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<br />Position No. 202 . <br /> <br />WATERSHED MANAGEMENT <br /> <br />The watershed approach offers great opportunities. It allows focus on the most critical <br />problems that affect the watershed while eliminating duplication and inconsistency between <br />regulatory entities. It allows public involvement to be focused on a defined area where results <br />can be measured. It has the potential to foster cooperative problem solving where the <br />important players can help each other solve mutual problems in a way that can result in an <br />improved environment at less cost. It provides a feasible means of developing an "ecosystem <br />approach" relative to the protection of water quality and related values. To encourage these <br />benefits the CW A should embody the following principles: <br /> <br />1. States should be encouraged, but not mandated, to utilize a watershed approach <br />for water quality and resources management. <br /> <br />2. Any absolute mandate contained in the CW A should be limited to water quality <br />concerns. <br /> <br />3. While states should be allowed to craft their watershed management to meet their <br />needs, the goals and the scope of such programs must be clearly defmed. This definition is <br />essential since "watershed management" haS many different meanings.to different people. In . <br />general, basin-specific goals and programs should be selected and prioritized on the basis of <br />risk to quality-of-life, human health, and ecological concerns. <br /> <br />4. Watershed management should emphasize performance, not planning. A <br />uniform set of best management practices should not be mandated. States should be allowed <br />to identify appropriate individual strategies to be applied within, and for, a given basin. <br /> <br />5. There should be no interference with the rights of the states to manage allocation <br />of their water supplies. <br /> <br />6. The internal struclt1re of state government should not be mandated. States should <br />be allowed to use existing authorities and programs or set up advisory committees and <br />watershed councils to meet their needs as they understand them. <br /> <br />7. Flexibility should be provided in both the procedural and substantive requirements <br />of clean water programs to meet the goals of improving water quality and the environment as <br />soon as possible. <br /> <br />8. EPA should provide technical, fmancial, and research assistance. It should not <br />mandate any particular approach or try to mandate its preferred methods. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />2 <br />