Overview |
INTRODUCTION
Most of the water quality programs in the Northwestern Division are surveillance and monitoring in nature -- to ensure that Corps activities meet all applicable federal, state and local standards to the extent possible. Some of the programs actually lead to changes in project operations and/or design features. The dissolved gas monitoring, for example, allows for adjustments in the spill for-fish-passage on mainstem Columbia and Snake Rivers and for modifications of spillway and stilling basin configurations. In many districts, compliance with the Clean Water Act (e.g. NPDES — National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, and Section 404(b)(1) evaluations) is also managed under the water quality program.
ASSIGNED RESPONSIBILITIES
The Water Quality Section in the Reservoir Control Center (Water Management Division) is responsible for policy guidance and coordination with Corps districts and other Federal, State and public agencies and organizations. The Section also schedules reservoir operations that impact water quality and recommends other measures to enhance or remediate water quality problems and concerns. The Planning/Engineering Division oversees groundwater contamination studies and, in collaboration with the Operations & Construction Division, coordinates another important field of water quality — dredging.
All three districts (Portland, Seattle and Walla Walla) are assigned broad responsibilities in developing and implementing water quality management programs. These include identifying and monitoring the sources of water quality problems affecting (or caused by) their projects, and informing State and Federal agencies of water quality changes that could present a public health hazard. They report emergency events to the Division’s Readiness Management (Operations, Construction & Readiness Directorate). Some of their water quality activities overlap with other programs, such as the Defense Environmental Restoration Program and EPA Superfund Program. Water quality problems that can be resolved through reservoir operations are reported to the Reservoir Control Center for appropriate actions.
In the performance of their assigned responsibilities, all Corps offices have direct access to the Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, MS and the Hydrologic Engineering Center in Davis, CA for physical and mathematical modeling support. Each district reports its water quality activities annually to the Regional Office for review, synthesis, reporting to the national Corps Headquarters and posting on the Internet.
COOPERATION WITH OTHER AGENCIES
District and Division staffs coordinate with their other Federal, State, and local agencies environmental quality counterparts. The listing of several Pacific salmon species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) made this coordination even more critical because the Corps is believed to hold most of the cards. All water users have a vested interest in what operation is being planned by the Corps, where, when, and how.
There is a continual dialogue between Reservoir Control Center and the Fish Program Management Division, the Bonneville Power Administration, other public utilities, Federal, State and Indian Tribes environmental departments. Formal consultation with NMFS, which oversees the ESA’s activities, is often preceded by detailed in-house discussion between all planning, operation, fishery biologists, and legal staffs involved. The RCC makes all final reservoir regulation decisions, frequently based on recommendations from the Technical Management Team, a mid-management level group set up by NMFS in 1995 and chaired by the Corps representative.
NATIONAL CORPS COMMITTEES
The following technical Corps Committees are open to all field districts:
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