Work Plan & Progress Report - Rhode Island Department of ...

Attachment H – Water Resources Program Joint Evaluation Summary
RIDEM PPA Meeting Notes
July 20, 2010
Meeting Participants
EPA Region I: Lynne Hamjian, Katrina Kipp, Margherita Pryor, Ellen Weitzler, Steve Winnett and
David Webster (Via Phone)
DEM: Connie Carey, Alicia Good, Sue Kiernan, Angelo Liberti, Ernie Panciera, Elizabeth
Scott and Tom Getz
Brief Summary of Budget Issues
Lynne began the meeting and summarized the expectations of the meeting. She indicated the purpose
of the meeting was to briefly highlight 2010 accomplishments; negotiate 2011 Water PPA
commitments; begin developing a conceptual work plan; note/discuss priorities and challenges for each
major category of the work plan.
Alicia mentioned one piece of good news from the water program is that no staff had left in the last
year. She indicated there are still major budget issues in the state and DEM has been assigned a larger
vacancy rate, which means vacant positions will need to be left vacant for a longer time. DEM’s
budget cap for the year is 403 FTEs and we are now at 401 FTEs. It is not anticipated that the Office of
Water Resources (OWR) will be able to fill any FTEs. Priorities have been assigned to other parts of
the agency that had greater impacts from past retirements. Alicia indicated in the short-term some
program holes will be supported by contractor help wherever possible.
Lynne indicated the federal 2011 budget looks pretty stable. She expressed concern that the budget
may be tighter in 2012 due to national concerns on deficits. It is not clear how this will translate to
state programs. The administrator is in the process of determining EPA’s priorities and there is some
re-alignment concerning EPA’s discretionary funding with respect to the ten regions.
Alicia indicated DEM has reviewed the P&C List and did not see any major issues with the draft
document. She suggested changes could be discussed as they come up in the meeting.
TMDLs
Connie indicated the draft 303(d) list will be completed at the end of July. The information in the
303(d) list will form the basis of the narrative for the integrated report. She thought she would be able
to forward the draft 303(d) List to Steve for EPA’s initial review during the first week of August, so it
is available when he gets back from vacation. She indicated DEM will be delisting a number of
impairments based on data generated by the rotating basin monitoring program (Department of Health
lab analyses). She added that the delistings are based on better quality data, and in some instances,
because of water quality improvements. Lynne asked if DEM could flag segments that have shown
improvements due to water quality improvements.
Steve indicated EPA is continuing with work to get the contractor assistance for developing the
statewide bacteria TMDL underway. Steve indicated that contracting work may be a problem with
respect to initiating the Impervious Cover TMDL with FB Environmental. At this point, Sue and
Katrina mentioned that Katrina had been pursuing a funding mechanism for the Biological Condition
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