National Water Quality Council Meeting Minutes

ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
FEBRUARY 4-8, 2002
MINUTES

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2002 -

FLORIDA MARINE RESEARCH INSTITUTE (FMRI)
100 EIGHTH AVENUE, S.E. (ROOM 3001)

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS

Chuck Spooner presented certificates of appreciation to outgoing members, Fred Van Alstyne and Rodney DeHan. Fred and Rodney had each served on the Council and Steering Committee for a number of years and will be greatly missed. Both Fred and Rodney spoke of their appreciation to the Council and their continued interest in the Council. New members were introduced and each stated briefly their affiliation and activities. The new members present at the meeting were Mary Ambrose and Alfred Korndoerfer.

MONITORING ACTIVITIES OF FMRI.

Gil McRae, Research Administrator, Resource Health and Assessment, FMRI, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, presented a very indepth look at the activities of the FMRI. Gil leads one of the four major institutes of FMRI. He gave an overview of the monitoring activities of FMRI. The four main programs are Fisheries Assessment, Ecosystem Assessment, Endangered and Threatened Species, and Information Science and Management. FMRI is a non-regulatory agency. They conduct science in support of management. Gil said that he would focus his presentation on the monitoring that FMRI does. FMRI does not do the classic water quality monitoring-mainly the monitoring is biological. However, much of the data collected is water quality data in order the collect the biological information. FMRI conducts monitoring design and implementation, monitoring technology, directed products, event response, information management. FMRI monitors in response to events such as fish deaths. They have five years of funding for multi-wide monitoring (funded by EPA) for Inshore Marine Monitoring and Assessment Program (IMAP)-takes five years to cover the whole state of Florida. They are in their second year of monitoring. First public report to be done after the second year. Before this program there was no estuarine water quality monitoring. They do use a volunteer monitoring group in the state to expand the range of monitoring that can be done. Biological monitoring is being done in the rivers as well as the estuaries. Attachment 1, "Programs of the Florida Marine Research Institute, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission 2001-2002." Attachment 2, Monitoring Activities of the FMRI.

EPA REGION 4 PROGRAMS. Fred McManus, EPA Region 4, Atlanta, Georgia, introduced Joe Boyer, Florida International University, Southeast Environmental Research Center, Water Quality Monitoring Project for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, who gave a presentation on these activities. Fred said that two of the Region 4 programs are conducted here at the FMRI. The comprehensive monitoring program of the sanctuaries and the long-term comprehensive monitoring program is being developed by EPA for the sanctuaries coral reef component, seagrass component, and data management. There is also the $7-$8M Everglades Restoration Program. EPA documents monitoring solutions. See the website at http://serc.fiu.edu/sercindex/index.htm.

Chris Anderson of the FMRI gave a presentation on Florida Keys National Sanctuary Water Quality Protection Program Data Integration System. Funding for the data management project started at the beginning-even before the data are collected. Program Investigators were developing protocols for long-term development. Studies involve several EPA data bases including EMAP and STORET. A workshop was conducted on water quality databases including those of EPA, NOAA, and USGS. They also conducted a coral reef management study and decided to do a Florida version of STORET. Attachment 3, Overview of Research and Monitoring Programs, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Symposium, December 6, 2001.

HYDROGEOLOGIC SYSTEM AND SOURCES OF WATER SUPPLY. Yvonne Stoker, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), introduced Lari Knochenmus, USGS, and Mark Barcelo, Southwest Florida Water Management District, who gave a presentation on the Generalized Hydrogeoloic Framework and how water moves through the hydogeologic system in Florida. There are five water management districts in the State of Florida. Mark Barcelo's presentation focused on the water management districts with a brief overview in terms of water supply. The major water supply is from ground water in the St. Petersburg district.

INTEGRATED STUDY OF TAMPA BAY. Kim Yates, USGS, gave presentation on the study of Tampa Bay; a number of issues for Tampa Bay was identified and from those issues, a series of pilot studies were developed that includes Gulf of Mexico Estuaries Integrated Science. Over 60 scientists are contributing to this project including U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Geological Survey, and the University of South Florida. This is the second year of a 5-year pilot study. A number of articles will be published. Their website is at http://gulfsci.usgs.gov. Fact Sheets of the pilot were distributed. Attachment 4, Fact Sheets of the Tampa Bay Integrated Science Pilot Study.

MICROBIAL WATER QUALITY. Debbie Huffman, University of South Florida, and, Chris Kellogg, USGS Center for Coastal Geology & Regional Marine Studies, gave presentation on microbial water quality studies and developing new technologies that affect human health.

NATIONAL WATER QUALITY MONITORING DAY. Linda Green gave a presentation on the activities for the National Water Quality Monitoring Day that will take place on October 18, 2002. Fred Banach stated that the Council should give endorsement to the National Water Quality Monitoring Day. It was agreed that the endorsement of Council should be in a formal letter. Abby Markowitz was concerned that the one day of monitoring sponsored by the National Water Quality Monitoring Day would overlook all the good scientific data that is produced by volunteer monitors on an ongoing basis. ACTION: Toni Johnson and Linda Green agreed to draft a letter to be discussed at the business meeting that supports and endorses the National Water Quality Monitoring Day. The endorsement to include descriptions/caveats regarding "one-day snapshot" versus long-term monitoring efforts. The draft letter, along with a list of possible awareness raising ideas for conference to go to conference planning committee.

INVENTORIES OF STATE MONITORING ACTIVITIES

Chuck Spooner gave a presentation on the status of state monitoring programs. Response has been received from 28 states, territories, and tribes. The Association of State and Interstate Water Pollution Control Administrators (ASIWPCA) survey will be officially released on the National Water Quality Monitoring Day. EPA issued a grant to ASIWIPCA for this purpose. Attachment 5, Monitoring Assessment Surveys. This is third survey being done and identifies the approaches to the various state monitoring activities and the gap analysis between the funding and the state surveys and what they need. The estimate for the monitoring gap is $200M. When these surveys can be completed and merged, it will give us a good picture of what monitoring is being done nationally. ACTION ITEM: A small subgroup will be developed to work on comparison of surveys of monitoring programs developed by State, Federal, and professional organizations. Lyle Cowles volunteered to be on this committee, as well as Chuck Spooner.

Abby Markowitz distributed information on the surveys. She stressed that this is confidential information for Council members only and under no circumstances should it be distributed further. Attachment 6, Summary Table, EPA Bioassessment Survey for Wadeable Streams. It was suggested that Council's website be a clearinghouse for survey results completed by other agencies (not Federal). ACTION ITEM: Toni Johnson and Judy Griffin will check into the legalities to determine if survey results or links to an organization's survey results is something that the USGS can maintain and if it is something that can be published on a Federal website.

UPDATES:

TMDL Science Conference, 2002
Toni Johnson gave an update on the TMDL Science Workshop and Conference. By all reports the TMDL Conference from last year was well attended and a success. Attendees of last year's workshop wanted to continue discussions reported at the ACWI last year and ACWI agreed to do that. The USGS along with EPA has participated in funding for the conference this year. Attachment 7, TMDL abstract and announcement.

Annual ACWI Meeting. The ACWI is being planned for April 2-3, 2002, in Herndon, Virginia. Toni distributed a handout of the announcement that will be on the ACWI website shortly. Agencies will have opportunities to present budget issues of their organization. Last year's Sustainable Water Resources Workshop is being pursued and will be updated at the ACWI meeting. This meeting gives the Council opportunity to present any activities or projects for approval and support. Toni stated that she will try to bring to the advisory committee a guest speaker that will have a high interest to the water community. One of the issues that will be on the agenda will be homeland security activities regarding water resources. The membership table for ACWI was distributed and suggestions for refilling vacancies on the ACWI. We do not expect all the memberships to change but there may be some. Attachment 8, Announcement of 2002 ACWI Meeting and membership table.

Executive Summary, December 2001, Heinz Center Report on Freshwater Ecosystems and Annual Report Gail Mallard gave an update on the Heinz Center Report and indicated that background material was included in Council notebooks for the meeting. See pages 32 and 33-there is a table that gives the bottom line on what ecosystems were reported.

Upper Mississippi River Basin Conservation Act. Charlie Peters gave update on legislation to develop a coordinated public-private approach to reducing nutrient and sediment losses in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. The bill establishes a water-quality monitoring network and an integrated computer-modeling program. See Attachment 17 "H.R. 1800, Upper Mississippi River Basin Conservation Act." Will discuss in Outreach and Collaboration Work Group and develop a plan to proceed.

National Research Council Report on NAWQA. Gail Mallard gave an update on the NAWQA Program and redesign of the study units. The program kept three original goals: status, trends, and understanding factors affecting water quality. The report agreed with NAWQA plans to reduce emphasis on status and to increase resources towards trends and understanding of program. The National Research Council (NRC) was asked to review the program for health check during first decade. Report in draft is available on the NRC website at www.nap.edu/. The Report is available about the end of February and will be sent to Council. ACTION ITEM: Gail Mallard to send NRC Report on NAWQA to Council when completed. It is a pretty positive report, and the USGS is pleased with it.

EPAOffice of Environmental Information. Chuck Spooner gave update and distributed handout. Attachment 9, EPA Environmental Information Status Report. Chuck referred to an 11-page guidance memo in Council notebook. This memo is important to the 305B process. This accounting system will make 305B a much better process. See item 5, the 305D list. This guidance will be proposed for part of the TMDL process.

ACTIVITY OF MONTANA/CONFEDERATED SALISH AND KOOTENAI TRIBES EFFORT FOR FLATHEAD LAKE (INCLUDING HIGHLIGHTS OF STATE/TRIBAL ISSUES).
Seth Makepeace gave presentation on tribal issues. Seth spoke of a case study of TMDL - Flathead Lake, Montana,involving three nations-Canada, S&K Tribes, and State of Montana. Seventy-five percent of the land is Federal; growth rate is extremely small, and also near Glacier National Park. There is restricted land that can be developed. Tribes involved in basin scale management. Tribes will often try to manage land out of their jurisdiction. The SK Tribes water quality standards have been improved. Attachment 10, Seth's powerpoint slides. Tribes do not share same schedule and responsibility for TMDL's. Government has not given responsibility or delegation of authority for the TMDL program to tribes. Tribes have difficulty in assigning staff to maintain coordination requirements. Tribes have limited influence over off-reservation nutrient sources. Seth encouraged the Council for more involvement with tribes. To do so, we should develop outreach mailing list; tribal track at monitoring conference; additional monitoring focus on aquatic habitats, possibly restoration monitoring; membership rotation or expansion to include intertribal Council representation. Tribes know very little, if anything about the Council. Toni Johnson suggested that there are coordinators in various agencies that we could contact in getting more coordination or communication with tribes. Judy Griffin will send Ben Grunewald, Ground Water Protection Council, a list of tribal environmental coordinators sent to us by Debra Patton, Intertribal Council of Arizona, Inc. Ben will send conference announcement to the Tribal Environmental Managers on that list. This will be discussed further at the business meeting to see how Council is in agreement and how this can be implemented. ACTION ITEM: Chuck Spooner to schedule conference call with EPA Tribal Office to include Seth Makepeace and Toni Johnson to determine possible mailing list/network to facilitate communication with tribes. If we can get a copy of an EPA mailing list, this will also be provided to Ben Grunewald, for the purpose of sending out conference information to these groups. ACTION ITEM: Toni Johnson to lead small group (Seth Makepeace, Bill Backous, Chuck Spooner) to think about ways to increase tribal participation in ACWI-draft recommendation for ACWI. Toni is drafting letter for support on tribal activities to go to ACWI.

UNIFIED FEDERAL POLICY. Warren Harper gave presentation on policy for managing water quality on Federal Lands. Consistent watershed based approach to manage water quality. UFP can help provide comparability of information and consistency of approach and collaborate with States, Tribes, and others. Much of the land is Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management that only applies to Federal Lands. UFP has been disengaged from Clean Water Action Plan (CWAP). Ground water must be recognized as a part of the plan but not currently in the plan. As mentioned in the UFP, one watershed monitoring team is coordinating watershed management monitoring approaches. This team is chaired by Geoffrey Ekechukwu. Questionnaire was sent out in October 2001 to try and collect monitoring information for Federal Agencies about who is doing what and when, etc.

WATER QUALITY DATA ELEMENTS (WQDE'S)

LABORATORY ACCREDITATION STATUS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS.
Council was connected via teleconference with Bart Simmons, California Department of Toxic Substances Control. Herb Brass lead discussion. Herb presented original recommendations and changes to those recommendations. Four recommendations and comments were made at the last ACWI meeting, May 2001. Conflict of interest was brought up. Response was to delete recommendation 4 stating that Council and Board will track progress. There was concern about recommending a specific accrediting program. Further explanation was added in text to strengthen National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (NELAP). Major EPA comments were costs of implementing recommendations not specified. Attachment 12, Herb Brass' powerpoint presentation on Laboratory Accreditation.

Future tasks for NELAP were discussed by Bart Simmons. There are over 1,000 accredited labs in the United States (45 states) Puerto Rico and three foreign countries. New York Department of Health has the most accredited labs.

Position paper on Accreditation of Federal laboratories for Water Quality Monitoring will go to Council and Board members for review so we can have distribution to ACWI. Bill Backous and Chuck Spooner will review the paper by next Wednesday. ACTION: Rodney DeHan made a motion, seconded by Geoffrey Ekechekwu, to approve revised Laboratory Accreditation recommendations as presented; with the knowledge that the accompanying report will be given one final review by Bill Backous and Chuck.Spooner. The motion was approved. Bill and Chuck to provide any comments on the paper to Herb Brass by Wednesday, February 13, 2002.

PLANNING - THIRD NATIONAL MONITORING CONFERENCE
Group discussion led by Abby Markowitz, Tetratech, Ben Grunewald, Ground Water Protection Council, and Linda Green, and Charlie Peters for Council. There was a discussion of status and further work to be done before the conference takes place in May 2002. Dedication of the conference will be to Elizabeth Fellows, and the first Elizabeth Fellows Award will be presented at the 2002 Conference. Linda Green gave a brief overview of the schedule for the conference. 192 abstracts were submitted. Some of the abstracts were folded into the workshops. An International Workshop was organized by John Klein and Robert Ward for international coordination of monitoring; several folks from Canada, The Netherlands, and India have registered so far. Agenda will be posted on the web. Attachment 13, Draft Conference Map. Linda discussed some of the conference speakers and a bit about their presentations. Bob Hirsch will speak about the importance of monitoring. ACTION ITEM: Charlie Peters and Gail Mallard will confirm that the Hirsch and Magnuson talks are not focused on the same subject in their conference keynote presentations. There will be a reception on Tuesday evening. Slide shows set to music, the band "Sweetwater" (local bluegrass band) will perform. ACTION ITEM: Chuck Spooner will invite someone from Elizabeth Fellows' family to the conference. The online reservation will show what meals are provided and part of the registration process to get a count of number that will attend. Students from the University of Wisconsin available at the conference as volunteers. Hotels have 450 rooms blocked for conference. Posters will be up for the whole conference available for viewing. These will be in the big common area and close to room with vendors. Breaks will be in the vendor room. Moderators are still needed for some of the sessions. Volunteers from Council indicated the sessions they would do. Abby discussed responsibilities for moderators and that a moderators training session will be provided. Abby Markowitz will provide responsibilities list and organize conference call with conference moderators. There will be a Sunday evening get together with moderators to answer any final questions.

DISCUSSION OF COUNCIL FRAMEWORK. Charlie Peters and Chuck Spooner led discussion. Fred Van Alstyne suggested choosing one of the framework graphics to take back to work groups for refinement; Toni concurred. Charlie Peters noted that it is important to come to a decision on this because it is one of the things he needs to present at the National Conference in May. The Methods Board framework was discussed as a good model. It was decided that a smaller number of versions/suggestions would be developed (drafts from Charlie) and these would go to work groups for final decision. We want to keep the framework draft simple so it is easily understood by student or the professor who has much experience with monitoring. ACTION ITEM: It was agreed that the framework for monitoring should be presented to the ACWI. Attachment 15, presentation on Framework for Water Quality Monitoring.

Collaboration and Outreach Work Group. Fred Banach reported for the work group. Developed drafts of Council framework that will be forwarded to graphics artist as was discussed earlier. Updates on conference planning; the brochure that is being mailed out and version that will be on the Conference website. We need to clean up who we list as sponsors. Talked about need to update better descriptors of workshop sessions. We need to show what the workshops are really going to accomplish. We need to be sure that the workshops are well organized. Workshop organizers need to develop complete and concise explanations of what will be accomplished in the workshop. We need to be sure that there is a competent technical person manning the AV equipment. Presentations are to be given to organizers for prior organization on one computer so that there is no wasted time during the workshop. We need to have a room set aside for previewing slides and presentations prior to actual presentations. There was a brief discussion on how to regarding possibility of luncheon speaker; we have enough material whether or not there is a luncheon speaker. ACTION: Chuck is to call Ben Grunewald about whether they are going to pay travel for Jim Kerr for Conference and then to let Don Dycus know. Decision has been made for person to receive the Elizabeth Fellows award. It also was decided that a plaque in honor of Elizabeth be given to both EPA and USGS for display and honor. Screen saver will be made for handout at the Conference. Suggested changes were given for the poster for the water cycle. Abby Markowitz suggested that each of Council's work groups could have a slide show about the NWQMC and specifically about the work group and get up on the Council website-prior to getting Fact Sheets in print. (This already has been done for the Methods Board.) These ideas will be handed off to the graphics designer, Eva Anderson to come up with two versions of the monitoring framework wheel based on the notes of the two work groups. Linda Green will work with Eva Anderson and be Eva's contact during the creative process. Eva's graphics (2 designs) will go first to the C&O group and then to the Steering Committee. When this is satisfactory, it will be given to the complete Council for approval and or revisions. The timeframe for completion (in print) will be in time to present and to use at the Conference. ACTION ITEM: The C&O Group will review material of multiple monitoring surveys for lessons learned and effective surveys and draft letter regarding (on Upper Mississippi River collaborative monitoring) and value actions of monitoring councils. State and Regional Monitoring Councils that exist are on our website stated Fred Banach. ACTION ITEM: We should inform these councils about the National Conference in May and the Framework for Monitoring template. We should invite at least one person from one of the Councils for that presentation-Bill Horak was suggested. Bill is the new chair of the Colorado Water Quality Monitoring Council. If C&O thinks this is a good idea, we should have someone who is not from a Federal agency to talk about what they are doing on monitoring. (ACWI could pay their travel if that is necessary.) Funding and sustainability of monitoring councils was discussed. Recommendations to ACWI would be an update of status of state and regional monitoring councils, Madison Conference; framework for monitoring projects; support of National Water Quality Monitoring Day.

Water Information Strategies. Robert Ward reported on the white papers being worked on; effort to describe state of the art monitoring tools on the network. There has been no action but increasing effort to do something like that; working with Colorado Water Quality Monitoring Council to do that; Greg Gross has drafted a Council Fact Sheet but this is on hold until confirmation of the Framework to incorporate into the Fact Sheet. White paper No.1 draft "Needs for 21st Century in Monitoring; back ground information for paper no. 2; fourth objective is to link examples of well documented monitoring designs to be placed on the NWQMC website. Fifth to continue to assess the feasibility of a water quality data analysis assessment board to generate a lot more activity. Very interested in exploring data analysis tools so that we can move toward placing state of the art peer review as ways of examining monitoring systems. Consideration of future topics are integration of water quality monitoring and streamgaging; to look for efficiencies in staff time; implications of the public's right to know and freedom of information requests on monitoring. Huge implications in the way we design and operate.

Methods Board. Herb Brass gave presentation for the Methods Board from the last meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Attachment 16, EPA/ETV Program and Coordination with the 2002 National Monitoring Conference.

Watershed Components Interactions. The group appointed Seth Makepeace and Jeff Loser as co-chairs of the work group. The WCI would like to see implementation of the Ground Water Workshop be presented to ACWI. Toni said there was some commitment from groups to work on this but because of the National Conference and the TMDL workshop this year, there was not available time or funds to work on the Ground Water Workshop. Look at the agenda for the AWRA Conference to coordinate for the Ground Water Workshop. ACTION ITEM: Jeff and Seth indicated that the WCI Work Group would look at the agenda for the AWRA Conference and other conferences to determine if a workshop could be coordinated with an upcoming conference. A presentation can be provided to ACWI in April 2002 to update them on this activity.

Seth Makepeace stated that the group reviewed their priorities and discussed Workshop on Ground Water Interactions to present to ACWI. Jeff is looking at the AWRA Conference to see if that is something that can be included. The group is working on a series of fact sheets for the web page that show interactions; Jeff will be point of contact for links on the web page with case studies that list integrated monitoring (Tampa Bay project is one). Seth will be working on data quality elements of an integrated monitoring facility. The group feels that the statement of purpose of this group is very important. It is important to have participation on this group of an EPA or USGS person to facilitate the work of the group. WCI needs expertise in biology. Focus should be on watershed interactions including ground water, surface water, biology, and water quality disciplines. Toni reminded the group that members on the work groups don't necessarily have to be Council members. ACTION ITEM: USGS will try to get a staff person involved or at least give names of people that would be an asset to their work group. WCI can then reach out and invite these people to participate on the work group. Alfred Korndoerfer has a colleageue who has much knowledge and expertise that they can contact. Robert Ward indicated that there may be some people in the international sector that would be interested in participating in their efforts. Barry Long will also have some names of colleagues who would be an asset to their group. Barry indicated that there will probably be $3M that will flow through the National Park Service to do watershed work. This is a nationwide focus. Chuck Spooner indicated that EPA has been granted $25M from the President's budget in FY 2003 to support watershed efforts. Mary Ambrose stated that there might be more effort for the framework and to develop web links to other groups.

SUMMER MEETING: July 15-19, 2002, Denver, Colorado
We will be meeting at the Region 8 EPA offices and staying at a local hotel within walking distance of meeting site, restaurants and activities. This will be the same agenda as was planned for October 2001 to meet with the Colorado Water Quality Monitoring Council and a field trip to the National Water Quality Laboratory, U.S. Geological Survey. The trip to the NWQL will take a half day. The NWQL is located at Lakewood, Colorado, at the Denver Federal Center. There will be ample time for Council work groups and business meeting. Any issues that come to us from the conference will be integrated into this meeting. We should start planning for further meetings of Council for FY 2002 or FY 2003. Planning should continue for the next National Conference as soon as possible after the May 2002 meeting. National Conferences in Austin and Reno were selected for business reasons. David Denig-Chakroff suggested that we should have a Conference in the eastern part of the country because we have had two meetings in the west and the current one coming up in the mid-west. Robert Ward suggested that we should talk to some of the other agencies in the Denver area to find out what their monitoring activities are. Make sure the EPA and USGS offices in Denver are invited to the summer meeting. It would be good to get our regional tribal coordinators at the Denver meeting. Mary Ambrose suggested DOD and DOE be invited to the meeting. Determine what Federal and State offices are in the Denver area so that they may be invited to the meeting. ACTION ITEM: Toni Johnson will check on the CWAP Regional representatives in Denver and how best to contact them. Barry Long suggested that he could invite the National Park Service to present their new science program on water. Some suggestions for future Council meetings are the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) zone; Missouri area; and another area talked about in the Washington area would be Annapolis or Cumberland, Maryland (Rocky Gap).

MONITORING AND INTEGRATION OF CLEAN WATER PROGRAMS
Charles H. Sutfin, Director, EPA Assessment and Watershed Protection Division, gave presentation on EPA clean water programs, including 2002 integrated report guidance listing categories; 319 guidance revisions under consideration; the Consolidated Assessment and Listing Methodology (CALM); use of STORET; elements of a State Monitoring Program; stakeholder discussions of TMDL rule; strengthening state planning process; Clean Water Act Framework; key elements of Continuing Planning Process (CPP). Chuck also indicated how NWQMC can support strengthening state monitoring programs by use of STORET, assessment methodologies, monitoring CPP and implementation of integrated monitoring and assessment reporting. Use of STORET will require that all monitoring data collected with Federal funding support be fully documented; submitted to EPA, and entered into STORET-this applies to all regions and states.

Chuck Sutfin indicated that he would be meeting with Bob Hirsch, Associate Director for Water, USGS, to discuss agreement and issues between STORET and NWIS (the USGS program).

Several people mentioned that they are having trouble using STORET. Also having problems between USGS and EPA on the data systems. It was suggested that the two Federal agencies work out this problem. It is causing a lot of problems for States that are required to use STORET. Much upfront work to get metadata entered and a difficult manpower issue. Attachment 14, Current Program Improvements and New Watershed Rule.

RESPONSE TO WORK GROUP REPORTS
Chuck Spooner stated that he understands that the Water Components Interactions group needs others for support for their work group and suggested that they lean on other Federal agencies because they do not support as much as EPA and USGS in funding. Chuck Spooner indicated that we have a wonderful method for cooperative work (in-kind services as well as funds) which is the Cooperative Research and Development Act (CRADA). We can set up conference calls-short or long-through EPA and USGS. These are very good ways to set up working meetings. Presentations can be prepared in advance to work on the computer while on the conference call.

REPORT ON MEMBERSHIP ISSUES.
Gail Mallard said the Council is very appreciative of the new members participation, energy, and new focus. She indicated other new members have been appointed but had conflicts and could not attend this meeting. The Water Environment Federation (WEF) has had a board meeting and will nominate someone from the WEF watershed working group as representative to Council. They will have a recommended person for us in time to attend the Denver meeting.

UPDATE AND PLANS FOR UPCOMING MEETINGS.
We will need tentative dates for future meetings before the summer meeting in Denver. Planning will be done by the Steering Committee, and they will attempt to give advance notice for members planning purposes. Alfred Korndoerfer said his organization has to have much advance approval for any meetings held in the Washington, D.C. area due to budget concerns.

Gail Mallard
Chuck Spooner
Rodney DeHan
Fred Van Alstyne
Fred Banach
Linda Green
Karl Muessig
Geoffrey Echechukwu
Alfred Korndoerfer
Barry Long
Warren Harper
David Denig-Chakroff
Jeff Loser
Seth Makepeace
Mary Ambrose
Robert Ward
Charlie Peters
Herb Brass
Cliff Annis
Greg Gross
Toni Johnson
Lyle Cowles
Judy Griffin
Bill Backous
David Tucker
Don Dycus
John Klein, USGS
Kim Yates, USGS, St. Petersburg, FL
Yvonne Stoker, USGS, Tampa, FL
Christina Kellogg, University of South Florida
Gil McRae, Florida Marine Research Institute
Fred McManus, EPA
Joe Boyer, Southeast Environmental Research Center
Lari Knochenmus, USGS
Mark Barcelo, Southwest Florida Management District
Debra Huffman, University of South Florida
Chuck Job, EPA
Charles Sutfin, EPA
Abby Markowitz, Tetratech
Chris Anderson, Florida Marine Research Institute
Ben Grunewald, Ground Water Protection Council

U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
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Attachment 1	Programs of the Florida Marine Research Institute, 2002-2002
Attachment 2	Monitoring Activities of the Florida Marine Research Institute
Attachment 3	Overview of Research and Monitoring Programs at the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Symposium
Attachment 4	Fact Sheets of Tampa Bay Integrated Science Pilot Study
Attachment 5	Monitoring Assessment Surveys Attachment
Attachment 6	EPA Bioassessment Survey for Wadeable Streams (NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION
Attachment 7	TMDL Announcement and Abstract
Attachment 8	1st Announcement of 2002 ACWI Meeting
Attachment 9	EPA Environmental Information Status Report
Attachment 10	Tribal presentation
Attachment 11	WQDEs Implementation
Attachment 12	Lab Accreditation
Attachment 13	Conference Map
Attachment 14	Current Program Improvements (TMDL) and New Watershed Rule
Attachment 15	Framework for Water Quality Monitoring presentation
Attachment 16	EPA/ETV Program and Coordination with the 2002 National Monitoring Conference
Attachment 17	H.R. 1800, Upper Mississippi River Basin Conservation Act
Attachment 18	Biology WQDE'S
Attachment 19	Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District Chemical and Microbiological WQDE Implementation Pilot