| Take Advantage of LWEA's Network - Advertise in "The Crock"! |
| | Reach hundreds of people, companies and organizations throughout Louisiana dedicated to the water environment Louisiana by advertising in LWEA's bi-monthly publication - The Crock. Just click on the link below to download our current rate schedule for various sizes. It also contains additional information if you have questions.
LWEA thanks you in advance for your support!!
2009 LWEA Ad Rates |
| AQUATOX Release 3 - Now Available |
| | The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Science and Technology, has released an enhanced version of the aquatic ecosystem simulation model AQUATOX. AQUATOX is a PC-based ecosystem model that predicts the fate of nutrients and organic chemicals in water bodies, as well as their direct and indirect effects on the resident organisms. AQUATOX Release 3 contains many enhancements that increase the realism and utility of the model. The most important enhancements include:
- Capability to represent estuaries at a screening level
- Capability to model multiple linked river and reservoir segments
- Enhanced nutrients analysis, including nutrient release from sediments, daily dissolved oxygen fluctuations, and toxicity from low oxygen and ammonia
- Capability to simulate biological effects of suspended and bedded sediments
- Calculation of biological metrics
- Enhanced sensitivity and uncertainty analyses
- Toxicity data estimation from ICE (Interspecies Correlation Estimation)
- Expanded data management, graphics and statistical analysis
- The software is now open source, meaning that other modelers can customize AQUATOX for their particular application
Visit the AQUATOX web site (see link below) for more information or for downloading the model and its associated documentation.
AQUATOX Release 3 |
| Measuring Standards For Water Discharge Made More Stringent. |
| | October 22, 2009 -- The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality has finalized the Minimum Quantification Level changes. Twenty-eight MQLs were changed, while four (arsenic, copper, lead and nickel) remained at the current level. MQLs are federal minimum measuring standards for chemicals, which are used as the benchmark for decision making and compliance for National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits.
Click on the link below to get the full announcment!
LDEQ MQL Revision Press Release |
| WEF Student and Young Professionals Committee Solicit Candidate Sites for 2010 Service Project in New Orleans |
| | The Water Environment Federation’s (WEF) Students and Young Professionals Committee (SYPC) has started planning for its third annual community service project in next year’s WEFTEC host-city, New Orleans. At the previous two conferences, the SYPC constructed a rain garden in a city park in Chicago and planted over 3000 plants to revitalize a wetland in Orlando. We are currently searching for a project in New Orleans that meets our criteria. The date of the event will be October 2, 2010.
Candidate sites must be submitted to Haley Falconer by Monday November 16, 2009. For more information, please download the file below.
WEF-SYPC Project Announcement |
| EPA Issues Rule to Reduce Water Pollution from Construction Sites |
| | The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today issued a final rule to help reduce water pollution from construction sites. The agency believes this rule, which takes effect in February 2010 and will be phased in over four years, will significantly improve the quality of water nationwide.
Construction activities like clearing, excavating and grading significantly disturb soil and sediment. If that soil is not managed properly it can easily be washed off of the construction site during storms and pollute nearby water bodies.
The final rule requires construction site owners and operators that disturb one or more acres to use best management practices to ensure that soil disturbed during construction activity does not pollute nearby water bodies. In addition, owners and operators of sites that impact 10 or more acres of land at one time will be required to monitor discharges and ensure they comply with specific limits on discharges to minimize the impact on nearby water bodies. This is the first time that EPA has imposed national monitoring requirements and enforceable numeric limitations on construction site stormwater discharges.
Soil and sediment runoff is one of the leading causes of water quality problems nationwide. Soil runoff from construction has also reduced the depth of small streams, lakes and reservoirs, leading to the need for dredging.
To learn more information go to: http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/guide/construction |