National Park Service (NPS)/Water Resources Division (WRD) Water-Quality Cooperation Date: Mon, 9 Mar 1998 15:22:38 -0500
From: "Robert M. Hirsch, Chief Hydrologist, USGS" <rhirsch> (by way of Jan Arneson)
To: "A - Division Chief and Staff"<distribution>,
"B - Branch Chiefs and Offices"<distribution>,
"DC - All District Chiefs"<distribution>
CC: " , NAWQA 91 Study-Unit Project Chiefs, Reston, VA" <nawqa_91pc>,
" , NAWQA 94 Study-Unit Project Chiefs, Reston, VA" <nawqa_94pc>,
" , NAWQA 97 Study-Unit Project Chiefs, Reston, VA" <nawqa_97pc>,
"Low, Walton H" <wlow>, "Hale, Timothy W" <twhale>

In Reply Refer To:
Mail Stop 413

March 9, 1998 WATER RESOURCES DIVISION MEMORANDUM NO. 98.15

Subject: National Park Service (NPS)/Water Resources Division (WRD) Water-Quality Cooperation

As previously noted in my February 3, 1998, memorandum, changes proposed in the fiscal year (FY) 1999 President's budget include requests for new funding for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to provide water-quality monitoring and assessment support and technical assistance to the NPS as part of the Clean Water and Watershed Restoration Initiative. The requested funding to support NPS totals $2.5 million with $1.0 million for water-quality work on NPS lands within NAWQA study areas and $1.5 million for work outside of NAWQA study areas. Although funding for this work depends upon congressional approval of the FY 1999 budget, the NPS and USGS are proceeding with a process to prioritize the backlog of NPS water-quality needs. Then, if approved, work will be funded in priority order.

The process to prioritize NPS water-quality needs begins with a call from NPS for Park Superintendents to submit proposals for work by the USGS. Later today or tomorrow, hard copies of this memorandum with three attachments will be sent to you. All documents also will be on the internal WRD Web site. These three NPS documents are being sent this week by NPS to all Park units as part of their annual "Natural Resources Unified Project Call" (NRUPC) for proposals. Attachment 1 describes the call for project and evaluation criteria statements (NPS equivalent of WRD preliminary project proposals). Attachment 2, "General Instructions, RMP (Resource Management Plan) Eligibility Requirements," describes the general content and formatting requirements for the NPS project statements. Attachment 3 is the NPS-USGS Water-Quality Assessment and Management Plan describing the objectives of the proposed program.

The NPS Superintendents who wish to submit proposals are being asked to contact USGS Districts for assistance in developing preliminary project proposals in accordance with the instructions provided in the NRUPC. Districts are strongly encouraged to provide such assistance. As described in attachments 1 and 2, a preliminary project proposal consists of a project statement and evaluation criteria. Note that criterion 8, Project Support, may be other Park projects such as ongoing NAWQA study unit work. Districts should constrain work in each proposal to funding levels suggested in attachment 3 (i.e., about $100,000 for intensive studies and about $50,000 for synoptic or fixed-station monitoring studies). As we understand, multi-year proposals are acceptable but these will be subject to annual review, approval, and funding. Similarly, separate preliminary project proposals may be submitted for concurrent intensive, synoptic, and fixed-station monitoring studies within a Park. However, each study will be constrained to the annual funding levels.

The resulting jointly-prepared preliminary project proposals will be submitted by Park Superintendents to NPS for internal screening and initial prioritization using criteria described in attachment 1. Then, up to 102 of the highest priority candidate proposals will be submitted to an NPS-USGS work group (consisting of 3 NPS and 3 USGS members) for final prioritization and, hopefully, funding in FY 1999. If a proposa is selected for funding, the responsible District will be requested to prepare a fully detailed, region-approved work plan for final acceptance and funding.

As Districts prepare preliminary project proposals with NPS there are several points that you should consider. First, as stated in attachments 1 and 3, proposed work should contribute to an enhanced understanding of Park water quality. Also, please note that fixed-station monitoring is planned to occur on a 2- to 3-year rotation; thus, long- term (permanent) data-collection sites are not expected to be part of the program. Finally, Districts should seek opportunities for research within this overall program, involving National Research Program and District RGE researchers as appropriate.

The timeline for the steps of the proposal prioritization and selection process described above is as follows: