News Highlights

EPA has developed draft Underground Injection Control (UIC) Class II permitting guidance for oil and gas hydraulic fracturing activities using diesel fuels. This document describes information useful in permitting the underground injection of oil- and gas-related hydraulic fracturing using diesel fuels where EPA is the permitting authority. EPA’s goal is to improve compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) requirements and strengthen environmental protections consistent with existing law. Click here for materials available on EPA’s website. Click here for the May 10th Federal Register Notice, establishing a comment period through July 9.

EPA has published a list of 28 chemicals and two viruses that approximately 6,000 public water systems will monitor from 2013 to 2015 as part of the agency’s unregulated contaminant monitoring program, which collects data for contaminants suspected to be present in drinking water, but that do not have health-based standards set under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

EPA will spend more than $20 million to support the monitoring, the majority of which will be devoted to assist small drinking water systems with conducting the monitoring. Click here for more details.

Join a free Watershed Academy Webcast entitled “USDA’s NIFA-CEAP Watershed Synthesis: Lessons Learned” on May 15 from 1:00pm to 3:00pm Eastern to hear about some important lessons learned from USDA’s Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP). Webcast highlights will include a study led by North Carolina State University to analyze and synthesize key lessons learned from 13 of these watershed-scale projects on cropland and pastureland, and linkages between USDA’s CEAP project and US EPA’s Section 319 Nonpoint Source Program.

To register for this webcast, please visit www.epa.gov/watershedwebcasts.

The week of May 6 – 12 marks the celebration of Drinking Water Week, a time when EPA and its partners celebrate the nation’s vital drinking water resources. EPA has developed a website with more information on what you can do around your home and within your community to protect your drinking water, ways to become involved in matters affecting the quality of your drinking water, and much more. To find out what you can do, go to: http://water.epa.gov/drink/drinkingwaterweek

FFA (formerly Future Farmers of America) recently posted 20 source water protection lessons for high school agricultural science students – available here. A product of a USDA-EPA partnership with FFA, the lessons are available online to FFA’s network of over one million high school agriculture science students and their instructors. Content covered includes the water cycle, drinking water basics, the watershed approach, and agricultural conservation practices to protect water quality. Click here for more details.

EPA’s Draft Strategy describes how EPA’s water-related programs plan to address the impacts of climate change and provides long-term visions, goals and strategic actions for the management of sustainable water resources for future generations.

EPA will accept public comments on the draft strategy until May 17, 2012. To read or submit a comment on the Draft Strategy visit: http://epa.gov/water/climatechange. Click here for more details.

Continuing its partnerships with green infrastructure communities, the EPA is offering technical assistance for green infrastructure projects protecting water quality. The effort is part of the agency’s Green Infrastructure Program that will accept letters of interest until April 6, 2012. The available $950,000 will be distributed among 10-20 projects and will be directed to watersheds and sewersheds with water quality degradation from urban stormwater.

More information about this technical assistance is available at the new EPA Green Infrastructure website.

EPA’s new website on nutrient pollution policy and data can help individuals access information on EPA actions to reduce nutrient pollution, state efforts to develop numeric nutrient criteria, and EPA tools, data, research, and reports related to nutrient pollution. Visit this policy and data focused website at http://epa.gov/nandppolicy. Click here for information about another EPA website designed for homeowners, students and educators.

A February 2012 NRWA Water University webinar titled, “Take Back Your Community From Nitrates—Lessons Learned,” showcases the efforts of a rural Minnesota community in addressing elevated nitrate levels. Led by Sourcewater Protection Specialist Aaron Meyer, the webinar explains how the community partnered with local farmers and tested the effects of fertilizer on groundwater quality and crop yields.

Click here to listen to the full recording of the “Take Back Your Community from Nitrates—Lessons Learned” webinar.

The Salmon Falls Watershed Collaborative, supported in part by the national SWC, has been awarded the 2012 U.S. Water Prize by the Clean Water America Alliance for watershed-based approaches that innovate, integrate, and educate toward water sustainability. This inter-state collaborative between Maine and New Hampshire unites local, state and federal partners to protect forests and reduce pollution from existing land uses and anticipated development. For more information about the prize, click here.

To download the Collaborative’s newly released Action Plan, please click here.