Agency Amends Guidelines for Section 106 Monitoring Funds
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Amendment to the Guidelines for the Award of Monitoring Initiative Funds was published in the Federal Register on July 17.
The amendment accelerates the use of state-scale statistical surveys of water quality by incorporating a performance-based standard into the allotment of Section 106 Monitoring Initiative funds. Funds will continue to be used for building state water monitoring program capacity according to the original guidelines of March 2006, as long as states make progress in adopting scientifically-valid, state-scale statistical surveys.
State and national statistical surveys will help inform the Council on Environmental Quality's recently announced National Environmental Status and Trends initiative to gather scientifically-valid environmental information.
The Federal Register notice is posted at http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-WATER/2008/July/Day-17/w16385.pdf. For more background on 106 guidelines, visit http://www.epa.gov/owm/cwfinance/award-monitoring-fund.htm.