Western States Water Council 2005 Report

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In conjunction with the meetings, the Interstate Council on Water Policy (ICWP) and USGS, with the Council's cooperation, cosponsored a workshop on the National Streamgaging System. As part of an extensive review of national streamgaging needs and resources, a task force of the federal Advisory Committee on Water Information (ACWI) has identified fourteen goals and "metrics" for measuring progress towards meeting those goals. It also estimates the number of streamgages necessary to accomplish each goal. The USGS has in turn proposed fully funding gages needed to meet five of those goals (numbered without respect to priority): (1) supporting National Water Quality Networks; (2) flow information for borders and compacts; (3) quantifying flow from major river basins; (4) estimating regional trends in streamflow characteristics; and (5) supporting flood forecasting and warning. Many NSIP gages would replace those now funded cooperatively. Workshop participants discussed the goals, metrics and relative priorities, given limited financial resources. At present the "national" streamgaging network is made up of a complex array of systems operated by various local, state, and federal agencies and other public and private entities with the USGS cooperatively gathering and disseminating much, but not all of the data, under various agreements and cost sharing arrangements. The loss of a number of gages in the 1990s, particularly long -term gages with over 30 years of record, due to a lack of cooperator funding (both federal and non- federal cooperators), led the USGS to propose the fully "USGS- funded" NSIP, separate from the cooperative program. Workshop participants were also asked to advise USGS on the best way to spend available funds. Western state officials clearly expressed a preference for funding the cooperative program, leaving the states (with their cost sharing), to play a continuing key role in prioritizing streamgaging efforts. They also expressed a preference for using any new USGS appropriations to first reduce USGS overhead or federal "infrastructure" costs charged to the cooperative program. Two more workshops were scheduled in St. Louis, Missouri on May 11th, and in Orlando, Florida on May 24th. The Western Governors' Association (WGA) also sponsored a well attended workshop before the WSWC meetings on "Pollution Trading as a Tool for Meeting TMDLs." Various panelists explained opportunities for trading and all participants engaged in a facilitated discussion focused on a set of key questions regarding how to administer trading programs and related issues. WGA staff prepared a summary of the workshop. The Council meetings began with meetings of the Western Water Quality Forum and Water Quality Committee, both chaired by Don Ostler of Utah. A panel was comprised of Mary Henry, Larry Gamble and Brent Esmoil, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) headquarters, Region 6 and Montana field office, and Ed Stearns, EPA. They discussed coordinating implementation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and CWA, in light of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) published as a notice in the Federal Register on February 22nd (66 FR 11202). The MOA was signed by EPA, FWS and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). It is designed to enhance coordination on such actions as EPA's ESA consultation (under Section 7) on promulgation and approval of water quality standards under CWA section 303(c) and approval of state National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting programs under CWA section 402(b). The Forum also reviewed a draft bill, the Watershed Stewardship Act, which Senator 7