LOUISIANA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY | Secretary Aurelia S. Giacometto
A DEPARTMENT OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA
In response to Hurricane Katrina, FEMA and GOHSEP allocated $50million to CPRA for coastal restoration projects. Following a major disaster declaration, the HGMP provides funding for long-term hazard mitigation projects that help reduce the impact of future storms. For a list of approved projects, see Appendix E of the FY2013 CPRA Annual Plan.
Launched in 2009; Has been encouraging local and state agencies to be proactive and place a stronger emphasis on protecting their remaining healthy watersheds as a way to save money and the environment.
The Integrated Compliance Information System (ICIS) is a secure system only available to EPA and state users. The public should use the Enforcement and Compliance History Online. ECHO is a Web-based tool that provides public users with compliance monitoring and enforcement data. ICIS provides web access to enforcement and compliance assurance data to agencies. ICIS has two main components: ICIS Federal Enforcement and Compliance (ICIS-FE&C) which provides data and support for federal enforcement tracking, targeting, and reporting and ICIS National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (ICIS-NPDES) which provides the ability for ICIS users to manage their NPDES program by tracking permits, limits, discharge monitoring data and other program reports. ICIS, integrating data from several separate data systems, is a multi-year system modernization project that will be completed in late 2014. The last phase of development, currently underway, is the preparation for data migration from the Air Facility Data System (AFS). AFS System tracks permits and enforcement and compliance assurance data for major stationary sources of air pollution. EPA's ability to target the most critical environmental problems will improve as the system integrates data from all media.
Established by Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act, requires states to identify waters where technology-based pollution controls are insufficient to ensure attainment of water quality standards, and for those waters, develop total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) and allocations of those loads that will provide for the support of the water quality standards. In the absence of approved state-level impaired waters identification and/or TMDL development, requires EPA to list impaired waters and develop TMDLs.
The International Stormwater Best Management Practices (BMP) Database website, contains a database of over 500 BMP studies, performance analysis results, tools for use in BMP performance studies, monitoring guidance and other study-related publications. The overall purpose of the project is to provide scientifically sound information to improve the design, selection and performance of BMPs. Continued population of the database and assessment of its data will ultimately lead to a better understanding of factors influencing BMP performance and help to promote improvements in BMP design, selection and implementation.
Report to address the relationship between land management and stream water quality, and in particular factors that seem to negate or minimize the impacts of farm management practice changes on stream water quality improvements. This report seeks to (1) examine issues linking land management to tangible environmental change, (2) address the time scale for change, and (3) identify factors that may be limiting water quality and biological improvements in the presence of improved practices within agriculturally dominated watersheds.
Predictive salinity maps used to indicate hydrologic conditions based on field data, MODIS satellite imagery, precipitation data, and permanent monitoring stations. Maps focus on Lake Maurepas, Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Borgne, MRGO, and the Breton Sound areas. They can be used to show water movement caused by changes in hydrology (diversions) and weather conditions.
Steady-state one-dimensional in-stream model. Model can be used to simulate nutrients.
Sample collection and analytical results required by an effective permit (EPA or state issued) must be reported to the enforcement authority (EPA or state) through the submission of DMRs (EPA Form 3320-1). An original and one legible copy of the DMRs must be submitted to the enforcement authority by the date specified in the permit. This data is entered into a national database available to the public. It is extremely important that the data reported on the DMR be accurate, timely, and legible to ensure the facility’s compliance status is correctly reflected. The reported data will be compared with the current limits contained in the permit or any enforcement order to determine facility compliance. It should be noted that a DMR is required even if the facility did not have a discharge during a reporting period.
The Integrated Report (IR) is the current form of biennial reporting of the status of Louisiana waters. The IR is made up of what was once called the 305(b) Water Quality Inventory Report and the 303(d) List of Impaired Waterbodies. One of the primary focuses of the IR is on the use of five categories and three subcategories to which waterbodies or waterbody/impairment combinations can be assigned. Categorization under IR guidance allows for a more focused approach to water quality management by clearly determining what actions are required to protect or improve individual waters of the state. The IR categories and definitions can be found at the link below. Other changes resulting from U.S. EPA's IR guidance can be found in the 2002 Water Quality Inventory, Executive Summary.