Subject: Water resources and wetland links
*EPA INFORMATION*
25th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act: A Great Lakes Water
Quality Agreement Celebration
http://www.epa.gov/25water/
The EPA's Region 5 Water Division and the Great Lakes
National Program Office have developed a site devoted to the 25th
Anniversary of the Clean Water Act and the Great Lakes Water
Quality Agreement with Canada. The site celebrates the progress
that has been made in Great Lakes protection by reflecting on the
resources available and remembering past challenges that have
been overcome. The site offers slide shows of the resources,
environmental problems and protection of the Great Lakes as well
as a kid's view of environmental protection and images of the
Lake.
Environmental Technology Verification Program
http://www.epa.gov/etv/ter/
EPA has instituted a new program, the Environmental
Technology Verification Program (ETV) to verify the performance
of innovative technical solutions to problems that threaten human
health or the environment. Managed as part of the President's
Environmental Technology Initiative by EPA's Office of Research
and Development, ETV was created to substantially accelerate the
entrance of new environmental technologies into the domestic and
international marketplace. It will supply technology buyers,
innovation developers, consulting engineers, states, and EPA
regions with high quality data on the performance of new
technologies. This will allow more rapid protection of the
environment with better and less expensive approaches.
National Center for Environmental Assessment
http://www.epa.gov/ncea/er/
The EPA's Office of Research and Development has introduced
a Web site for its National Center for Environmental Assessment
(NCEA). NCEA serves as the national resource center for the
overall process of human health and ecological risk assessments,
the integration of hazard, dose-response, and exposure data and
models to produce risk characterizations. NCEA focuses its work
in three major areas: development of methodologies that reduce
uncertainties in current approaches; assessments of contaminants
and sites of national significance; guidance and support to risk
assessors. The NCEA Web site features ecological risk assessment
documents, scientific support for conducting risk assessments,
and access to tools used in understanding risk in the
environmental arena. Risk Assessments are currently available for
dioxin, lead, ozone and particulate matter, PCB's, and
environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). There are also risk guidelines
for cancer and reproductive toxicity as well as access to the
Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS).
Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization
http://www.epa.gov/osdbu/r/
The EPA's Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business
Utilization (OSDBU) has developed a Web page to assist the public
in understanding their function and goals. OSDBU develops, in
collaboration with other Agency officials, programs to stimulate
and improve the involvement of small business, minority business,
labor surplus areas and women-owned business enterprises in the
overall EPA procurement process. OSDBU then monitors and
evaluates Agency performance in achieving Agency goals and
objectives in the above areas. The Web site provides access to
information about program activities, the legislative authority
of the program, SIC codes currently involved in the program, and
contacts for participation. There is also a list of basic facts
and frequently asked questions regarding the program and its
activities.
U.S. EPA Region 3 Library
http://www.epa.gov/region03/r3lib/index.htm
The EPA Region 3 Library has established a World Wide Web
site for its patrons. The Library is open to the public to serve
the needs of citizens, students, consultants, businesses, and
agencies in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland,
Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. This site contains a
sample of what is available in the library including an FAQ
section and a new Region 3 Publications list.
Toxic Release Inventory 1995 Data Release
http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/tri/b/index.htm
The EPA released the 1995 data from the Toxic Release
Inventory on May 20, 1997. This is the first data release on
toxic-chemical releases into local communities since the Clinton
Administration nearly doubled the number of chemicals that
industry must make public under EPA's Right-to-Know program.
EPA's annual Toxic Release Inventory requires companies to
publicly report quantities of toxic chemicals that their
manufacturing facilities annually release into the air, water and
land. This Web site offers information for accessing the TRI data
as well as reporting requirements and chemical information.
*GOVERNMENT INFORMATION*
Environmental Management Technical Center
http://www.emtc.nbs.gov/ntr/tri/b/index.htm
The Environmental Management Technical Center, located in
Onalaska WI, freely shares a wide range of biological, physical,
spatial, and technical data and information relating to the Upper
Mississippi River System. Established in 1986 as a center for
ecological monitoring and analysis, the Environmental Center
manages the Long Term Resource Monitoring Program which is the
largest river-related inventory, monitoring, research, spatial
analysis, and information sharing program in the US. From here
you may access and download specific information on fish,
vegetation, invertebrates, water quality, water levels, aerial
photography, satellite imagery, scientific publications, and
geographic information systems maps, coverages, and applications.
The "Other Services and Related Web Sites" section provides
training manuals, frequently asked questions (FAQ), and points to
other information servers throughout the world.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Environmental
Information Services (NOAA EIS)
http://www.esdim.noaa.gov/r/tri/b/index.htm
NOAA EIS page provides links to many programs such as the
NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information
Service, and the NOAA Environmental Services Data Directory. The
latter allows users to search for publicly available
environmental data held by public and private sources throughout
the world, as part of their responsibility to archive and
document environmental data. Data sources include descriptions
related to climatology, meteorology, ecology, pollution, geology,
oceanography, and remote sensing satellites. The EIS page also
links to the prototype National Environmental Database Index
(NEDI), which provides direct access to federal environmental
data and information descriptions held at many locations. It
allows full-text searching of the information collections to
identify the widest possible range of environmental data and
information, and thereby facilitate its use by citizens,
industry, government, and academia. NEDI is a core element of the
National Information Infrastructure (NII).
National Wetlands Research Center Publications
http://www.nwrc.gov/publications.htmlex.htm
The National Wetlands Research Center has developed a
database for information about more than 900 of the centers'
publications. Because the Center has operated under several
missions and names, its publications list is a collection of
peer-reviewed journal articles, technical publications, maps and
posters, and outreach publications. Some of the publications are
available in full text from this Web site, in the form of PDF
files. Other publications cannot be displayed because of
copyright restrictions, but reprints may be obtained by sending a
request to the NWRC Library. The site offers both a browse and
search function to access the citations.
*ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION*
Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF)
http://www.werf.org/publications.htmlex.htm
WERF is a not-for-profit organization affiliated with the
Water Environment Federation (WEF), and it addresses water
quality issues with a commitment to environmental protection,
economic conservancy and enhanced quality of life. It is funded
through voluntary contributions and grants, and manages research
in four core areas: Collection and Treatment Systems, Human
Health and Environmental Effects, Integrated Resources
Management, and Residuals Management. WERF's goal is to eliminate
redundant studies within the profession and increase the value
and knowledge of the individual research programs. One important
aspect of the program is the dissemination of information. The
WERF Web site offers information on workshops, newsletters,
reports, papers, computer programs, and video presentations.
*NONPROFIT INFORMATION*
The Center for Watershed Protection
http://www.pipeline.com/~mrrunoff/tmlex.htm
The Center for Watershed Protection, a qualified 501(c)(3)
non-profit organization, offers a Web site for their activities
and publications. The Center principally functions to do
independent research and technical support to professionals and
is devoted to promoting better techniques and policies for
watershed management. They actively serve communities across the
country in their emerging efforts to protect and restore urban
watersheds. The Web site offers information about their published
technical manuals, reports and a quarterly bulletin on urban
watershed restoration and protection tools entitled "Watershed
Protection Techniques.