Judy Griffin will provide copy of last year's resolution of support for World Water Monitoring Day to Peter Tennant who will prepare Council's letter of support for this year. (DONE)
Electronic copy of the Draft Guide for Data Elements will be sent to Council members for their review. After rev iew provide comments to Chuck Job within 30 days. (SENT TO COUNCIL ON 10/23/03; COMMENTS DUE TO CHUCK 11/28/03)
Gail Mallard will send an email to see if Karen Klima's supervisor would approve her attendance at WIS work group and Council meetings.
Chuck Spooner was asked to send Judy email addresses of EPA Regional Monitoring Coordinators to be added to the Council's "Others" email list so that they are informed of Council activities and meetings.
Chuck Spooner to contact Regional EPA Monitoring Coordinators to let them know they will be added to our mailing list and invite them to participate in conference calls on upcoming conference planning.
Chuck Spooner, Curtis Cude, and Al Korndoerfer to work together on expert system and how it will relate to the framework.
Review Methods Board Fact Sheets by September 15 with comments to Jerry Diamond.
Judy will provide Members only Website address to Council.
Barry Long to send more information on what the National Park Service is doing on long-term watershed assessment for forwarding to Council members.
Note:
Presentation was given by Glenn Page, Director of Conservation, National Aquarium in Baltimore on their conservation and monitoring activities. Council was given a tour of the National Aquarium after presentations concluding with complementary Dolphin Show that emphasized facts relating to preservation of Dolphins and their natural habitat. (Attachment 1, "Tides of Change" Animal Health, Husbandry & Conservation Report.)
Chuck Spooner and Gail Mallard welcomed members and guests to summer meeting of Council.
Carl Weber, Professor of Biology, welcomed the Council to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) campus. (Reference presentation.)
Royce Hanson, Interim Director, Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education (CUERE) welcomed the Council and gave an overview of the activities of CUERE.
Ken Belt, USDA Forest Service, discussed the Baltimore Ecosystem Study,Long Term Ecological Research (LTER). There are 22-24 sites in this network. Three overarching research questions: How do the spatial structure of socioeconomic ecological and physical features of an urban area relate to each other? How do they change over time? What are the fluxes of energy, matter, capital and population in an urban system? How do they change over the long term. How can people develop and use an understanding of the metropolis as an ecological system to improve the quality of their environment and to reduce pollutant loadings. LTER projects are funded by National Science Foundation. Forest Service contributes to project with many partner agencies. (Reference presentation) (Attachment 2, Brochure of Baltimore Ecosystem Study.)
Guy Hager, Parks and People Foundation, gave presentation highlighting:
Brochure on "Baltimore City Storm Sewer Watershed 263 Restoration and Demonstration Project and Overview of Watershed 263." (Attachment 3.) Also (Reference presentation).
Emery Cleaves, Maryland Geological Survey, former Maryland Water Monitoring Council Chair, opened for the Maryland Water Monitoring Council and gave background and historical information about the formation of the Maryland Council. Emery then introduced the current Chair of the Maryland Council, Bill Stack. Bill discussed the membership of the Council and their activities. Handout of presentation (Attachment 4.) (Reference presentation of Maryland Council -- Part 1, Part 2) Bill described the various committees of the Maryland Council. Funding receives 319 coastal zone grant. Funding for the Executive Secretary, Paul Miller, is critical for continuity for the ongoing activities of the Council. Past accomplishments include about seven workshops covering such topics as fiscal design, flow gauging monitoring program, groundwater level, stream roundtable, and online PCC newsletter. Readers include some as distant as Canada. They have held eight conferences and are working on the 9th annual conference. Current activities include three or four workshops. Abby Markowitz, Maryland Council member, discussed the Strategic Planning process. Planning started with individual answers of vision from Council members. What assets do you and your agency bring to the Council and what does the Council bring to you and your agency. Council's role in reaching vision includes identifying issues and challenges; activities to address challenges. Bill said board members have particular roles in developing the strategic plan. Each group was requested to prepare a strategic plan. Bill introduced Ron Klauda for a discussion on monitoring and assessment in the Maryland Council. (Reference presentation). John Hill, Maryland Department of the Environment, recently took chair position for data management work group. Focus is on quality assurance. John introduced Carlton Washburn who discussed use of STORET with the Maryland Council. Bob Shedlock, USGS, discussed ad hoc committees--long term ground-water level monitoring; integrated hydrologic monitoring, and 2003 annual conference.
Chuck introduced Colin McDonald, Industrial Economics, Inc., who conducted an evaluation of State and Regional Councils fo/r EPA. Distributed handout of presentation. (Attachment 5.) Also see pp presentation.
Open forum between Maryland National Council members and National Council members was facilitated by Abby Markowitz. Issues addressed:
A council would provide a forum for all organizations of common interests to discuss and collaborate. It is going to take National and State interaction to discuss ways in which to collaborate and work together for specific goals. Look at strategic plan to identify benchmarks to measure change. An interesting exercise is to compare milestones and specific objectives with other Councils as well as National Council. National Council has work plan generated by the work groups. However, there has not been a measurement of how we have met the goals set out. In measuring your success in some quantitative way--are you moving toward your vision? Take the centers of experience, have them show up in the state to organize a council, bring the energy, the vision, on how this state gets a council going. Some of the things the National Council does is to address some things that would not have been addressed without a Council. The same thing can be done on a state level. Prepare a list of issues that would not have been addressed without a Council, such as standardization of methods, overlap of monitoring activities. Chuck Spooner indicated that he has shared podium with Emery Cleaves when Colorado was forming their state council. The Maryland State Council was one of the first state councils formed. Emery Cleaves can give advice and strategic planning information on the formation of the state council. You cannot get a state council unless the people in that state want it. You cannot have a Federal agency telling a state to form a state council. You need a state person or two to encourage this--Federal support can be there to provide this encouragement from the state people. Emery indicated that they were very fortunate in Maryland that there were many groups doing monitoring. These groups were ready to get together. It was the state and local agencies involved in monitoring that wanted to make it happen. If you don't have that influence, it will be very difficult to get it started. The National Council could help to facilitate but only after a state agency may come to us for that purpose. It must be a state and local initiative. One of the best things the National 'Council does is to get a forum for sharing information among agencies and state councils. It is a measurable thing of what the National Council does. Mike Houts indicated that Oklahoma would not have a council without the National Council. Jon Craig was appointed to the National Council and initiated the idea within the state for forming a state council. Published white papers are extremely influential products. You need to document the savings achieved by a state council; the National Council needs to make an investment in assisting states in getting a council together stated Jeff Loser. We need to show how spending $10,000 can save us more by ending duplication and perhaps save more than double that amount.
Jim Gerhart, Maryland District Chief,USGS, gave presentation on the Maryland District activities. (Reference presentation) About two-thirds of their activities is related to water quality. There are a number of different programs for water quality information--Chesapeake Bay restoration, NAWQA, EPA superfund, and, more recently, Homeland Security. Jim indicated new programs are mercury contamination in shallow ground water in Sussex County, Delaware; Human health impacts of poultry manure on the Delmarva Peninsula; time of travel and early warning monitoring for contaminants in the Potomac River near Washington, DC. Jim described four active studies for a sample of the work done in the Maryland District, increasing in scale from local to regional. Jim also showed slides of characterization and bioremediation of ground-water contamination at Aberdeen proving Ground with the funding partner, U.S. Army. (Reference presentation) The problem is shallow ground water in the Canal Creek contaminated by VOCs. The wetlands along Canal Creek have been shown to naturally attenuate much of the contamination. However, Canal Creek is still being contaminated by direct shallow ground water discharge. Maryland is conducting aerial thermal infrared surveys to delineate areas of shallow ground-water seepage into Canal Creek. Results: VOCs and daughter products degrading faster with enhanced culture (preliminary results). Jim also talked about the Potomac Delmarva NAWQA agricultural study. They are going to measure the quantity and quality of all water budget components in the Morgan Creek watershed for 1-2 years; develop an annual mass budget for water and selected agricultural chemicals. New project just starting is water quality monitoring in support of watershed restoration, Anacostia River Basin.
Larry Merrill, EPA, focused on what Region 3 will be doing to implement national vision to improve water quality monitoring. (Attachment 6) (Reference presentation.) Region 3 covers the states of Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia. National vision on water quality formed by recent critiques of programs; General Accounting Office (GAO), National Research Council (NRC), National Academy of Public Administration, Heinz Center Report, Draft State of Environment Report. Larry discussed water quality monitoring; only one third of U.S. waters were assessed for 2000; only six states reported that they have data to assess their states water quality. Impacts of inadequate information--incomplete and unreliable assessment of water quality; incorrect lists of impaired waters; weak technical basis for establishment of TMDLs and pollution controls; ineffective evaluation of water programs; inefficient resource allocation. A strategy for achieving the vision is to strengthen state programs; use multiple monitoring tools; expand accessibility and use of data; promote partnerships. Work with the states to ensure complete coordination.
Donna An, Wetlands Division, Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds, EPA, facilitated the panel on wetland monitoring. Donna gave an introduction and background on the wetland monitoring activities in the Mid-Atlantic Region. (Reference presentation.)
Regina Poeske, U.S. EPA, Region 3 discussed the Mid-Atlantic Wetland Monitoring Work Group (MAWWG). Regina coordinates wetland monitoring in the Mid-Atlantic Region. The effort began in 2002. (Reference presentation.) The need to monitor wetlands must be done at the State level. We do want to have a consistent approach for monitoring throughout Region 3. There are limited resources for wetland monitoring; funded through Region 3 Wetland Development Grant and includes all states in Region 3 as well as Ohio, New Jersey, New York, and North Carolina recognizing ecoregion overlap. There is good work particularly in Ohio and New Jersey. We brought those states in so that we could learn from their programs. Issues and challenges are developing standards for wetlands; what to measure; how to measure; how to coordinate with existing state water quality monitoring programs; how to implement a wetland monitoring program given current state resources. A big issue is private property--since a great many wetlands are on private property. We are members of the MAWWG and technical experts who provide training in assessment methods. Interstate coordination is facilitated through efforts such as MAWWG and National Wetland Workgroup. Pilot projects are in two watersheds: Juniata Watershed in Pennsylvania; Nanticoke Watershed in Delaware and Maryland. Assessment of wetland conditions is done on a watershed basis. Meeting set for early November in Northern Virginia. Agenda set by states to meet their needs; seeking to get more interaction and coordination with State WQ monitoring coordinators. TMDL Settlement Agreement in Region 3 requires development of wetland assessment protocols in Pennsylvania and Delaware by the year 2004. There is a driving force in those two states to get standards in place.
Amy Jacobs, Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation discussed State's efforts on monitoring wetlands. (Reference presentation.) Historically we have lost about 54 percent of wetlands since the 1780's. There is an 80 percent reduction in loss from 1986 to 1997. Unfortunately the condition of wetlands remaining is of concern. Reasons to monitor are to evaluate water functions being performed and at what level; determine stressors; obtain information to guide restoration and enhancement; meet requirements of TMDL, and to meet requirements under Clean Water Act (CWA).
David Bleil, Maryland Department of Natural Resources discussed "Developing a Cooperative Wetland Condition Assessment on the Nanticoke River." This is in the research stage. Project goals are to develop skills in wetland condition surveying at the watershed level; develop a consistent data set of known quality and maximum usefulness; add wetland condition to Department's landscape focus; meet CWA Sect. 305(b) reporting requirements for unmodified wetlands. (Reference presentation.)
Denise Clearwater, Maryland Department of Environment discussed "Wetland Regulatory Program Needs for Monitoring." (Reference presentation.) Wetland management is done by a variety of different agencies. The Department of the Environment works in regulatory programs in tidal and nontidal wetlands; agriculture and forestry mitigation, restoration, planning and technical assistance, monitoring and water quality standards. They recognize the role the State Highway plays in wetland monitoring.
Joint Meeting with Canadian Water Quality Coordinating Committee -- (Charlie Peters distributed handout on NEMI.) (Attachment 7)
FACA Regulations -- Toni discussed FACA regulations pertaining to Council. Individuals on Council cannot attend other meetings (other than Council meetings) as representatives or speak for Council. Generally Council is less formal than ACWI and Department of the Interior (DOI) does not have us follow the same FACA regulations for the Council.
September Issue of IMPACT -- Charlie Peters gave status of articles ready for publication by Council authors for the September AWRA IMPACT issue.
GAO Study of Integration of Water Quality Data Among Federal Agencies -- Toni Johnson reported that the original request to the General Accounting Office (GAO) is a third in an informal series on water that GAO has done. We have a website where those earlier reports reside. Congressman John Duncan requested the study. The request was that monitoring programs are happening and how can there be better collaborate to get results to the users. There were four specific questions 1) What are the key entities that collect water resources and water quality data and what types of data are they collecting, how is it stored, and how can it be accessed? 2) To what extent are these data collection efforts coordinated in a manner to minimize duplication of effort and information gaps? 3) What steps can be taken to improve coordination in the data collection efforts of these and other groups? 4) What steps must be taken to permit integration of data from separate collection efforts to allow its use for any watershed management effort? GAO has been meeting with several Federal agencies that collect water data; twice with USGS headquarters (Tim Miller) and Toni Johnson for ACWI and the Council; they have met with EPA and will meet with both agencies again; met with USDA, with Forest Service, National Park Service, and National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Two field site visits were conducted to the State of Maryland, and team met with MWQMC and the District Office; visited Colorado which we recommended to them because it is a major Federal facility and where the USGS National Water Quality Lab resides. They will issue a survey to each of the Federal agencies interviewed. Barry Long said they were well informed and knew about the NWIS/STORET issue. Their other purpose for coming back to USGS is to learn in more depth about NWIS database. GAO interviewed selected Council members including TVA at the meeting in Chattanooga.
World Water Monitoring Day -- Peter Tennant is on committee for World Water Monitoring Day. There is not near the amount of attention or participation as surrounded the first WWMD of last October 2002. The NWQMC supported the WWMD in 2002 by letter to America's Clean Water Foundation. It was agreed by Council that we should again support this effort.
ACTION ITEM: Judy will
provide copy of last year's resolution of support to Peter Tennant who
will prepare Council's letter of support. (DONE)
EPA Action Plan. -- Chuck Spooner discussed EPA's Action Plan. The Action Plan is a strategy for achieving the vision: strengthen state programs; use multiple monitoring tools; expand accessibility and use of data; promote partnerships. (Reference presentation.)
Ken Lanfear presented update on NWIS and STORET. USGS and EPA signed an agreement on Management of Water Quality Data. Geospatial query tool will draw from both STORET and NWIS. (Reference presentation.) They are in Phase 1 now; phase 2 will follow very soon with a regular updating process; as we go further on in phase 3, classify them in very broad categories. We are looking for advice in these broad categories and need advice from user community. Need to look at standards based web feature in phase 5. Phases 4 and 5 are difficult technology. XML Schema: Any advanced water portal concept (index, warehouse, etc.) works better with a standard way to transfer data. Designing an XML schema enforces a discipline on the data model--ACWI data elements is a good start. There are software tools for working with XML. XML is similar to HTTP. When we talk to schema, it is another way of talking or expressing an XML standard.
Chuck Job, EPA, distributed DRAFT Guide for Data Elements for Reporting Water Quality Monitoring results for Chemical and Microbiological Analytes, Technical Report No. 03-03 (NWQMC) and discussed issues for publishing this report. (Attachment 8). It was proposed that this draft be considered for comments back to the Methods Board and WQDE Work Group, and Chuck will work on getting comments into this Draft Guide. We would like to have this be the ACWI standard. Toni indicated that we can send the Draft Guide electronically to members of ACWI for their comments or concurrence. This will be a technical report of Council; not an EPA document. If this is a guideline for using WQDE's, this will go to a wide audience and users. It was Charlie Peter's suggestion that it would be logical to have it as a technical report of Council. This report would be one of a series from the Methods Board. Toni Johnson made a motion for Council and ACWI to comment that this would be published as the Council Technical Report 03-03. Abby mentioned that it could also be published as another series of reports from the Council. How many different formats is it appropriate to have? It is important that it be something that people use--perhaps it should be called a Guidance document. There are some options for getting ACWI's approval or concurrence before the National Conference rather than at a formal meeting.
ACTION ITEM:
Electronic copy of the Draft Guide for Data Elements will be sent to
Council members for their review. After review provide comments to
Chuck Job within 30 days. (SENT TO COUNCIL ON
10/23/03; COMMENTS DUE TO CHUCK JOB BY 11/28/03.)
Toni Johnson said the membership proposed was primarily renewing membership and four new memberships; there are still a couple of vacancies. We have received approval to hold the meeting, September 9 and 10, 2003, in Herndon, Virginia. The attorneys from General Services Administration (GSA) and DOI elevated ACWI from a discretionary committee to a Presidential Committee. There are around 40 Presidential Committees. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) authorized the ACWI, OMB falls under the White House. ACWI is presumed to be renewed every 2 years but still goes through this review process. The USGS/WICP manages this FACA Committee. American Water Resources Association (AWRA) is coming back in; the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA, David Denig-Chakroff, is becoming a member of ACWI because they manage the water ISAC, the liaison to EPA and non-Federal utilities which would be an asset to ACWI, and the North American Lake Management Society. The meeting will be opened by Bennett Raley, the Assistant Secretary for Water and Science. The Federal agencies that are present will participate in a Federal roundtable that is an opportunity to let us know about their programs and budget. A number of the agencies are cooperating to let us know about their Federal water funding for 5 years from 1998 to 2005,and we are trying to graph that for trends. Key presentation will be made by Gerry Galloway about the water policy dialogue. There will be nine reports from sub-groups including NWQMC. The long-standing subcommittee on sedimentation will become part of ACWI with their own Terms of Reference.
The Conference Planning Committee (CPC) would like to get specific issues for work groups to address. The call for papers did not suggest workshops. Our work groups here have an opportunity to suggest certain specific things. We have heard things about State and Regional councils; training sessions on stats; and certainly other areas that may be important next May. We need input to pencil in names of workshops to organize. We want to give you an update on call for abstracts. Don Dycus would like to know what feedback is coming back. CPC will talk about vendors, new schedule that will be sent to workgroups tomorrow about current planning; plenary speakers and some of the sequencing of social and culinary aspects of Conference. Issues for CPC include:
Plans for training session, monitoring sampling designs. Ellen McCarron will have paper on "Probabilities Sampling Designs." Plans are for a half-day workshop "How to Achieve Ten Elements of Monitoring." Need name and contact information for State person who could provide further information on program. Two-part session on data synthesis and data sharing. NWIS/STORET will be one topic.
Plans developing for Ground-Water/Surface-Water Interactions (short course) by Mary Ambrose; Wetlands Assessment Methods by Donna An and Jeff Loser; and Coastal Interactions by Hal Stanford.
Working on Water Quality Data Elements Workshop (Leanne Astin and Jerry Diamond); PBS Workshop (status of where Board is; approaches to PBS (Cliff Annis); dialogue with audience; to take home views of audience and next level; Comparability (Herb Brass and Charlie Peters).
Planning workshops on Communicating Results (Abby Markowitz); How to Build and Sustain State/Regional Councils (Linda Green will assist). Plan for Step by Step Approach to Build a Council); Building and Sustaining Volunteer Monitoring Programs (Jeff Schloss and Linda Green).
Publicity/Flyers in conference packages-let Linda Green know about upcoming conferences so that flyers about Conference can be inserted into their programs.
No funds have been obligated for Council's State representatives to attend National Conference. It was noted that virtually no State agency funds are available for State representatives -no travel for any purpose; travel would be on own time and expense; will not pay for registrations fees. Nineteen percent of attendance at last Conference were from States. Travel funds or ability to travel are worse than it was 2 years ago for State representatives. It would take $16,000 to $20,000 to support State Representatives at next Conference. Scholarships were provided by Ground Water Protection Council at last Conference.
Program/Training for Tribes. Letter to be sent from EPA to State Managers to support conference.
There was a discussion on meetings for next fiscal year (include conference as a meeting expense so State representatives could attend).
Three hotels in Chattanooga have offered per diem rates; they are the Reed House, Marriott, and Days Hotel. Al Korndoerfer noted that his agency requires at least 40 days notice for approval of travel request.
Curtis Cude discussed the WIS Fact Sheet--two sides; groups are adding some illustrations; photos to add visual interest. Discussed format of fact sheets. Created some slides for presentation at the ACWI meeting. We have planned to mention to ACWI that we served as editorial board with broad range of professionals that reviewed the framework. Focusing on EPA USGS agreement on NWIS/STORET and will follow up on the progress being made. Developing and exploring expert system. Discussed Data management and data management infrastructure work group; Karen Klima was the spark to that task force but is no longer available. ACTION ITEM: Gail Mallard will send an email to see if Karen Klima's supervisor would approve her for attendance at WIS work group and Council meetings. Spent a fair amount of time on conference planning. Discussion on consistency of EPA and Regions. Mixed signals from EPA about how monitoring programs should be designed. We would like to see a clear position from EPA and how Council can help in these communications. EPA monitoring representative on the Council could provide this communication. Regional monitoring coordinators could be put on Council mailing list to keep them up to date as to what we are doing.
Chuck
was asked to send Judy email addresses of EPA Regional Monitoring
Coordinators to be added to the Council's "Others" email list so that
they are informed of Council activities and meetings.
Chuck to
contact Regional EPA Monitoring Coordinators to let them know they will
be added to our mailing list and invite them to participate in
conference calls on upcoming conference planning.
Chuck
Spooner, Curtis Cude, and Al Korndoerfer to work together on expert
system and how it will relate to the framework.
Herb Brass gave an overview of MB activities. The goal is to get to comparability. Each of the Board's works groups are working toward the goals of data reporting, lab performance, field performance. Using the framework and work group structure to develop and deliver products in short term and for the long term. Recommendations for ACWI: Accreditation of Federal Labs; present Biological Water Quality Data Elements; update on NEMI; informationon expert system as applied to lab and work group activities. Discussed NEMI products and information about NEMI. Updated website is almost ready to go live. This is last chance to comment on MB Fact Sheets. We are moving ahead to publish those Fact Sheets; please comment, even to let us know that you have read them. Jerry Diamond gave a presentation on Biological Water Quality Data Elements. Separate work group for Biology WQDEs. These WQDEs have not been approved by ACWI as yet. There are 37 participants on this work group, EPA, USGS, NOAA, F&WLS, State, and local representation. We have sent out data for your review before going forward to ACWI. Compiled data elements from 10 data bases; STORET, NAWQA, EMAP, EDAS, WDNR, ICPRB. Developed modular system for WQDE. We need your comments on the Fact Sheet on the WQDE's. Any comments on whether this is understandable and hitting the mark on getting our points communicated. Charlie expects that it might be next fiscal year before getting this ready for publication.
Review Fact
Sheets by September 15 with comments to Jerry Diamond.
Jim Laine said that all of the Fact Sheets will have a uniform side bar about the Council--just enough information so that reader will know about the Council. The Council Fact Sheet will be much more detailed without the sidebar. These Fact Sheets will be published shortly from Charlie Peters office and funded by the USGS. Work shop for Conference: Work book format and go through the steps relayed to us as building and sustaining a state council. Distributed Council business card. Future plan is that this card will be placed on the members only website so that you can download and print them with your own name and title (either business title or title as member of Council.)
Judy will provide Members only Website to Council. Herb mentioned that
web addresses will be changed for MB.
Karl Muessig discussed Fact Sheet for WCI and will have some changes to submit. Will provide some discussion points for ACWI meeting. Some discussions were had to focus on coastal issues at the next meeting in Portland; will address Coastal Commission reports and address issues in the coastal northwest. Discussed workshops for conference, GW, wetlands. Work products compilation of watershed studies; lots of progress; Mary has material on Texas; trying to get a 2-page fact sheet on Council's website and framework talking about variety of watershed studies. Will have something at least in draft by the time of the conference. Send your slide information to Gail or Chuck--even send content for slide and they will put together. Need this immediately because ACWI is in 2 weeks. Barry Long asked how much have you been talking about interactions in watersheds affecting water quality; Congress is putting a lot of money into this; does the work group know of any of this information directly influencing water quality in those areas. DOI and AG should be involved in this--long term watershed assessment; identify and monitor watersheds in stress.
Barry Long to send more
information on what his agency is doing on long-term watershed
assessment for forwarding to Council members. Asked Barry to join
work group in Portland to see how these activities can be used in
Council.
Chuck Spooner discussed membership requirements on attendance; giving an active membership in each of the 10 regions; with Greg Gross rotating off Council, Art Garceau has been accepted the position as Representative from Indiana for Region 5; need representatives from Region 7 and Region 8; we have potential nominations, and we will make contact about their interest. Mike McDonald, has expressed an interest. We will invite him to the Portland meeting. Eugene Lamb has accepted membership on the Council as representative for Agriculture (Non-Government) issues. We are looking for other Industry type members--we just cant go out and get a "good guy," nomination must come from the organization such as Chemistry Council; Pharmacuetical Assoc., etc. Would like to get particiation for Region 7 (perhaps someone from Missouri or Kansas). In 1997, Watershed Indicators, Kansas was alone in the mid-west states for having poor water quality. USGS did an indepth study for them as to why their water quality was worse than other states. That report is in review now and and will be published in December. That should be a really interesting study; we should talk to USGS people (Janice Ward in particular) regarding this report. This may help get some people from Kansas interested in joining Council.
We have narrowed the list down to three hotels for the Portland meeting but will probably go with one that is more convenient to downtown area. All are offering per diem rate. Proposed to have small session on coastal issues. Meeting is scheduled for December 8-12. Steering Committee is open to any volunteers who might want to host a meeting in June or July 2004. We discussed upper Michigan to meet with Canadians; however, it would help membership drive for Region 7 if we were in Kansas City area. There is a U.S. Corps of Engineers (COE) contingent in Nebraska.
Attendees:
Mike Houts, OK (Alternate for Mary Ambrose)
Dave Tucker
Peter Tennant
Jim Laines
Jeff Schloss
Linda Green
Emery Cleaves
Paul Currier
Curtis Cude
Chris Knopp
Karl Muessig
Fred Leslie
Jeff Loser
Greg Gross
Al Korndoerfer
Hal Stanford
Gail Mallard
Judy Griffin
Chuck Spooner
Greg Masson
Toni Johnson
Barry Long
Charlie Peters
Herb Brass
Don Dycus
Guests/Presenters:
Donna An, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Emery Cleaves, Maryland Geological Survey
Bob Shedlock, U.S. Geological Survey
Jim Gerhart, U.S. Geological Survey
Royce Hanson, CUERE
Ian Desmonis, CUERE
Abby Markowitz, Tetratech
Margo Andrews, Tetratech
Maggie Craig, Tetratech
Ken Belt, U.S. Forest Service
Carl Weber, UMBC
Guy Hager, Parks and People Foundation
Jason Friehage, OMB
John Hill, Maryland Department of Environment
Colin MacDonald, Industrial Economics, Inc.
Jerry Diamond, Tetratech
Andrew Schwarz, Industrial Economics, Inc.
Glenn Page, National Aquarium of Baltimore
Nicki Cindrich, National Aquarium of Baltimore
Ron Klauda, Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Carlton Washburn, Maryland Department of the Environment
Bill Stack, Baltimore City Department of Public Works
Larry Merrill, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Ken Lanfear, U.S. Geological Survey
Chuck Job, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Regina Poeske, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Amy Jacobs, Delaware Department of Natural Resources
and Environmental Conservation
David Bleil, Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Denise Clearwater, Maryland Department of Environment
U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological
Survey
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