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Fall 2003
PNWWATER 025
Focus on Partners: Idaho's IWRRI

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Photo of  Bird PointThe Idaho Water Resources Research Institute (IWRRI) represents Idaho's water resources research community on the Pacific Northwest Regional Water Quality Coordination Team. IWRRI is one of the 54 state-based water resources research centers funded by the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The Idaho Water Resources Research Institute (at the University of Idaho) is dedicated to supporting and promoting water and water-related applied investigations and solutions, education, and information transfer throughout Idaho. IWRRI collaborates with more than 100 scientists and educators from all of the Idaho state universities in order to provide a broad-based, diverse, and interdisciplinary effort in helping to solve water issues. This is extremely important because Idaho's problems are complex. Our state is fortunate because Idaho's leaders in water resources and the state community have recognized the importance of protecting this finite resource.

Photo of class investigating a stream.IWRRI is the mechanism in Idaho that provides an autonomous statewide source of support for water and water-related, problem-solving research and training, without regard to specific topic or discipline area. This is important because Idaho's water problems are cross-topic and interdisciplinary.

Over the past 30 years, IWRRI has funded more than 250 projects. In addition, approximately 1,000 Institute administered projects have contributed to Idaho's water resource solutions. The majority of these projects have been in partnership with state and federal agencies, industry, and private groups and organizations. These projects have answered critical water resource questions in agriculture, mining, forestry, recreation, and energy management. Solutions have been effected within institutional, technical, and legal frameworks.

Washington State University logo University of Idaho logo Oregon State University logo University of Alaska Fairbanks logo Northwest Indian College logo Environmental Protection Agency logo USDA-NIFA logo

Pacific Northwest Regional Water
Quality Coordination Project
Partners

Land Grant Universities
Alaska
Cooperative Extension Service
Contact Fred Sorensen:
907-786-6311
http://www.uaf.edu/ces/water/
University Publications:
http://www.alaska.edu/uaf/ces/publications/

Idaho
University of Idaho
Cooperative Extension System
Contact Bob Mahler: 208-885-7025
http://www.uidaho.edu/wq/wqhome.html
University Publications:
http://info.ag.uidaho.edu/Catalog/catalog.html

Oregon
Oregon State University
Extension Service
Contact Mike Gamroth: 541-737-3316
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/
University Publications:
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/

Washington
Washington State University
WSU Extension
Contact Bob Simmons:
360-427-9670 ext. 690
http://wawater.wsu.edu/
University Publications:
http://pubs.wsu.edu/

Northwest Indian College
Contact Charlotte Clausing:
360-392-4319
cclausing@nwic.edu or
http://www.nwic.edu/

Water Resource Research Institutes
Water and Environmental Research
Center (Alaska)
http://www.uaf.edu/water/

Idaho Water Resources
Research Institute
http://www.boise.uidaho.edu/

Institute for Water and Watersheds
(Oregon)
http://water.oregonstate.edu/

State of Washington
Water Research Center
http://www.swwrc.wsu.edu/

Environmental Protection Agency
EPA, Region 10
The Pacific Northwest
http://www.epa.gov/r10earth/

Office of Research and Development,
Corvallis Laboratory
http://www.epa.gov/wed/

For more information contact
Jan Seago at 206-553-0038 or
seago.jan@epa.gov

The Project
Land Grant Universities, Water Research Institutes and EPA Region 10 have formed a partnership to provide research and education to communities about protecting or restoring the quality of water resources. This partnership is being supported in part by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).

Our Goal and Approach
The goal of this Project is to provide leadership for water resources research, education and outreach to help people, industry and governments to prevent and solve current and emerging water quality and quantity problems. The approach to achieving this goal is for the Partners to develop a coordinated regional water quality effort based on, and strengthening, individual state programs.

Our Strengths
The Project promotes regional collaboration by acknowledging existing programs and successful efforts; assessing program gaps; identifying potential issues for cross-agency and private sector collaboration; and developing a clearinghouse of expertise and programs. In addition, the Project establishes or enhances partnerships with federal, state and local environmental and water resource management agencies, such as by placing a University Liaison within the offices of EPA Region 10.

Photo of Russian Jack SpringExamples of water research activities managed by IWRRI include:

  • Water quality requirements for various uses
  • Contamination of surface waters from point and non-point sources
  • Development of remediation technologies
  • Minimizing impacts of recreation and development on water quality
  • Improvement of riparian, aquatic habitats, and wetland environments
  • Water conservation
  • Improved irrigation technologies
  • Management of water resource systems for multipurpose uses
  • Conjunctive surface-subsurface water management
  • Geothermal and ground water reservoir management
National Water Quality Program Areas

The four land grant universities in the Pacific Northwest have aligned our water resource extension and research efforts with eight themes of the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

  1. Animal Waste Management
  2. Drinking Water and Human Health
  3. Environmental Restoration
  4. Nutrient and Pesticide Management
  5. Pollution Assessment and Prevention
  6. Watershed Management
  7. Water Conservation and Agricultural Water Management
  8. Water Policy and Economics
This material is based upon work supported by the
National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U. S. Department of Agriculture,
under Agreement No 2008-51130-4734.

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Download the informational PDF flyer here

A cooperative program consisting of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture
and
the Land Grant Colleges and Universities.

- a Regionally-Based National Network -

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USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture
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NIFA National Water Quality Program

This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under Agreement No. 2008-51130-04734.

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page last modified on August 27, 2006

NIFA PNW Regional Water Quality Program