WATER E-NEWS    Vol. 2 Issue 4    October 2003
Delaware Water Resources Center
http://ag.udel.edu/dwrc/
         UD Water Resources Agency (WRA)
http://www.wr.udel.edu
In this issue, on the web at
http://ag.udel.edu/dwrc/newsletters/oct03.htm:
I.   DWRC News
II.  Student and Professional Opportunities in Water Resources;
     III. Project funding and awards programs;
IV.   New information sources in water resources;
V. Community Bulletin Board.

I. DWRC NEWS
The National Institute for Water Resources (NIWR) 2004 $250,000 National Competitive Grants RFP is now posted online.
(see III. Project Funding, below)

Over 160 registrants attended the Oct. 2 Delaware Water Policy Forum “Land Use Change and Water Quality” at the University of Delaware’s (UD's) Clayton Hall, co-sponsored by the Delaware Water Resources Center, the UD Institute for Public Administration’s Water Resources Agency, the Delaware Geological Survey, Center for Inland Bays, and Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.  For Forum highlights, see the upcoming Fall 2003 DWRC WATER NEWS, which will be posted on the DWRC site at http://ag.udel.edu/dwrc/newsletters/fall2003.pdf.  The Forum proceedings will be posted on the Water Resources Agency site at http://www.wr.udel.edu/publicservice/WaterForum03Home.html.

II. GRADUATE STUDENT, POST-DOC and PROFESSIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

Visit http://www.nwri-usa.org/  for National Water Research Institute fellowships supporting graduate research in water science and technology.  NWRI prefers to award fellowships to doctoral candidates, but outstanding students in master programs have been selected in the past.  Application deadline is Mar. 1 and notification July 1, annually.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (http://www.aaas.org) is accepting applications for fellowships for scientists and engineers to spend a year working on the staffs of members of Congress or congressional committees.  See http://www.fellowships.aaas.org/2004.05_booklet.pdf.

Call for Papers (December 12, 2003 deadline):  The Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS) invites natural resource professionals to submit abstracts or proposals for its July 24 - 28, 2004 conference at the St. Paul MN Radisson Riverfront Hotel.  Focus topics include soil and environmental quality, agricultural management and environmental quality, assessing the effectiveness of conservation and environmental programs, geo-spatial technology for conservation: soil, water, and land, and “other”.  For details visit http://www.swcs.org/t_what_callforpapers04.htm

Call for Papers (January 30, 2004 deadline):  June 2-4, 2004 University of Wisconsin Madison Water Symposium “Best Education Practices (BEPs) for Water Outreach Professionals:  Defining BEPs, Refining New Resources and Recommending Future Actions”.  If you are a water resources outreach education professional, your help is needed collecting audience-specific best education practices and topic-specific water outreach resources for natural resource professionals.  Expansion of the collection hinges on identification of relevant research, discovery of links to published information about water management topics, and access to case studies that demonstrate best education practices.  For more information on how you can contribute to this USDA/CSREES National Water Quality Program national facilitation project, please see http://www.uwex.edu/erc/waterbeps or email Kate Reilly, klreilly@wisc.edu, for details.

III. PROJECT FUNDING AND AWARDS

$250,000 WATER RESOURCES NATIONAL COMPETITIVE GRANTS
The National Institute for Water Resources (NIWR) National Competitive Grants RFP for 2004 is now posted at https://niwr.org/2004_104G_RFP. Successfully funded projects from 1996-2003 are now listed at http://water.usgs.gov/wrri/projects.html. The NIWR’s site at https://niwr.org/NIWR/ will open for RFP applications on December 1, 2003.  Detailed instructions for proposal preparation and submission will be provided online at that time.  Registration does not obligate the registrant to submit a proposal.  The U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with NIWR requests proposals for matching grants to support research on the following priority topics (levels of priority are not assigned, and the order of listing does not indicate the level of priority): water supply and water availability; quality trends in raw water supplies; physical dimensions of water supply and demand; the role of economics in water supply and demand; and institutional arrangements for tracking and reporting water supply and availability.  Proposals involving substantial collaboration between the USGS and university scientists are encouraged.  Any investigator at an institution of higher learning in the United States is eligible to request up to $250,000 in federal funds for projects of 1 to 3 years in duration.  Successful applicants must match each dollar of the federal grant with one dollar from non-federal sources.  Closing date for proposals to be filed on the web site by principal investigators is 5 pm EST March 1, 2004.  The closing date for application approvals by local Institute Directors is 5 PM EST, March 12, 2004.  Local Institute contact is: Dr. Tom Sims, Director, Delaware Water Resources Center, 116 Townsend Hall, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716-2170 (302-831-2698; FAX 302-831-6758; jtsims@udel.edu).

EPA Watershed Initiative Call for Watershed Nominations Deadline Jan. 15, 2004:  The EPA plans to select through a competitive process up to 20 watersheds throughout the country for grants to support the study of promising watershed-based approaches to improving water quality.  Each state’s Governor may nominate up to two state watersheds or unlimited inter-state watersheds.  For details visit http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/initiative.

IV.  NEW WATER RESOURCES INFORMATION SOURCES
Hurricane Isabel / Tropical Storm Henri sites:
For Maryland: http://md.water.usgs.gov/floods/isabel.html
From the News Journal: http:///www.delawareonline.com.  Use “Hurricane Isabel” (with quotes) in Search box to retrieve articles.
From Delaware Geological Survey, for Delaware water year 10-01-02 through 9-30-03: precipitation, streamflows, ground water levels, and the new Sept. ’03 Water Year 2003 report, all at http://www.udel.edu/dgs/hydro.html.
USGS water news press releases and images: http://md.water.usgs.gov/publications/press_release/current/
Storm water information specific to the Chesapeake Bay: http://chesapeake.usgs.gov/

Newly released reports:

From the EPA:
EPA’s new Security Product Guide is now available online, developed especially for drinking water and wastewater utilities to assist treatment plant operators and utility managers in reducing risks and providing protection against possible natural disasters and intentional terrorist attacks.  It is a work in progress and will be updated regularly to ensure that the most recent information on security technologies is available.  Check frequently for the latest updates at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/security.

“Analysis and Findings of the Gallup Organization's Drinking Water Customer Satisfaction Survey” http://www.epa.gov/safewater/consumer/pdf/survey_gallup_customersatification2003.pdf

Contaminated Sediments News (June and July 2003) http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/pc/csnews/issue38.htm and http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/pc/csnews/issue39.htm

Fact Sheet: Strategy for Water Quality Standards and Criteria:  Setting Priorities to Strengthen the Foundation for Protecting and Restoring the Nation's Waters.  http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/standards/strategy/fs.htm and
http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/standards/strategy/final.pdf

Fact Sheet: Water Quality Standards for Indian Country.  http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/standards/tribal/tribalfact.html

Irrigation Controllers: Timers for Home Owners.  http://www.epa.gov/water/yearofcleanwater/docs/irrigation.pdf

Survey of States, Tribes, and Territories Nutrient Standards
http://epa.gov/waterscience/criteria/nutrient/nutrients_standard_survey.pdf

Wastewater Technology Fact Sheet: The Living Machine.  http://www.epa.gov/owmitnet/mtb/living_machine.pdf

Water Quality Trading Assessment Handbook: EPA Region 10's Guide to Analyzing Your Watershed.  http://yosemite.epa.gov/R10/OI.NSF/34090d07b77d50bd88256b79006529e8/6423

When Are Storm Water Discharges Regulated As Class V Wells? http://www.epa.gov/npdes/pubs/sw_class_v_wells_fs.pdf

From USGS:  Three Water Resources Investigations Reports.  “Ground-Water Contamination from Lead Shot at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, Sussex County, Delaware” http://sd.water.usgs.gov/nawqa/pubs/wrir/wrir02_4282.html;

“Anaerobic Degradation of 1,1,2,2-Tetrachloroethane and Association with Microbial Communities in a Freshwater Tidal Wetland, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD: Laboratory Experiments and Comparisons to Field Data” http://sd.water.usgs.gov/nawqa/pubs/wrir/wrir02_4157.html;

“Development of Health-Based Screening Levels for Use in State- or Local-Scale Water-Quality Assessments” http://sd.water.usgs.gov/nawqa/pubs/wrir/wrir03_4054.html.

From the Sierra Club:  “Where Rivers Are Born: The Scientific Imperative for Defending Small Streams and Wetlands” available online at http://www.sierraclub.org/cleanwater/reports_factsheets/defending_streams.pdf.  With the future federal protection of small streams and wetlands in question, the Sierra Club and American Rivers asked eleven scientists to summarize the services wetlands and small streams provide society and the consequences of degrading these waters.

Other new helpful websites:

EPA’s Nonpoint Source News-Notes Issue #72 (Sept. 2003) is now online!  For full length articles, please read the issue on-line at http://www.epa.gov/owow/info/NewsNotes.  In this issue (national topics):  – Trading: Balancing the Nation’s Water Quality Checkbook  – Watershed Initiative Projects Chosen  – Clearer Skies, Cleaner Water  – Slow Start to NPDES Phase II Compliance  – Lakes Awareness Month and 10th Annual Secchi Dip-In  – U-3 Conference Marks Growth of NEMO Network.  (state, tribe and locality topics) – Town Water Quality Ordinance Requires Low Impact Development  – Locally Driven Initiatives Jump-Start TMDL Activities  – Experimenting with Rain Barrels in Michigan  – Rain Barrels All Around Us  (watershed management topics) – Tubing a River to Plant Buffers  – Watershed Guidebooks Available  – Innovative Program Funds Stormwater Management  (technical stories) – Cat Parasite in Runoff Linked to Otter Deaths  – Digital Video: Not Just for Home Movies  – Beating the Heat: Mitigating Thermal Impacts  – New Report Explores How Impervious Cover Impacts Aquatic Systems  (education topics) – New Outreach Tools for Municipalities  – Exciting Educational Opportunity  (publications) – New Guidebook Addresses Management of NPS Pollution in Aquatic Ecosystems  – New EPA Report Explores Community, Culture, and the Environment  – New Stakeholder Involvement Guide Available  – Updated Federal Funding Catalog Now Online!  (new quality websites) – Eyes on the Bay  – Greenworks TV – Brake Pad Library  – Regulations.gov  – Spatial Wetland Assessment Available for Management and Planning Model

The EPA STORET national online warehouse of ambient water quality and biological monitoring data has been redesigned to allow users to download raw data in a delimited text file format that can easily be imported into standard analysis software (e.g., spreadsheets, GIS).  To retrieve data from STORET, simply click the "Obtaining Water Quality Data" link at www.epa.gov/storet.

V.  COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD

Volunteers Needed:  for Inland Bays Septic Inspection and Compliance Cost-Share Program.  If you live in the Inland Bays watershed, own a septic system that has not been pumped out in the last two years, and would like to participate in this cost-share program for septic system inspection and pump-out, please contact Brian Dotterer of the Ground Water Discharges Section in DNREC's Georgetown Office at (302) 856-4561.  Approximately 21,000 on-site wastewater septic systems are in the Inland Bays watershed. The state requires septic systems to be inspected and pumped out every three years, which means 7000 systems per year.  In 2002, only 5,126 septic systems were pumped out, and those pump-outs did not usually include an inspection.

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Welcome new subscribers joining us this month from the 2003 Water Forum!  Contributions, comments and questions are always appreciated.  To unsubscribe, reply with "Unsubscribe Water E-News” in the subject line.  Water E-News serves citizens interested in topics on Delaware water resources and is published by the Delaware Water Resources Center, University of Delaware.  Our new address: 116 Townsend Hall, Newark, DE 19716-2170. Phone: (302) 831-2698; fax: (302) 831-6758; Web: http://ag.udel.edu/dwrc/ Dr. Tom Sims, Director, email jtsims@udel.edu; Amy Boyd, Program Coordinator, email aboyd@udel.edu.