 National Association of Counties * Washington, DC / Vol. 30, No. 14 * July 20, 1998 program manager President Clinton's Clean Water Action Plan, released in February, set forth a strategy for coordination among federal agencies to assist state, tribal and local governments and citizens to protect and restore waterways across the country. One element of the action plan calls on states and tribal governments to work with local governments, appropriate agencies and the public to create unified watershed assessments that identify watersheds that do not meet water quality and other natural resource goals. The unified watershed assessments are intended to help define watershed restoration priorities and develop strategies to prioritize watershed restoration efforts through the year 2000. A Unified Watershed Assessment Framework has been published to assist states, tribes and others with the unified watershed assessment process. The framework describes general approaches and information to guide assessments of the condition of the nation's waters. The action plan sets aggressive deadlines for the watershed assessment process. Draft watershed assessments and draft watershed restoration priorities are scheduled for public comment by Aug. 1. Final assessments and final watershed restoration priorities are scheduled to be completed by Oct. 1. The president's FY99 budget proposes $568 million in new funding to implement the action plan, and a large part of this new funding is to support implementation of watershed restoration action strategies. For more information on unified watershed assessments or the Clean Water Action Plan, contact the EPA Regional Office for your state (see box above). For more information on NACo's Watershed Management Project, call Abigail Friedman at 202/942-4225 or email afriedma @naco.org.
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