More FY 1999 Budget Information Date: Tue, 03 Feb 1998 14:05:00 -0500 To: "DC - All District Chiefs" From: "Robert M. Hirsch, Chief Hydrologist, USGS" (by way of Joanne Taylor ) Subject: FY 1999 President's Budget Information (additional info) Cc: "A - Division Chief and Staff", "B - Branch Chiefs and Offices", "Joanne C Taylor, Secretary (Typing), Reston, VA" NOTE: February 3, 1998 To: District Chiefs From: Robert M. Hirsch Chief Hydrologist RE: More FY 1999 Budget Information Here is the follow-up information that was mentioned in yesterday's email (same subject). Please disregard the budget table that was sent yesterday -- today's version is more detailed and should be easier to read. Also, as mentioned, in a day or so, we will send a briefing sheet on the COOP Program, which should be useful when talking to your cooperators. *************** ATTACHMENT 1: Summaries of the two water-quality initiatives *************** CLEAN WATER AND WATERSHED RESTORATION INITIATIVE The Nation has made major progress in addressing many of the historical environmental and public health problems of our rivers, lakes, and coastal waters, since passage of the Clean Water Act 25 years ago. Yet, it is clear that serious water quality problems persist throughout the country. Many watersheds have problems associated with excessive nutrients, disease-causing micro-organisms, and toxic chemicals originating from industrial activity and pesticide use, to name a few examples. These pollutants make our drinking waters difficult to treat, degrade habitat for fish and other wildlife, make beaches unsuitable for swimming, and contaminate fish or the animals (including humans) that eat them. We have made great progress in controlling pollution that originates from factories and sewage treatment plants (point sources). Much of the remaining problem comes from the non-point source pollution of ground-water and surface-water that happens in urban and rural landscapes. On a multi-agency basis the Administration is initiating its "Clean Water Action Plan" aimed at specific actions to help the Nation attain healthy aquatic systems in all of the Nation's watersheds. A significant part of this Action Plan is aimed at providing better information about water quality to the public and decision makers. The information will include knowledge of pollution sources, water-quality impacts, and the progress being made towards cleaner water. These efforts will support State, tribal, and local governments implementing watershed-specific strategies for improving water quality. This national effort will be organized around the needs of individual watersheds, specifically the 2,149 "cataloging units" defined by USGS. USGS support of the Clean Water Action Plan takes advantage of multi-disciplinary capabilities across a range of program areas. USGS has requested an increase of $16.5 million for participation in the Clean Water and Watershed Restoration Initiative. * Given the Action Plan's strong emphasis on the role of State, local, and tribal governments, it is appropriate the USGS use its Federal-State Cooperative Water Program to develop needed information in partnership with many levels of government. Increased funding in the Federal-State Cooperative Water Program will be used to: operate monitoring programs for water-quality, evaluate the relative impacts of various pollution sources in critical watersheds (Total Maximum Daily Loads), and evaluate non-point source pollution management practices in a wide variety of watersheds. * The Water Resources Research Institute Program will be expanded as well, to engage the capabilities of the university community in the Initiative. The Institutes will receive research grants, on a competitive basis, to conduct research that is oriented toward the objectives of restoring aquatic system health in degraded watersheds. These studies will include topics that go beyond the usual scope of USGS research, by including consideration of the institutional and economic aspects of watershed restoration along with the physical, chemical, and biological processes involved. * The USGS National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program has, from its inception, been focused on issues that are central to the Clean Water Action Plan. However, increased operating costs have not allowed the USGS to implement the NAWQA Program as originally designed. The Clean Water and Watershed Restoration Initiative provides for a significant increase in NAWQA Program funding to enable operation at a level closer to its original design. This increase will initiate new study unit investigations in FY 1999, and enhance National Synthesis Activities (focusing on problems of metal contamination and on biological issues). * USGS will enhance the level of NAWQA partnership activity with the National Park Service, emphasizing water-quality issues in National Parks and measurement of background water quality conditions in pristine Park areas; consistent with the NAWQA program design. Through funding in another line item, USGS will provide additional water-quality data collection and studies on National Park Service lands outside of NAWQA study areas. * USGS will also identify and characterize selected environmental contaminants and their effects in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems of special interest to the Bureau of Reclamation to improve facilities management in 20 high priority watersheds in the West. * The hypoxia zone in the Gulf of Mexico and the increased frequency of toxic algal blooms in estuaries nationwide are probably caused by increased loads of nutrients within the coastal zone and throughout the watersheds that drain to these coastal areas. The USGS Biological Research and Monitoring Program will work toward understanding the linkages between landscape characteristics, nutrient inputs, and impacts on these coastal and estuarine ecosystems to help define strategies to improve the health of these ecosystems. In addition, biological research will explore the potential for reducing nutrient inputs to the Gulf by using wetlands to remove nutrients from river water. * Improved availability of basic landscape information, coupled with hydrologic and biological data, are critical to the success of the watershed-based approach to restoration proposed in the Clean Water Action Plan. Through the Geographic Research and Applications Program, USGS will develop new data handling and serving capabilities, including use of GIS and visualization. These will be designed in close consultation with watershed groups and will apply existing Federal Geographic Data Committee standards to build improved data access and decision-support tools for watershed groups and State and local agencies to use in planning for watershed-based restoration efforts. * An important issue in many watersheds with significant mineral resources is the need to assess, prioritize, and remediate abandoned mine lands. The USGS Mineral Resources and Biological Research and Monitoring Programs will play a significant role in the Clean Water and Watershed Restoration Initiative, by providing Federal land managers (primarily the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service) with information about the impact of mineral deposits and abandoned mines on watershed conditions and associated biota. USGS participation in the Clean Water and Watershed Restoration Initiative is highly consistent with the USGS role of providing policy-relevant but policy-neutral information about natural resources and the environment. The improvement of watersheds, in a manner that is suited to the local conditions and needs, depends on scientific understanding and relevant data. The USGS role will be to enhance the understanding and data available to Federal agencies (including Department of the Interior bureaus such as the National Park Service, Bureau of Reclamation, and Bureau of Land Management), the States, tribal and local governments, and local non-government interests that will be working together to enhance watersheds conditions throughout the Nation. WATER-QUALITY INFORMATION INITIATIVE The major changes in the proposed FY 1999 budget for the USGS Water Resources Programs are related to water quality information. Participation in the Clean Water and Watershed Restoration Initiative was described in the "Presidential and Secretarial" section. This Water Quality Information Initiative requests a $7.0 million increase focused on improving the availability and dissemination of water quality data. This effort is closely linked to the US EPA initiative "Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Community Tracking (EMPACT). The major goals for USGS participation in this initiative will be to: * Increase the availability of water quality information, including real-time data, for rivers and coastal waters near 86 of the Nation's largest cities (through Hydrologic Networks and Analysis and the Federal-State Cooperative Water Program). * Modernize sampling and measurement equipment to improve the cost-effectiveness and timeliness of water quality information (through Hydrologic Networks and Analysis). * Modernize USGS data-management and dissemination software to enhance access to all USGS water quality data for other agencies, watershed councils, and the public (through Water Information Delivery). * Work with cities to improve information about drinking-water source areas and approaches to protecting their water supplies (through the Federal-State Cooperative Water Program). * Work with States, tribes, city governments, and water supply agencies to improve public understanding of issues related to the protection of drinking water sources and protection of recreational waters (through Water Information Delivery). *************** ATTACHMENT 2: Change Statements *************** Changes Proposed in the FY 1999 President's Budget National Water-Quality Assessment Program +$6.0 million The NAWQA Program has, from its inception, been focused on issues that are central to the Clean Water and Watershed Restoration Initiative. However, increased operating costs have not allowed USGS to implement the NAWQA Program according to its original design. The Clean Water and Watershed Restoration Initiative provides for a $6.0 million increase in NAWQA funding to enable operation at a level closer to its original design. This increase will allow USGS to initiate new study unit investigations in FY 1999, and to enhance National Synthesis activities focusing on problems of metal contamination and on biological issues. Adjustments to NAWQA study unit boundaries have been made over the last 2 years to accommodate as much of the Nation's population and used water resource as possible. Still, the addition of at least two more study units will allow the program to assess crucial water-quality issues in ecologically sensitive areas such as the Delmarva Peninsula and the Yakima River Valley. Expanding study unit coverage requires $3 million annually. Further, the National Academy of Sciences' review of NAWQA advocated inclusion of modeling in the program, to provide the ability to forecast or predict outcomes from changes in land management practices. Increased funding associated with the Clean Water and Watershed Restoration Initiative will enable NAWQA to accommodate the Academy's recommendation by expanding modeling capability at the watershed scale, an effort that will require $2 million annually. Finally, to provide consistent insight on conditions in areas not significantly affected by human activity, NAWQA will collaborate with the National Park Service to acquire data and information on key Park Service areas. These additional data collection activities will benefit both USGS and National Park Service management in addressing the goals of the Clean Water and Watershed Restoration Initiative. The National Park Service has many water-resource issues to address for which water-quality data are lacking; NAWQA is a mechanism for providing nationally consistent data for Park Resource Managers; $1 million per year will be used to provide these data. Toxic Substances Hydrology -$526 K The proposed decrease of $526,000 would result in the delay or cancellation of a broad regional assessment of an aquatic ecosystem that is susceptible to contamination from mercury through atmospheric sources. This regional assessment would have been the first in a series of regional assessments intended to provide a national-scale analysis of mercury contamination of aquatic ecosystems that would provide scientific information to fill critical existing information gaps and enable protection of human and aquatic health. Environmental issues related to mercury are of increasing importance to regulatory agencies, public health organizations, and the public. Through bioaccumulation, mercury levels in wildlife and fish achieve toxic levels under certain circumstances. Mercury is also a known human toxicant. As of 1996, freshwater fish consumption warnings or advisories from elevated mercury in fish have been issued in 47 States. But the work proposed by USGS to address the need for scientific information related to mercury represents a new program direction. In a constrained budget climate, it would be imprudent to begin new program activities by displacing other vitally important ongoing work. For this reason, USGS proposes to do the planning needed for the mercury work in 1999, but to delay the start of this work. Hydrologic Networks and Analysis +$787 The program change for Hydrologic Networks and Analysis is a net figure composed of five parts, as follows: -- Watershed Modeling -$998,000: The watershed modeling studies funded by the Hydrologic Networks and Analysis Program are slated for termination in FY 1999, as part of the Reinventing Government (REGO-II) plan to reduce the Federal deficit. All funding for this effort would be eliminated in FY 1999. These modeling studies have provided valuable information to the land and water management agencies such as the Bureau of Reclamation. The program has resulted in the coordinated development of watershed modeling software closely linked with Bureau of Reclamation river operations software. These tools are now in use in various basins and are available for future studies to be conducted by USGS, the Bureau of Reclamation, and others. USGS will take steps to ensure that the future modeling needs of DOI bureaus are met through use of these tools in studies conducted on a reimbursable basis. -- Truckee-Carson monitoring -$1,219,000: The Truckee-Carson project is scheduled to end in FY 1999, as part of the REGO-II plan to reduce the Federal deficit. All funding for this effort would be eliminated in FY 1999. However, USGS anticipates using a cost-share arrangement with the Bureau of Reclamation or other water management agencies to complete expanded work on the resource management modeling for the Truckee and Carson River basins, and will take steps to ensure that future modeling needs of DOI bureaus are met through other water resources programs. -- Water Quality Information +$2,000,000: The water quality information component of the proposed increase will focus on improving the availability and dissemination of water quality data. This effort is closely linked to the USEPA initiative "Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Community Tracking" (EMPACT). With funding requested in Hydrologic Networks and Analysis, USGS would: (1) increase the availability of water quality information, including real-time data, for rivers and coastal waters near 86 of the Nation's largest cities (this effort also involves the Federal-State Cooperative Water Program)--this will include enhanced coastal river monitoring to improve understanding of the Gulf of Mexico hypoxia problem; and (2) modernize sampling and measurement equipment to improve the cost-effectiveness and timeliness of water quality information. -- Clean Water Initiative +$1,500,000: As part of the Clean Water and Watershed Restoration Initiative, USGS will provide water quality monitoring and assessment support for National Park Service (NPS) watersheds which are outside of the study areas covered by the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program, and will provide technical assistance to the National Park Service on water quality issues of high priority to NPS in supporting the Clean Water and Watershed Restoration Initiative. -- Other -$496,000: This reduction will result in the downsizing of activities that are peripherally related to the development and testing of new instrumentation for water monitoring, and research on lower priority aspects of water resources data collection and analysis. Water Information Delivery +$3.0 million This increase is focused on improving the availability and dissemination of water quality data for all potential users through several media: computer data bases, print media, and information displays in public places. This effort is closely linked to the EPA initiative "Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Community Tracking" (EMPACT). The largest of these efforts will be in the area of computer data bases--modernizing USGS data-management and dissemination software to enhance access to all USGS water-quality data for other agencies, watershed councils, and the public via the World Wide Web (WWW). Currently these data are available by having USGS staff make computer retrievals to fulfill requests. If data are requested for multiple States, then multiple USGS offices are involved in the retrieval process. When data base modernization is accomplished, any user with access to the Internet will be able to download USGS water-quality data without assistance for one site or all sites in a given watershed or political jurisdiction. Other needed data base software improvements include: -- Providing continuous streamflow data over the Internet which is needed by State agencies by calculate Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), a requirement of the Clean Water Act. -- Providing backup capability to critical computer operations so that failures of electrical power, computer hardware or software, or communications systems at any given USGS site will not interrupt the flow of USGS water quality and associated streamflow data on the Internet. -- Providing hydrologic and land use data on a watershed basis to all potential users in order to improve access and usefulness of this information. In terms of public education, USGS will work with States, tribes, city governments, and water supply agencies to improve public understanding of issues related to the protection of drinking water sources and recreational waters through topical fact sheets and overview reports. Also, USGS will begin, on a pilot basis, a process of setting up outdoor and museum displays regarding the water resources of urban areas. The process will be initiated in conjunction with park authorities and museums at selected locations with extensive visitation to a water body. Displays will be designed to heighten public awareness of the resource, describe what is known about the hydrologic and water quality characteristics of the water body, and provide information on how to obtain further technical information on the water resource. Federal-State Cooperative Water Program +$4.0 million The $4 million increase requested for this subactivity will support work in two water-quality initiatives: -- Clean Water +$2,000,000: A primary goal of the Clean Water and Watershed Restoration Initiative is to improve the water quality in degraded watersheds across the country. The Coop Program, through partnerships with State and local agencies, can assist through monitoring and assessment activities in addressing issues such as: (1) determining the linkage between agricultural practices and pesticides in ground water; (2) providing a more quantitative understanding of the sources of nutrients entering a stream; (3) determining the continuing effects of past land use; or (4) understanding the relationships between water quality and the health of aquatic organisms. Also, the Coop Program can assist States in setting Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) allocations required by the Clean Water Act, assessing the best approach to monitor water-supply wells for pesticides, and better quantifying the effects of active and abandoned mines on streams and aquifers. In addition to supporting the Clean Water and Watershed Restoration Initiative, this work will assist States in developing statewide pesticide management plans and strategies to identify and protect drinking water sources. -- Water Quality Information Initiative +$2,000,000: The Water Quality Information Initiative will focus on improving the availability and dissemination of water quality data. This effort is closely linked to the USEPA initiative "Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Community Tracking" (EMPACT). With funding requested in this subactivity, USGS would work with States and municipalities to: (1) increase the availability of water quality information, including real-time data, for rivers and coastal waters near 86 of the Nation's largest cities (this effort also involves the Hydrologic Networks and Analysis Program); and (2) improve information about drinking-water source areas and approaches to protecting water supplies. This funding will be leveraged by at least 1:1 matching funding from participating States. Water Resources Research Act Program +$1.0 million An increase of $1,000,000 in support of the Clean Water and Watershed Restoration Initiative will be earmarked for matching grants to support research on the causes, effects, and management of nonpoint-source pollution. The grants will be awarded under section 104(g) of the Water Resources Research Act, which requires a 1:1 match. The Institutes will, through the Regional Competitive Grant program, solicit research proposals addressing high priority topics in support of the Clean Water and Watershed Restoration Initiative jointly identified by USGS and the Institutes. These topics could include, for example: the development of methods to assess the status of and trends in nonpoint source pollution at different spatial and temporal scales; development of methods to assess the effects of Best Management Practices at farm and watershed scales; epidemiological studies of the effects of water quality on human health; the effects of water quality on ecological conditions and aquatic organisms; the efficacy and economic efficiency of alternative methods of managing nonpoint source pollution; and the development of numerical models to simulate the transport of selected contaminants from the land surface to surface water and ground water. USGS will encourage collaboration of its scientists with university scientists through identification of specific research topics, the development and review of research proposals, and in the research projects supported with these increased funds. In this way, this increase will promote an efficient and effective means of supporting the objectives of high-priority research and assessment efforts and of increasing coordination of USGS research with that of the academic community. *************** ATTACHMENT 3: Revised FY 1999 Budget Table *************** FY 1999 PRESIDENT'S BUDGET (Dollars in Thousands) FY 1997 FY 1998 Base Prog. FY 1999 Enacted Enacted Adjust Change Request TOTAL USGS 738913 759160 17495 29228 805883 WRD as a % of total USGS 26% 26% 27% WATER RESOURCES INVESTIGATIONS 192506 194882 5044 14261 214187 Water Res. Assess. & Research 94444 95851 2495 5474 103820 Ground-Water Resources 2995 3079 108 -- 3187 NAWQA a/ 63352 64216 1387 6000 71603 Toxic Subst. Hydrology 14028 14252 500 -526 14226 Hydro. Research & Devel. 14069 14304 500 -- 14804 Water Data Collect. & Mgmt. 28950 28247 815 3787 32849 Hydro. Networks & Anal. b/ 23524 24087 730 787 25604 Water Info. Delivery c/ 5426 4160 85 3000 7245 Fed-State Coop Water Prog. d/ 64559 66231 1730 4000 71961 Water Res. Res. Act Prog. e/ 4553 4553 4 1000 5557 NATIONAL MAPPING PROGRAM 131775 135785 2425 13579 151789 GEOLOGIC HAZARDS, RESOURCES & PROCESSES 229280 235175 4844 -6226 233793 BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH 137500 145159 3422 8731 157312 GENERAL ADMINISTRATION 25057 25584 1709 -- 27293 FACILITIES 22795 22575 51 -1117 21509 a/ Clean Water Initiative; includes $1M for work on Park Service Lands. b/ FY 1999 Program Change for Hydrologic Networks and Analysis includes five parts: Watershed Modeling -998 Truckee-Carson -1219 Water Quality Information 2000 Clean Water Initiative 1500 Other -496 Net Total 787 c/ Water Quality Information Initiative. d/ Includes $2M for Clean Water and $2M for Water Quality Information Initiative. e/ Clean Water Initiative-competitive grants on nonpoint source pollution.