January 9, 2012

1) EPA to Seek Stakeholder Input on Integrated Municipal Stormwater and Wastewater Management Plans
2) EPA Accepting Proposals and Questions on Urban Waters Small Grants
3) EPA Launches Recovery Potential Screening Website to Assist Restoration Planners
4) Office of Water's Acting Assistant Administrator Blogs on Roberts Bay Restoration through Partnership and Innovation
5) Success Spotlight: Dardenne Creek, Missouri--Watershed Planning and On-the-Ground Implementation Improve Water Quality in Creek

1) EPA to Seek Stakeholder Input on Integrated Municipal Stormwater and Wastewater Management Plans
EPA is holding a series of five workshops to solicit stakeholder input on the use of integrated municipal stormwater and wastewater plans to meet the water quality objectives of the Clean Water Act. The workshops are intended to assist EPA in developing an integrated planning approach framework that could be used to help municipalities prioritize their infrastructure investments in order to maximize water quality benefits and consider various innovative approaches, such as green infrastructure, that may be more sustainable.

The workshops will include a facilitated discussion with representatives of interested stakeholder groups, including those organizations that represent local government administrators, publicly owned treatment works, state National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permitting authorities, and nonprofit environmental groups. Interested members of the public are invited to observe and offer verbal comments at designated times during the workshop or submit written comments to the Agency. The workshops will be held on the following dates at the following locations:

January 31, 2012, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
EPA Region 4 Office
61 Forsyth Street, SW
Atlanta, GA 30303

February 6, 2012, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
EPA Region 2 Office
290 Broadway
New York, NY 10007-1866

February 13, 2012, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
EPA Region 10 Office
1200 Sixth Avenue
Seattle, WA 98101

February 15, 2012, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
EPA Region 7 Office
901 N. 5th Street
Kansas City, KS 66101

February 17, 2012, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
EPA Region 5 Office
77 West Jackson Boulevard
Chicago, IL 60604-3507

Participants must pre-register to attend the workshops by January 20, 2012 at http://www.epa.gov/npdes/integratedplans.

For additional information and to register for the workshop, please visit EPA's Integrated Municipal Stormwater and Wastewater Plans website at http://www.epa.gov/npdes/integratedplans or contact Kevin Weiss, Office of Water, Office of Wastewater Management by phone at: 202-564-0742 or via e-mail at: weiss.kevin@epa.gov.

2) EPA Accepting Proposals and Questions on Urban Waters Small Grants
EPA is accepting proposals and questions for its urban waters small grants. In December, the Agency announced that it will provide up to $1.8 million for projects across the country to protect Americans' health and help restore urban waters by improving water quality and supporting community revitalization. The funding is part of EPA's Urban Waters program, which supports communities in their efforts to access, improve and benefit from their urban waters and the surrounding land. Urban waters are canals, rivers, lakes, wetlands, aquifers, estuaries, bays and oceans.

Funding proposals must be received by January 23, 2012 and the deadline for submitting questions is January 16, 2012. For more information and to view updated answers to frequently asked questions, visit http://www.epa.gov/urbanwaters/funding/.

3) EPA Launches Recovery Potential Screening Website to Assist Restoration Planners
EPA announces the release of a new technical assistance tool for state and watershed-level surface water quality protection and restoration programs: the recovery potential screening website (www.epa.gov/recoverypotential/). Recovery potential screening is a flexible approach for comparing relative differences in restorability among impaired waters across a state, watershed or other area. The website provides step-by-step screening directions, restorability indicators and literature, and tools for scoring and displaying results. EPA developed recovery potential screening to help users improve their restoration programs by revealing and comparing factors that influence restoration success. The method is applicable to watershed priority setting, impaired waters listing, TMDL implementation, 319/nonpoint source control, healthy watersheds assessment, and watershed plan development. For additional information, please contact Doug Norton (norton.douglas@epa.gov).

4) Office of Water's Acting Assistant Administrator Blogs on Roberts Bay Restoration through Partnership and Innovation
Acting Assistant Administrator for EPA's Office of Water, Nancy Stoner, has recently blogged on her trip to Roberts Bay, near Sarasota, Florida. In the blog, Acting Assistant Administrator Stoner shares the innovative stormwater and wastewater treatment approaches she has witnessed as well as her trip to the Bay benefitting from such measures. To read the blog, visit: http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2012/01/06/restoration-of-roberts-bay-shows-partnership-works/

5) Success Spotlight: Dardenne Creek, Missouri--Watershed Planning and On-the-Ground Implementation Improve Water Quality in Creek
EPA's Clean Water Act Section 319 Program provides funding for restoration of nonpoint source-impaired water bodies. Success stories are posted at: http://water.epa.gov/polwaste/nps/success319/. This week's success spotlight shines on Dardenne Creek, Missouri.

Studies conducted by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources between 1998 and 2002 showed poor aquatic habitat and increased sediment deposition in Dardenne Creek. Based on the study results, in 2002, EPA placed the creek on Missouri's list of impaired waters for failure to meet water quality standards for the aquatic life designated use. A broad coalition of landowners and other stakeholders addressed runoff and erosion through both education and implementation of best management practices, including tillage management, terraces, sod waterways and a reservoir to help stabilize stream erosion. Recent data show declines in inorganic sediments and improvements in aquatic habitat, prompting the state to remove a six-mile-long segment of Dardenne Creek from the state's 2010 list for sediment impairment.

For more information on this story, visit: http://water.epa.gov/polwaste/nps/success319/mo_dardenne.cfm