Office of Water: Remaining Challenges

• Need to clean up remaining rivers, streams, lakes and estuaries.

• Work on runoff issues:– Curb run off from agricultural sources, – Stormwater runoff in urban areas, and – Pollutants from other non-point sources.

• Promote water conservation to ensure water availability.

• Protect sources of drinking water.• Address aging water infrastructure.• Address and mitigate increasing

impacts of climate change and invasive species

Office of Water: Organization

Office Office of Waterof Water

Office of Ground Water

& Drinking

Water

Office of Science

& Technology

Office ofWetlands,Oceans, &

Watersheds

Office of Wastewater

Management

AmericanIndian

Environmental Office

Office of Groundwater & Drinking Water (OGWDW)

• Together with states, tribes, and its many partners, OGWDW protects public health by ensuring safe drinking water and protecting ground water.

• Along with EPA's ten regional drinking water programs, OGWDW oversees implementation of the Safe Drinking Water Act, which is the national law safeguarding tap water in America.

• Addresses the areas of:– Local drinking water quality– Source water protection– Drinking water standards– Public drinking water systems– Underground injection control– Drinking water security– Drinking water infrastructure financing

Office of Science & Technology (OST)

• OST applies science and technology and work with public and private partners to: – Guide national, State, and Tribal

water programs in establishing limits to ensure surface and drinking water are safe for people and aquatic life.

– Work with States to provide the public with information to make decisions about fish consumption and the use of beaches.

– Establish technology-based standards for the control of industrial pollution.

– Issue laboratory methods to measure pollutants in surface water.

Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds

(OWOW)

OWOW helps to protect our resources through:– Marine Pollution Control– Monitoring and Assessment– The National Estuary Program– Partnerships– Polluted Runoff Control– Restoration– Water Quality Trading– Wetland Protection– Targeted Watershed Grants

Office of Wastewater Management (OWM)

• OWM oversees programs that ensue that discharges of wastewater and stormwater do not pollute the nation’s lakes, rivers, and streams.

• Under the Clean Water Act, OWM works in partnership with EPA regions, states and tribes to regulate discharges into surface waters.

• OWM is also home to the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, the largest water quality funding source, focused on funding wastewater treatment systems, nonpoint source projects and estuary protection.

Office of Research & DevelopmentNatl. Center for Env. Research (NCER)

• ORD provides the leadership in science and conducts most of EPA’s research and development

• NCER is ORD’s extramural research arm

• ORD’s research budget has decreased over recent years, with $66 million for competitive extramural grants and fellowships (STAR)

• ORD in cooperation with other EPA offices (using the ORD Strategic Plan, national environmental research needs, relevance to Agency mission, and research being done in ORD’s intramural program) selects topics for the STAR program

NCER’s Extramural Programs

Science To Achieve Results (STAR)• Targeted Research Grants through

RFAs• Fellowships• Competed Centers• Earmarks (decreasing)

• Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)

• EPSCoR

Past Areas of Emphasis

• Ecological Risk Assessment

• Human Health Risk Assessment

• Particulate Matter

• Drinking Water

• Endocrine Disruptors

• Global Change

• Children’s Health

• Pollution Prevention and New Technologies

• Socio-economics

Exploratory ResearchEcologic

al Research

Health ResearchEPA Research

Budget

45%

45%

10%

Support for research on algal species whose populations might cause or result in deleterious effects on ecosystems and human health. Research should study the causes of such blooms and their detection, effects, mitigation, and control in U.S. coastal waters, including estuaries and the Great Lakes.

Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (EcoHAB)

Proposals have been solicited in the following areas: Prevention, control, and mitigation

Forecasting capabilities Large multidisciplinary, multi-institutional studies  Individual studies or small interdisciplinary efforts

•Other HAB species

•Cyanobacteria

•Macroalgae

EcoHAB History

2002

•EPA (3)

•NOAA

•NSF

• (ONR)

• (NASA)

•19 TOTAL

2001

•EPA (6)

•NOAA

•NSF

• (ONR)

• (NASA)

•19 TOTAL

1999

•EPA (2)

•NOAA

•NSF

•ONR

•NASA

•11 TOTAL

1998

•EPA (7)

•NOAA

•NSF

•ONR

•NASA

•USDA

•14 TOTAL

1997

•EPA (5)

•NOAA

•NSF

•ONR

•10 TOTAL

 Five estuarine indicator research programs were established in 2000.

Identify, evaluate, recommend, and potentially develop a suite of new, integrative indicators of

•ecological condition,

•integrity, and/or

•sustainability

to be incorporated into long-term monitoring programs.

They were intended to complement the Office of Research and Development’s intramural coastal monitoring program.

Estuarine and Great Lakes Program (EaGLes)

 Statistical Survey Design and Analysis for Aquatic Resources

 National capability to identify and perform cutting-edge research in environmental statistics and to further the application of statistics to the environmental sciences.

•Centers expanded the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program’s (EMAP) statistical research and development work by engaging the larger statistical research community in refining survey techniques, other design techniques, and subsequent analytical procedures.

Center for Integrating Statistical and Environmental Science

 RFA Title: Development of National Aquatic Ecosystem Classifications and Reference Conditions

RFA Title: Understanding Ecological Thresholds in Aquatic Systems Through Retrospective Analysis

RFA Title: Development of Watershed Classification Systems for Diagnosis of Biological Impairment in Watersheds and Their Receiving Water Bodies

Other OW related STAR RFAs