Search Results

Advanced search parameters have been applied.
open access

Development and Application of an Assessment Protocol for Watershed Based Biomonitoring

Description: With numerous bioassessment methodologies available, a regional protocol needs to be developed to ensure that results are comparable. A regional assessment protocol was developed that includes collecting five benthic macroinvertebrate samples, identifying organisms to genus, and calculating the following metrics: Number of Taxa, Total Number of Individuals, Simpson's Diversity Index, Shannon's Diversity Index, Percent Contribution of Dominant Taxa, Hilsenhoffs Biotic Index, and Percent Contribu… more
Date: May 1998
Creator: Schwartz, Joseph Howard
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Ocean Acidification

Description: Report that discusses the increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, and the extent of related effects on the ocean and marine resources.
Date: July 30, 2013
Creator: Upton, Harold F. & Folger, Peter
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Oil and Chemical Spills: Federal Emergency Response Framework

Description: This report discusses the statutory authorities of the National Contingency Plan (NCP), and relevant executive orders; outlines the federal emergency response framework of the NCP to coordinate federal, state, and local roles; and identifies the funding mechanisms to carry out a federal response to a discharge of oil or a release of a hazardous substance.
Date: October 10, 2013
Creator: Bearden, David M. & Ramseur, Jonathan L.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

EPA and the Army Corps' Proposed Rule to Define "Waters of the United States"

Description: This report describes the March 25 proposed rule to define "waters of the United States," particularly focused on clarifying the regulatory status of waters located in isolated places in a landscape, the types of waters with ambiguous jurisdictional status following the Supreme Court's ruling. It includes a table comparing the proposal to existing regulatory language.
Date: March 27, 2014
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Temporal and Spatial Comparisons of Ambient Toxicity of the Trinity River in Relationship to an Effluent

Description: A toxicological study was initiated because of concerns about allegations that the Texas Water Commission that effluent from the Dallas Central Wastewater Treatment Plant, which discharges into the Trinity River, was affecting downstream water quality. Monthly, flow-weighted composite effluent samples were collected. Grab samples were also collected upstream and downstream from the effluent from April 1989 to August 1991. Toxicity tests were conducted on these samples using Ceriodaphnia dubia a… more
Date: December 1993
Creator: Hall, David B., 1958-
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Water Pollution: Proposed Pretreatment Standards for Industrial Laundries

Description: Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the dispute between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the industrial laundry industry regarding EPA's cost benefit analyses of its proposed pretreatment standards, focusing on: (1) EPA's implementation of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (UMRA); (2) the significant differences between EPA's and the industry's cost estimates of this proposed r… more
Date: January 20, 1999
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Oil Spill Legislation in the 111th Congress

Description: This report summarizes provisions of selected legislation - enacted and proposed - that address oil spill policy issues raised after the April 20, 2010, explosion and resulting oil spill at the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico. This report focuses primarily on oil spill policy matters that concern prevention, preparedness, response, and the liability and compensation framework.
Date: October 15, 2010
Creator: Ramseur, Jonathan L.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: Coastal Wetland and Wildlife Impacts and Response

Description: The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, and the resulting oil spill began a cascade of effects on the coastal areas of the Gulf and on the wealth of species that inhabit those areas. This report addresses the importance of wetlands in general, the ecology of the coastal wetlands in the Gulf, impacts of oil spills on wetland habitats, response options, the implications of hurricane season for the spill's impacts, and cleanup and recovery issue… more
Date: October 15, 2010
Creator: Corn, M. Lynne & Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Tax Issues and the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: Legal Analysis of Payments and Tax Relief Policy Options

Description: This report will briefly discuss existing disaster-related tax provisions and their application to the recent Depewater Horizon oil rig explosion and subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The report then provides an analysis of the tax treatment of the BP payments to the individuals and businesses impacted by the oil spill as well as various policy options for providing tax relief to oil spill victims, highlighting the circumstantial differences between previous natural disasters and the … more
Date: October 14, 2010
Creator: Sherlock, Molly F.; Lunder, Erika K. & Liu, Edward C.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

How Healthy is the Upper Trinity River?: Biological and Water Quality Perspectives

Description: This conference report contains discussions and papers from a symposium hosted at Texas Christian University, in Fort Worth, Texas, examining the ecological health of the Upper Trinity River, and the impacts of various human activity, such as agriculture, urbanization, and waste management. The papers cover the effect of water quality on urban rivers, long-term water quality trends in the Trinity River, solutions that may improve water quality in the river, as well as biological, agricultural … more
Date: 1990
Creator: Jensen, Ric
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Nonpoint Source Water Pollution: Greater Oversight and Additional Data Needed for Key EPA Water Program

Description: A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Under section 319 of the Clean Water Act, state-selected projects to reduce nonpoint source pollution have helped restore more than 350 impaired water bodies since 2000, but other projects have encountered significant challenges. According to GAO survey results, 28 percent of projects did not achieve all objectives originally identified in the project proposal (e.g., implementing the desired number of p… more
Date: May 31, 2012
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Storm Water Pollution: Information Needed on the Implications of Permitting Oil and Gas Construction Activities

Description: A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To prevent pollutants from entering storm water runoff, the Clean Water Act's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Storm Water Program requires controls for construction activities that disturb land. Phase I of this program requires permitting for construction activities that disturb 5 acres or more, while Phase II requires permitting for activities disturbing between 1 and 5 acres. The Envir… more
Date: February 9, 2005
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Water Pollution: EPA Has Improved Its Review of Effluent Guidelines but Could Benefit from More Information on Treatment Technologies

Description: A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses a two-phase process to identify industrial categories potentially needing new or revised effluent guidelines to help reduce their pollutant discharges. EPA’s 2002 draft Strategy for National Clean Water Industrial Regulations was the foundation for EPA’s process. In the first, or “screening,” phase, EPA uses data from two EPA databases to rank industrial ca… more
Date: September 10, 2012
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

The State of the Hudson 2009

Description: This report describes the environmental quality of the Hudson River and its watershed, including issues such as pollution, population growth, and biodiversity. The report also describes the habitats of estuaries, watersheds, and rivers in general.
Date: 2009
Creator: New York (State). Hudson River Estuary Program.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Safeguarding the Nation's Drinking Water: EPA and Congressional Actions

Description: The events of September 11, 2001, focused heightened attention on the security status of the nation's drinking water supplies and the vulnerability of this critical infrastructure sector to attack. This report reviews governmental and water utility efforts to improve drinking water security.
Date: September 30, 2010
Creator: Tiemann, Mary
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

EPA and the Army Corps' Proposed Rule to Define "Waters of the United States"

Description: This report describes the March 25 proposed rule to define "waters of the United States," particularly focused on clarifying the regulatory status of waters located in isolated places in a landscape, the types of waters with ambiguous jurisdictional status following the Supreme Court's ruling. It includes a table comparing the proposal to existing regulatory language.
Date: April 21, 2014
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Reorganization of the Minerals Management Service in the Aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Description: This report provides background and context on the origins of the Minerals Management Service (MMS) in the Department of the Interior (DOI). The April 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill refocused attention on MMS, which had previously endured management challenges. The report also discusses Secretary Kenneth L. Salazar's handling of conflicts within MMS, potential congressional options regarding MMS reorganization, historical examples of similar reorganization efforts, and informati… more
Date: November 10, 2010
Creator: Hogue, Henry B.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Water Infrastructure Projects Designated in EPA Appropriations: Trends and Policy Implications

Description: This report discusses appropriations for Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) water infrastructure programs, focusing on congressional special project designations in the account that funds these programs. While some Members of Congress, interest groups, and Administration officials are critical of these types of congressional actions, there is little indication that the practice will cease. Information on the programmatic history of EPA involvement in assisting wastewater treatment and drinki… more
Date: October 28, 2010
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Pesticide Use and Water Quality: Are the Laws Complementary or in Conflict?

Description: This report provides background on the conflict over interpretation and implementation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Clean Water Act. A brief discussion of the two laws is followed by a review of the major litigation of interest. EPA's efforts to clarify its policy in this area and the November 2006 rule and the 2009 federal court ruling are discussed, as well as possible options for EPA and Congress to further address the FIFRA-CWA issues. In June, … more
Date: October 13, 2010
Creator: Copeland, Claudia
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Effects of Water Quality, Instream Toxicity, and Habitat Variability on Fish Assemblages in the Trinity River, Texas

Description: The Trinity River flows through the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex in north central Texas where it receives effluents from numerous point sources including seven large regional wastewater treatment facilities. Historically, the Trinity River has been impacted by massive wastewater loadings which often constitute > 80% of the total river discharge during low flow periods. Normally, high mass loadings correspond to the summer months, compounding the effects of a naturally stressful period, characteri… more
Date: December 1989
Creator: Arnold, Winfred R., 1960-
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Development of a Watershed Prioritization Strategy Using Remote Sensing and the Geographic Resource Analysis Support System. Case study: City of Carrollton, Texas

Description: This study used a geographic information system (GIS) and an empirical pollutant load model to estimate average annual pollutant loads contained in storm water charges from the City of Carrollton, Texas. The Geographic Resource Analyses Support System (GRASS) was used to create a number of spatial data layers as input variables to a model that estimates loads in Kilograms/Hectare/Year, and Kilogram/Basin/Year. Average annual pollutant loads for twelve pollutants were derived from average annual… more
Date: December 1996
Creator: Coffey, Jeffery M. (Jeffery Morgan)
Partner: UNT Libraries
Back to Top of Screen