|
|
Northeast-Midwest Institute
Weekly Update
|
|
|
House Expected to Take Up
Water Resources Bill This Week
|
The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to take up the Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA), H.R. 3080, this week. The bill passed out of Committee without any objections and bipartisan support on September 19, 2013. The bill has traditionally authorized specific Army Corps of Engineers projects, as well as overall water resources policy. However, since the adoption of the "earmark ban" in Congress in 2011, such a bill has been nearly impossible, given the earmark-like nature of specifying authorization for a particular project. The Senate passed its version of the Water Resources Development Act, S. 601, in May. A finalized bill stands to greatly affect the NEMW region, especially in relation to harbor operations and maintenance, invasive species, and flood control and planning. The NEMWI has prepared a condensed comparison of the two bills in their current state. Some sections included in the Senate bill, including ecosystem programs and beach restoration, are not currently addressed in the House version. The NEMWI coordinated a briefing on the potential impacts of WRRDA in the Great Lakes Region on September 13, 2013.
For more information, please contact Danielle Chesky, Director of the Great Lakes Washington Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.
|
|
New Prioritization Approach for Ambient Water and Sediment Quality Monitoring Focuses on Human and Aquatic Health
|
The USGS National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program has released a revised September 2013 update to an earlier report addressing the prioritization of constituents to be assessed when evaluating water and sediment quality. Entitled, " Prioritization of Constituents for National and Regional Scale Ambient Monitoring of Water and Sediment in the United States," the report describes a tiered prioritization approach that can be used by water resource managers when selecting chemicals to be included in ambient water and sediment quality monitoring strategies. Over 2,500 chemicals were prioritized by a NAWQA National Target Analyte Strategy Work Group based on physical and chemical properties, observed and predicted environmental occurrence and fate, and observed or anticipated adverse health or environmental effects. 1,081 of the constituents evaluated were determined to be of highest priority for ambient monitoring. The constituents prioritized for this effort included various types of organic compounds, trace elements and other inorganic constituents, and radionuclides, and were placed into three tiers: - Tier 1: those having the highest priority on the basis of their likelihood of environmental occurrence in ambient water or sediment, or likelihood of effects on human health or aquatic life;
- Tier 2: those of intermediate priority on the basis of their lower likelihood of environmental occurrence or lower likelihood of effects on human health or aquatic life; and
- Tier 3: those with low or no priority for monitoring.
This effort was undertaken in preparation for the upcoming third decade of the NAWQA Program (2013-2023).
For more information, please contact Mark Gorman, Policy Analyst at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.
|
|
NEMWI President Attending Ballast Water Conference in South Korea
|
This week NEMWI President, Allegra Cangelosi, will attend an international forum on ballast water treatment and management in Busan, South Korea. The conference, titled Ballast2013, features speakers from around the world that face the invasive species challenges of global shipping. The conference provides a forum for collaboration on treating ballast water and progress in technology and development. Ms. Cangelosi is also the director of the NEMWI's Great Ships Initiative, a ballast water treatment testing facility located at Duluth-Superior in the northern Great Lakes. The facility, established in 2006, is a regional effort devoted to ending the problem of ship-mediated invasive species in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System and globally. The U.S. Coast Guard has approved the facility for final (or type approval) testing of ballast water treatment systems, and specializes in providing bench-scale, as well as land- and ship-based testing of treatment systems. The facility recently wrapped up testing of multiple filter systems, the primary component to ballast water treatment, in order to provide information to developers and the shipping industry on treatment options.
For more information, please contact Allegra Cangelosi, President, Northeast-Midwest Institute and Director, Great Ships Initiative.
|
|
Mississippi River Mayors Hold Summit,
Secure Agreements
|
Mayors from Mississippi River states including Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi hosted the first-ever Mississippi River Economy Summit called by mayors from along the waterway October 16-17 in Memphis, TN. Co-hosted with the Delta Regional Authority and the City of Memphis, the mayors gathered stakeholders from three major industry sectors that rely on the River. Leaders from the agricultural, navigation, recreation, and intermodal industries participated in two days of talks and strategy sessions with mayors and DRA leadership to plot a course forward in developing the Mississippi River economy.
Mayor AC Wharton, of Memphis, TN and MRCTI co-chair, commented: "What this Economy Summit demonstrates, even in the face of decreasing Federal investment in our infrastructure and a shutdown, is that mayors are moving forward to protect and grow our economies." DRA Federal Co-Chairman Chris Masingill said, "The Mississippi River is the lifeblood of the Delta region's economy."
During the Summit, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Memphis-based Chism Hardy Investments, Ingram Barge Company, Inland Rivers Ports & Terminals Inc., and the IL Soybean Association pledged to work together toward container shipping on the Mississippi River, which will relieve freight congestion, create economic opportunity for its ports and other intermodal industries, and attract investment in the River infrastructure.
Another Summit development is the new working relationship being established with the World Trade Center Mississippi River Alliance, comprised of seven world trade centers along the Mississippi River lead by the World Trade Center of New Orleans.
"The relationship we are building with the Alliance will hopefully help better align local investment in River sustainability projects by building investment opportunities between world trade centers and community foundations along the Mississippi River," said Mayor Dickie Kennemore, Osceola, AR.
For more information contact Collin Wellenkamp, Director, Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.
|
|
| |
The Northeast-Midwest Institute: Taking the Rust out of the Rust Belt!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
