Note: Powerpoint presentations referred to in these minutes may be accessed on the Council’s website at http://water.usgs.gov/wicp/acwi/monitoring. Attachments identified in these notes are available in hard copy by request only.
Minutes
WELCOME
William H. Benson, Director, EPA Lab, welcomed the group to Pensacola. Bill indicated that the EPA Lab has worked with NOAA, EPA, USGS, and states involved in the aftermath of Katrina and has been very impressed with the work of these agencies. Bill also stated that he viewed the Council’s website, and it seems the Council is doing the right things for the right reasons. Bill is pleased to have the Council tour the Gulf Ecology Division, Office of Research and Development, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, EPA, at Gulf Breeze, Florida. The Laboratory staff will provide some briefings on some of the key areas they are involved in. As we can see from the construction going on in the Pensacola Beach area, the Hurricane Ivan left quite a bit of devastation, and Ivan happened more than a year ago. This area will give us a picture of what the New Orleans area and Mississippi communities are now going through. Entire communities are gone in Mississippi. It is quite devastating and takes much time and resources to recover.
ACWI RECEPTION OF NATIONAL MONITORING NETWORK (NMN)
AND WATER QUALITY DATA ELEMENTS GUIDE
Gail Mallard reported that there was a one-day meeting of the Advisory Committee on Water Information (ACWI) this past September—not a formal or full ACWI meeting. There were no resolutions as this was not a formal meeting and only included people in the local area or others traveling on their own money. There was also a cyber seminar for those not able to attend which had very good participation. The Water Quality Data Elements (WQDE’s) feedback was very positive. Herb Brass reported that there was a very good discussion; there will be a ballot by email once ACWI charter has been signed. (The charter is in the Office of the Secretary of the Interior for signature as of this date.) Note: The Charter was signed by the Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton, on November 7, 2005. The interim report on the National Monitoring Network (NMN) was given at the meeting. A powerpoint presentation was given to Oceans U.S. (the same as was given to ACWI). It was equally well received by both groups; much progress being made in 7 months. The take-home message after the presentation—questions and answers—is how are we going to deal with ground water. We acknowledged that we were not sure how to deal with the issue of ground water. The message from ACWI is that we cannot ignore it, so this is something to work on at this meeting. We should say in our report that this is the design for rivers—we currently have about 50 % reviewed; we need these figures for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to move theNMN forward. Our report becomes a benchmark for states—one way to move forward. This seemed a good resolution to the group. The descriptions in all documents is that this is not “the” NMN but is designed as a national monitoring network for the oceans. Make sure everyone understands that there are topics that are not included in the Council’s NMN. Chuck Spooner reported on the report of the WQDEs at ACWI. There were people from EPA at the ACWI meeting for the first time, and they were very impressed with people interested in their work. A draft report of the NMN is to be available by the first week of January; it should be presented to ACWI at their meeting in January. That report will be available to ACWI before the meeting for their approval; if approved as written, it will be forwarded to Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) by ACWI.
COMBINING LONG-TERM AND HIGH FREQUENCY
WATER QUALITY DATA TO UNDERSTAND ECOLOGICAL PROCESSES IN ESTUARIES
Jane Caffrey gave presentation that is a compilation of interest over the past 5 years to understand the ecology of what is going on in monitoring. The National Estuarine Reserves is a State/Federal group—and about 22 reserves are discussed in the presentation. Florida has about three reserves. (see pp presentation #1).
NMN UPDATE AND GOALS FOR MEETING
Chuck Spooner gave update discussing outline of goals for this meeting. Next steps are:
Discussion of Chapters 5 and 6 (Methods and Data Comparability and Data Storage)
CONFERENCE PLANNING COMMITTEE UPDATE
Jeff Schloss reported for the CPC including the Tetratech staff. The sponsors for 2006 are NWQMC, EPA, USGS, TVA, City of San Jose, Maine, WEF, NACWA, Bay Area Clean Water Agencies, CA EPA and still looking for more sponsors to make the conference even better. In 2004, we had about 400 attendees with 275 abstracts; right now we have 486 abstracts for 2006; 55 Volunteer Monitoring abstracts, and 49 NAWQA abstracts with 15 invited abstracts. With this number of abstracts, we estimate the conferences will register more than 600 attendees. (See pp presentation #2). Jeff showed the number of abstracts submitted for the specific seven themes. Draft agenda for the conference was shown and described by Jeff. Jeff requested comments and asked that Council members let the CPC know of any problems you may have with the agenda for the conference. There are educational field trips as well as cultural and fun field trips. Some of the suggested fun trips are Roaring Camp Railroad, San Francisco Tour, and a wine tour. Abby Markowitz said that we need to make decisions on abstracts and confirm that abstracts have been approved as oral session or poster as well as those that are rejected. We need to let people, who have submitted abstracts, know the status of their abstract (accepted or not) prior to Thanksgiving. (Later CPC made decision that no abstracts would be rejected—some may be presented as posters.) State folks sometimes need to have several months to submit their request to attend conference in order to receive approval. So it will be important to have this done on a timely basis so that we do not lose participation at the conference. Jeff indicated that the reception at the Tech Museum will cost $30 per person—if that cost is going to be a problem, let the CPC know. Workshops consist of short courses (verbal instruction) and hands-on workshops (such as work being done on computers)—the hands-on workshops may be longer—such as two 90-minute sessions. There are three Abstract Theme teams. If you are not listed in one of these teams, just let us know where you would like to work. Need to make some workshop decisions as to what we can do on schedule. We are hoping for 50 paid exhibitors. If you have not volunteered as yet to pick 15 vendors to call, please let us know if you can do this. A script worked out by NALMS and Tetratech is available for your use that will show how to talk to potential exhibitors for conference. We are not having an outside plenary speaker and, because of timing, this is one of the things sacrificed. The sessions will have four presentations and then time for questions at end of all the presentations.
NMN and CPC Work Sessions
The NMN and the CPC separated into their work groups to continue work on their projects.
The NMN grouped together to work on the NMN final report. The NMN reviewed the latest revision of the chapters for inclusion in the report.
The CPC broke into the three abstract review teams to review.
Welcome and Overview of GULF ECOLOGY DIVISION
William H. Benson welcomed the NWQMC members to the lab for the tour of facilities and presentations. Tour of facilities was conducted by Richard M. Greene and Stephen J. Jordan. See following pp presentations presented by Gulf Ecology Division, EPA, Gulf Breeze, Florida :
COUNCIL BUSINESS MEETING
NMN REPORT
Timeline developed is to have report completed by Thanksgiving. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Gail and Chuck will be editors. They may be contacting individual writers of chapters for clarification. You may be called on to review or rewrite if necessary. The Steering Committee of the NMN will be asked to review after Chuck and Gail have completed the editorial review. All of Council are welcome to review the completed proposed final report. The NMN/Steering Committee will want comments by January 1. Between January 1-6, comments received will be reviewed and included so this draft report will be ready for ACWI prior to the January 18-19 meeting. Gail will send a more detailed timeline with assignments to NMN work group members. ACWI may want a little more time to review but will want to have a final report by the end of January. There was a discussion on how the outside public will be engaged in the review. Toni stated that the first thing is to get an approval by ACWI to submit the report to the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and to Office of Science and Technology Policy. OMB is usually at ACWI meetings and wants to get someone from CEQ and the Subcommittee on Water Availability and Quality (SWAQ). We cannot release the report to the public until it is given to CEQ. A major public roll-out is planned for the 2006 National Monitoring Conference. What is the continuing role of the Council for this NMN project? Should a recommendation appear in Chapter 7? The network most likely will be implemented and maintained by Federal and State agencies. There may be some intergovernmental agency involved. The Council could play an oversight role—give advice and they do take it. Also, the Council could be in an advisory role—which means the agency to whom they provide the advice may not implement it. Don Dycus discussed how the Council might be involved in the network—oversight or advisory. Further discussion followed on this topic.
When this report is being submitted to ACWI, a formal memo should go along with it so we can make a recommendation and ask ACWI for its opinion also. Because ACWI is putting this product out and recommending what the role of the Council should be (as the Council is a subcommittee of ACWI and reports to ACWI).
Don Dycus stated that we need to decide on what role we need to take prior to knowing whether the network is implemented or not. Gail suggested that we come up with one decision on the role Council plays. Gail asked for a vote of Council members in favor of the advisory role in management of the NMN or that of an oversight role: Following substantial discussion by full Council membership, Art Garceau made a motion that the role of Council would be one of an advisory role in management of the NMN as will be provided in the report to ACWI in January 2006. It was seconded by Paul Currier and carried unaminously by all members present.
CONFERENCE PLANNING COMMITTEE REPORT
Linda Green reported that the Elizabeth J. Fellows Award Committee met and has chosen a recipient of the award but this will not be announced to the Council as yet. The actual slot for presentation of the award will be 40 minutes. Papers for the Conference will be selected no later than January and posted on Conference website. Linda indicated that all Council members should volunteer to moderate a session. It has not been decided if there is a registration discount or special registration fee for session moderators. Everyone who wishes to attend the Conference must register. There is an early bird registration fee. (Early bird registration ends in March.) This means all Council members must register to attend the conference; this also includes all people who have submitted an accepted paper for the conference.
There was a discussion of WICP paying for travel costs for Council members to attend Conference. Toni indicated that we should have more travel funds this year and fewer Council meetings that will leave us with some funds to cover travel costs to the Conference. We should be able cover some State/Other members travel but each representative’s agency should cover registration or as much of the expenses as possible. We would prefer to only pay travel for expenses for lodging, airfare, M&IE.
COLLABORATION AND OUTREACH WORK GROUP REPORT
The next meeting of the Council will be held in summer 2006. It was discussed to possibly hold the meeting in Albany, New York, so that a contingent of the Council can view convention or meeting facilities in Saratoga, New York, which had been selected for the 2008 Conference. Saratoga is 40 miles from Albany; New York. Albany was selected as the costs for the meeting (government per diem) are less expensive than going to Saratoga. Saratoga is a resort area and costs are extremely high in the summer season. After further discussion, several offers were received from possible hosts for the summer meeting. Host sites are Seattle, Washington, Cincinnatti, Ohio, and Knoxville, Kentucky. Further estimates of costs will be made, and selection will be made on a site that would be most cost effective for the budget.
WATER INFORMATION STRATEGIES Work Group Report
Robert Ward reported for WIS Work group. Curtis Cude was elected Chair to succeed Robert and Peter Tennant was elected Vice Chair. It was suggested that we may organize a discussion session on data management developments for all those working in that field at the conference--with a panel for this discussion. Larry Keith’s interest is in developing an expert system to walk people through the monitoring framework. Larry works with Methods Board. One initiative on the horizon is the effort in accessing and sharing and using new technology. Another interest for the work group is how to handle continuous water quality data, another is how to predict water quality. WIS will be very interested in pursuing tools for water quality data working with NOAA. How do we communicate information and new ways to do this; looked at the water quality indexes and how to do this and what the index means. These are some of the WIS initiatives. We need to keep up with developments such as predicting weather and along with weather is the prediction of water quality. Toni Johnson mentioned that the Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable (SWRR) has put out indicators and has talked about the weather reporting aspect; it would be good to talk to that group. USGS District Office putup website on Lake Champagne working with a weather channel to enhance a USGSstream gage so that students and the public can see the weather, report the weather. Also EPA has a project with reporting the environment on the weather. The website is www.echovermont.org/weather. Peter said that working with Robert has been an excellent experience. Robert was given a standing round of applause for his excellent work and time spent on the Council.
WATERSHED COMPONENTS INTERACTIONS WORK GROUP REPORT
Mary Ambrose reported for the WCI Work Group. The fact sheet has not been produced—C&O will review; it should be completed soon. Reviewed text regarding WCI that was put on Council website; there are no products and plans; the plan existing needs to be updated. We need to refocus our attentions—most of our time in the last year has been to support the NMN and the CPC. We intend to develop a work plan after conference is over. The group discussed emerging issues, communicating what is going on in our own organizations. Eric will send two missing graphics to Judy for the WCI fact sheet.
Methods and Data Comparability Board Report
Herb Brass and Eric Vowinkel reported. Eric discussed the meeting in Madison, Wisconsin. Herb was roasted, and this was his last MB meeting. Discussions at the meeting included future directions, board emphasis on Network design (see pp presentation #7). First order of business is looking for EPA Chair for MB and representative for Council. Leanne Astin is moving on, and we will need a new WQDE’s Work Group Chair. Longer term work includes NMN implementation, outreach to schools; concentrate on what has been successful such as NEMI. WQDEs have been successful also; working with Wadeable Streams project; possible new topic is event monitoring—hurricanes, oil spills, and water security. An executive committee for NEMI has been named. Special projects are NMN and Wadeable Streams. Plan is to have three face-to-face meetings; plan to have one in Tucson, Arizona, in February 2006; looking at June or July (but not to conflict with Council meeting tentatively scheduled for July). We will be recruiting people for the MB from the 2006 Conference. Dan Sullivan does a good job as Executive Secretary and getting out Newsletters. There should be a new newsletter scheduled for the May 2006 Conference and would be glad to add any Council objectives or issues. Herb said that he continues to be interested in the work of the council and the MB. WQDEs and biological elements have been reviewed and supported by ACWI. We are looking at plans for publishing the WQDE’s guide. MB is keeping track of organizations using WQDEs and NEMI. Toni Johnson indicated that this is a most effective tool for working with agencies and OMB and also in funding our budget. Current number of methods in NEMI is 820. New methods being worked on are population/community and toxicity led by Jerry Diamond and Katherine Alben. Field measurement methods is being led by Franceska Wilde, USGS. Board Advisory Group formed last March 2005 on Bioassessment Comparability. PBS/Nutrients should be discussed at next Council meeting. MB group will assist in implementation of the NMN as it pertains to nutrients. Pharmaceutical methods from USGS are now in NEMI. Mary Ambrose suggested that some documenting should be done on age dating ground water for NEMI.
Budget/Other Business
Toni Johnson indicated that the Council’s budget pulled through the last year with funding from OI and Bob Hirsch. This year Bob Hirsch has been gracious in building us back to where we had been 2 years ago. It should be level funded and reasonably comfortable in holding the ACWI meeting and contributing to the National Monitoring Conference this year—specifically in assisting with travel costs for non-Feds.
Upcoming meetings
Summer council meeting
It turns out that we would go to Albany, New York, in June or July. (This was to support efforts in surveying sites for 2008 conference in Saratoga, New York, that is 40 miles from Albany.) Several members indicated that they have had trouble in getting to Albany because of poor flight schedules. It was also reported that the air fares range from $400 to $1200 as there is no government contractor. Providence, RI, was suggested as a site for the 2008 Conference. Judy will continue conversations with Beth Card, Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission, Lowell, Massachusetts, about Saratoga as potential site for 2008 Conference. For the summer Council meeting, Sandy Williamson suggested that we go to Seattle, Washington; Don Dycus offered Knoxville or Nashville, Tennessee; and Peter Tennant suggested Cincinnati, Ohio. Detailed estimate of costs for these sites will be done before a selection is made. Agreed upon date for the summer meeting is July 18-20, 2006.
Judith B. Griffin
Executive Secretary, NWQMC
Attendees:
Al Korndoerfer
Jim Laine
Linda Green
Art Garceau
Don Dycus
Garth Redfield
Gary Rowe
Gail Mallard
Chuck Spooner
David Tucker
Robert Ward
Paul Currier
Curtis Cude
Jawed Hameedi
Herb Brass
Jane Caffrey
Judy Griffin
Val Connor
Mary Ambrose
Peter Tennant
Barry Long
Fred Leslie
David Denig-Chakroff
Jeff Schloss
Deborah Patton
Eric Vowinkel
Toni Johnson
Dan Radulescu
Mike McDonald
Visitors:
Bill Benson , EPA
Steve Jordan, EPA
Janet Nestlerode, EPA
Virginia Engle, EPA
Sandy Williamson, USGS
Donna Myers, USGS
Gary L. Rowe, USGS
Maggie Craig, Tetratech
Abby Markowitz, Tetratech
U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological
Survey
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Wednesday, 08-Aug-2007 15:05:29 EDT