Approximately 500 scientists and professionals attended the 2008 National Water Conference held in Reno, Nevada (February 3-6, 2008). This conference included 200 oral presentations, 120 poster presentations and nine major symposia. Our region’s poster is pictured on the right. Symposia topics included: (1) Using Social Indicators for NPS Planning and Evaluation, (2) Agricultural Water Conservation, (3) Coordinated Management of Water Quality Protection and Food Safety Practices in Cool Season Vegetable Production, (4) E. coli Monitoring in Streams Using Bacteria Test Kits, (5) Balancing Agriculture, Water Use, Human Resources, and Energy Production for a Sustainable Future, (6) Regional Water Program Impacts, (7) Volunteer Monitoring, (8) Source Water Protection, and (9) Improving Water Quality Through Integrated Pest Management. As part of our region’s national citizenship efforts we organized and solicited nominations for the national water resource awards. The 2008 national award categories were: (1) Water Resources Team, (2) Outstanding Extension Program, (3) Water Resources - Outstanding Partner, and (4) Water Resources – Outstanding Career Award. Awards were also presented to the three outstanding graduate student posters. The award winners are pictured below. Outstanding Extension Program: Building E. coli Monitoring Capacity. Pictured Jerry Iles (Ohio State University), Barb Liukkonen (University of Minnesota), Colien Hefferan (CSREES Administrator), Lois Wolfson (Michigan State University), and Kris Stepenuck (University of Wisconsin). (Not pictured: Eric O’Brien, Iowa Department of Natural Resources). Career Award: Dr. Mike O’Neill (USDA-CSREES) presenting award to Jerry LeMunyon (USDA-NRCS). Partnership Award: Dr. Mike O’Neill (USDA-CSREES) presenting award to Thomas Davenport (EPA Region V). Outstanding Integrated Program: NEMO. Pictured: Dr. Mike O’Neill (USDA-CSREES) presenting award to David Dickson (University of Connecticut). (Not pictured: Chester Arnold, John Rozum, and C. James Gibbons – all from University of Connecticut).

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/index.html 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 Michael Cochrane: 360-392-4299 mcochrane@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 Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension System (CSREES). 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.
	The second annual Water Resources Team Award was presented to NEMO, National Education for Municipal Officials. This team consisting of David W. Dickson, Chester L. Arnold, John S. Rozum, and C. James Gibbons is based at the University of Connecticut. This team has established an outstanding program that has had a significant impact on the protection of water resources in urban areas across the country. This program has spawned NEMO projects in at least 32 different states. The first annual Outstanding Extension Program was presented to staff working in the Great Lakes Region. Their project on building the capacity of volunteer groups to monitor for E. coli increased the knowledge, awareness, and skills of people in a six-state area. Leaders of this team effort included: Kris Stepenuck (University of Wisconsin), Barb Liukkonen (University of Minnesota), Lois Wolfson (Michigan State University), Jerry Iles (Ohio State University), and Eric O’Brien (Iowa Department of Natural Resources). Jerry LeMunyon (USDA-NRCS) received the Career Award for his work on the Phosphorus Index. His work has had a significant impact on how agriculture addresses the use and disposal of animal wastes and other organic fertilizer materials. The Partnership Award was presented to Thomas Davenport (EPA Region V). Tom has been an outstanding partner to our land grant institutions. Because of this partnership, significantly positive water resource advancements have been made over the last 20 years. Fourteen graduate students competed in our annual poster competition at the National Meeting. Denise Weinkauf from Purdue University received first place for her poster titled “Factors Affecting Farmer Acceptability of Agricultural Best Management Practices.” “Upper Sugar Creek Watershed, Ohio: A Model Watershed Study of Pathogen Origin, Fate and Transport” by Natsuko Merrick of The Ohio State University placed second. Arvind Mohanram placed third for the poster titled “Transport of Cryptosporidium parvum Oocysts Through Variably Charged Soils.”
	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 Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension System. Animal Waste Management Drinking Water and Human Health Environmental Restoration Nutrient and Pesticide Management Pollution Assessment and Prevention Watershed Management Water Conservation and Agricultural Water Management Water Policy and Economics
	CSREES is the Cooperative States Research, Education and Extension Service, a sub-agency of the United States Department of Agriculture, and is the federal partner in this water quality program.

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