling rationale of such institutional arrangements": • Strength in numbers and enhanced voice: Multijurisdictional arrange ments, such as interstate commissions (among many other forms)
|
From page 200... ...
The compact's intended purposes were to reduce and then eliminate river pollution by 1998; encourage alternatives to discharging wastes and pollutants into the river; and maintain the biological and chemical integrity of the Mississippi River system to ensure water quality adequate for drinking water, agricultural, aquaculture, and recreational uses. In addition, the compact sought to ensure the collection and sharing of information among the signatories relative to technologies, methods, incentives, and regulatory means that could improve Mississippi River water quality.
|
From page 201... ...
The upper Mississippi River states have recognized the need to create a stronger collaborative and cooperative mechanism for water quality management and, accordingly, are working through UMRBA to assess the feasibility of establishing an interstate organizational structure with the capacity to coordinate and/or administer water quality programs under the Clean Water Act (UMRBA, 2006)
|
From page 202... ...
to address hypoxic conditions created by Mississippi River discharge into the Gulf of Mexico, the states in the upper Mississippi River subbasin formed a committee to examine the relationship of agricultural practices to Gulf hypoxia. The Upper Mississippi River Sub-basin Hypoxia Nutrient Committee (UMRSHNC)
|
From page 203... ...
It has no regulatory authority, but it provides a regular forum for discussion of water quality and natural resource protection and restoration issues. Participants include representatives of the environmental quality and natural resource agencies of each of the six lower Mississippi River states -- Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee -- and representatives of five federal agencies -- EPA, NRCS, USACE, USGS, and the USFWS.
|
From page 204... ...
At the scale of the entire river, the Mississippi River Water Quality Collaborative, which is sponsored by the McKnight Foundation, brings together representatives from more than 20 nongovernmental organizations from states along the Mississippi River corridor to explore strategies for comprehensive, riverwide water quality improvements. EPA COLLABORATION ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER The EPA has a major role to play in the implementation of the Clean Water Act in the Mississippi River basin both directly through the development of guidance documents such as water quality criteria and oversight of programs that it has delegated to the states and indirectly through regional coordination of programs to protect major rivers.
|
From page 205... ...
In addition, the EPA requires states to submit an annual (or semiannual) program plan describing state water quality activities in support of the Clean Water Act as a condition of federal funding.
|
From page 206... ...
. In 2001, the UMRBA undertook an upper Mississippi River water quality coordination project designed to identify and explain the approaches that each upper Mississippi River basin state uses in its Clean Water Act Section 305(b)
|
From page 207... ...
Managing Mississippi River water quality among the multiple states along its corridor, and across its river basin area, is watershed planning on the largest scale and would be consistent with EPA's pro motion of watershed-scale programs and initiatives.
|
From page 208... ...
The U.S. Geological Survey also plays a significant role through its streamflow and water quality monitoring activities throughout the Mississippi River basin.
|
From page 209... ...
On the basis of its authority under the Clean Water Act, its regional organization, and its relationships with state water quality agencies, the EPA clearly is the federal agency in the best position to provide this needed coordination and management guidance. The EPA should exercise a stronger coordinating role in improving interstate cooperation and consistency in water quality standards, monitoring, and control.
|
From page 210... ...
For example, states may share some information gained in their monitoring activities, but they are not collaborating on design and implementation of Clean Water Act program components, such as the development of water quality standards and TMDLs. There is a strong need for improved regional cooperation and coordination on water quality issues for the lower Mississippi River states, where progress generally lags behind that seen in the upper river states.
|
From page 211... ...
The EPA should encourage and support the efforts of all 10 Mississippi River states to effect regional coordination on water quality monitoring and planning and should facilitate stronger integration of state-level programs. The EPA has an opportunity to broker better interstate collaboration and thereby improve delivery of Clean Water Act-related programs, such as permitting, monitoring and assessment, and water quality standards development.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.