NIFA PNW Region Water Quality Program logo

Fall 2007
PNWWATER 120
Citizens Take Action:

Addressing Water Quality and Water Quantity
Issues in the Pacific Northwest

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The Pacific Northwest Regional Water Quality Team has been active in programming for the past 16 years. This team works with federal, regional, state, and local agencies to improve the lives of the 12,000,000 people that live in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. To ensure that we are meeting the needs of the region’s citizens we established an advisory committee last year. The purpose of this committee is to help us address water resource education needs in the region. This committee was established initially with five members representing agencies with significant water resource programming responsibilities. The advisory committee will meet annually with our team and will be expanded over time to better address emerging water resource issues. The five individuals on our current advisory committee are listed below.

Judith Leckrone Lee, the EPA Region 10 Ecosystems and Community Health Unit Manager has been involved with the team’s work in the past. She brings a broad background in community involvement and outreach having worked in the region’s watershed restoration and protection efforts. Judith’s ideas for the team included wider distribution of the PNW Updates by adding electronic transmission to the existing mailing list.

Gerald Grondin, hydrogeologist.

Gerald Grondin is a hydrogeologist with Oregon Water Resources Department and has done a considerable amount of groundwater modeling and determination for permits in the state. Jerry is a valuable member of the biennial research and Extension conference steering committee, having served for the last two conferences. His attention to detail and logical thought processes serve the steering committee well and will continue to help guide the work of the Regional Water Quality Program team.

Ann Butler works for Washington State Department of Ecology as a community outreach and education specialist. Ann joined the conference steering committee for the TMDL (total maximum daily load) Conference in 2003 and assembled a well received one-half day workshop on TMDL 101 that helped to put all conference participants on the same page for the presentations at the two-day conference. Ann’s inclusion in the advisory committee strengthens the team’s outreach in Washington State.


Kate Ely, hydrologist.

Kate Ely is a hydrologist with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation working with wellhead protection and other watershed issues. Kate sits on the Umatilla County Critical Groundwater Task Force. Kate also has served on the State of Washington Water Research Center’s biennial conference steering committee for two conferences. Kate’s favorite issue is sustainable water resource management, which is ever more in thoughts of western water managers these days. She brings us a closer relationship with Tribal water rights and concerns.

Gary Bahr is the Agriculture Sector Manager for the Water Quality Program at the Idaho Department of Agriculture. Gary has been active in water quality programming in Region 10 and a principle planner of the agriculture and water quality conferences for several years. Gary serves as the Water Quality Section Manager for the Division of Agricultural Resources within the Idaho State Department of Agriculture (ISDA).

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 Dan Burns: 360-392-4328
dburns@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.

Gary Bahr, Idaho State Dept. of AgHis duties are to plan, organize, and direct the ISDA and Division Water Quality Programs and staff. The key programs are the Agricultural Ground Water Quality Protection Program for Idaho, the Agricultural Ground Water Monitoring Program, the Agricultural TMDL Implementation Monitoring Program, FIFRA Pesticides Water Quality Program, Dairy and CAFO Ground Water Response Program, and CAFO Siting. Gary works to hire, supervise, and evaluate water quality section and contract staff. One suggestion that rang out in the first joint meeting was that more people should be added to the new advisory committee. With the committee’s help, the team will invite others to join us at the planning table. Other ideas flowed from the committee that will be implemented as the water team’s programming progresses.

 

 

 

Breaking waves

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
NIFA is the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, a sub-agency of the United States Department of Agriculture, and is the federal partner in this water quality program.

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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 November 15, 2007

NIFA PNW Regional Water Quality Program