Clean Water Action Plan

• A Commitment to Further Progress in Watershed Restoration and Pollution Control
• As many as 20 Key Actions Relate to Monitoring Water Pollution and Water Quality
• The National Water Quality Monitoring Council is
  - Responsible for Three Major Key Actions
  - Interested in all the Others Dealing With Monitoring
  
• EPA has Funded the Council's Basic CWAP Obligations

The National Water Quality Monitoring Council's
Three Major Key Actions

• 87: Consistent Indicators / Sampling / Lab Protocols
• 88: Report on Polluted Runoff Monitoring and Assessment
• 91: Point Source Monitoring / Reporting

Consistent Indicators /Sampling / Lab Protocols
Responsibility:

• Methods and Data Comparability Board
  - PBMS Recommended Position
  
  • Data / Metadata Elements
  -  Compendium of Analytic Methods
  • Review of Biological / Microbiological Methods
  • Review of Nutrient Methods
  -  Laboratory Accreditation Recommendations
  

Report on Polluted Runoff Monitoring and Assessment
Responsibility:

• Council Water Information Strategies Work Group will:
  -  Explore Placing a General Monitoring System Design Checklist on the lnternet
  -  Establish and Communicate Monitoring Design Frameworks
  - Will Use Existing and Planned Work
  

• Better Reporting Will Refine Estimates of Pollution Loads From Point Sources
• Reporting Seen as a Part of a System of Watershed Accounting
• EPA Work Groups are Active Defining Needs
  -  Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia
  -  Refinement of the USGS SPARROW Model
  
• EPA will soon explore how its NPDES regulatory program might alter reporting
• National Council guidance will be sought