NO NOVEMBER 20 BALMM MEETING. The Southeast Minnesota Water Quality Forum held Nov. 12 served as a substitute for the regularly scheduled monthly BALMM meeting. The next BALMM meeting will be held December 17, 2003. More information will follow.
EPA SEEKS NOMINATIONS FOR 2004 WATERSHED GRANTS: (From Minnesota River Weekly Update). The U.S. EPA is seeking nominations from states for up to 20 watershed projects eligible to receive federal grant awards in 2004. The awards are given to projects that show promising watershed-based approaches to improving water quality and are ready to start implementing on-the-ground restoration activities.
This is the second annual round of competitive grant applications under a Bush administration budget initiative to protect and restore waterways across the country. Last year Minnesota secured one of the competitive grants for a series of projects in the Blue Earth River watershed.
Nominations must be submitted to the EPA by state governors or tribal leaders. Governors or tribal leaders may nominate only two projects for watersheds that are within their jurisdictions, but may nominate an unlimited number of projects that cross state, tribal, or national boundaries. Nominations are reviewed and ranked at the national level by water experts from the EPA and other federal agencies.
Awards to the 20 projects selected will range from $300,000 to $1.3 million, with a minimum nonfederal match of 25 percent of the project's total budget required. The president's 2004 budget, still before Congress, requests $21 million for watershed awards.
Information on the awards program and nominating process is available on the Web at www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/initiative <http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/initiative>, or on MPCA's web site at <http://www.pca.state.mn.us/publications/p-f2-71.pdf>
The selection process and criteria are similar to last year's awards; however, this year the EPA will place more emphasis on market-based approaches to protection and restoration and also on approaches to decreasing hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico.
If you know of deserving watershed projects that are ripe to begin implementing restoration activities, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency encourages you to contact us to discuss entering it for nomination by the governor or tribal leaders. Please contact Wayne Anderson at 651-296-7323 or wayne.anderson@pca.state.mn.us.
OTHER MEETING ANNOUNCEMENTS:
MEI's Annual Legislative Issues Forum
Thursday, December 11
8 am to noon (registration begins at 7:30 am)
Science Museum of Minnesota
120 West Kellogg
St. Paul
Rep. Dennis Ozment, chair of the House Environment and Natural Resources Finance Committee, Rep. Tom Hackbarth, chair of the Environment and Natural Resources Policy Committee and other key legislators and policymakers will gather with a diverse audience of business, government and nonprofit stakeholders to discuss the major environmental issues under consideration in the upcoming legislative session. The dialogue among presenters and attendees is designed to lead to creative and collaborative solutions to our most pressing environmental challenges.
Impaired waters, the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, the Northstar commuter rail line and bonding will be among the issues discussed. The forum will be a terrific opportunity to raise your issues and pose your questions to legislative leaders.
Sponsors
The 2003 Environmental Policy Forum Series is sponsored by Flint Hills Resources.
The lead event sponsor for MEI's Annual Legislative Issues forum is Wenck Associates.
In-kind sponsorship for the event is provided by the Minnesota Environmental Partnership and
the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce
Registration
Please register early - last year's legislative forum sold out.
MEI Members: $40
Nonmembers: $60
Registration includes breakfast.
Register online at <http://www.mn-ei.org/policy/events.html> Or contact Suzy Knutson at 612-334-3388 ext. 100 or sknutson@mn-ei.org <mailto:sknutson@mn-ei.org>.
Prepayment is not required; you will be invoiced after the event. No one will be denied admission to the forum because of inability to pay the registration fee; inquiries about scholarship opportunities should be directed to Peter Frosch at pfrosch@mn-ei.org <mailto:pfrosch@mn-ei.org>.
For more information on the Legislative Issues Forum please contact Peter Frosch, Environmental Policy program manager, at 612-334-3388, ext. 108, or pfrosch@mn-ei.org <mailto:pfrosch@mn-ei.org>. For more information on the Environmental Policy Forum Series, click here
<http://www.mn-ei.org/policy/forums.html>.
Minnesota's Impaired Waters Stakeholder Process
Public Stakeholder Input Group
January 13, 2004
St. Cloud Civic Center,
St. Cloud, MN
(Tentative time: 9:30am-4:30pm)
In early summer, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and a group of key stakeholders invited the Minnesota Environmental Initiative (MEI) to design and manage a stakeholder process that would result in a policy framework for the development and implementation of the state's impaired waters program. Since mid-July, dozens of stakeholders from the business, government and nonprofit communities have been meeting regularly to develop their recommendations. On January 13, 2004, these stakeholders will be on hand to explain the outcomes of the process, including the 2004 legislative proposal which establishes funding for the impaired waters program.
The Public Stakeholder Input Group is the largest and most inclusive in the three-tier public participation process MEI created. An audience of several hundred stakeholders ranging from local water quality leaders to legislators are expected to converge on St. Cloud to provide input on the process outcomes and to learn more about what role they can play in the program's implementation.
Because it is a part of the stakeholder process, there will be no charge for the event. To be involved all you need to do is register online at: <http://www.mn-ei.org/policy/events.html>.
More information on the Public Stakeholder Input Group meeting will be sent out in December. If you have questions regarding the event call Peter Frosch at 612-334-3388 ext.108 or email at pfrosch@mn-ei.org. More information on the Impaired Waters Stakeholder Process is available on MEI's website: <http://www.mn-ei.org/policy/impairedwaters.html>
Minnesota Environmental Initiative is a 13-year old nonprofit organization based in Minneapolis. MEI builds innovative partnerships among business, government and nonprofit groups to find solutions to Minnesota's most complex environmental problems.
Send comments and items for future editions to:
balmm currents editor: Norman Senjem, MPCA
Phone: 507/280-3592
Fax: 507/280-5513
norman.senjem@pca.state.mn.us