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Progress Update #13

The Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, Ann Veneman, has endorsed the presentation of informative seminars for USDA executives on risk assessment, management and communication.
 * Seminars of Risk Assessment Management

The initial seminar was presented in December by Dr. Warner North, President of the Society for Risk Analysis. He spoke of the role of science and decisionmakers in risk analysis and management. His emphasis was on the utility of the disciplined approach provided by risk analysis methods for defining the dimensions of problems and developing information on the nature and ofof and [sic] risk associated with action options. The May seminar by Dr. Peter Sandman addressed the factors contributing to the public’s “outrage” when involuntarily exposed to environmental hazards and how to communicate under those circumstances.

These seminars are being arranged to encourage USDA executives and their agencies to deal with hazards, risk and uncertainties in a more systematic manner and to communicate risk more effectively to the public. Science and Education has the responsibility for arranging the seminars, working with the USDA agencies and their policy officials. For more information contact John Fedkiw, OBPA, 720-7963.

As part of the President’s Water Quality Initiative, 16 USDA Demonstration Projects or Hydrologic Unit Area projects have been selected for assessment of their effects on water quality.
 * USDA To Evaluate Water Quality Projects

They were chosen to represent the Demonstration Projects and HUA sites that will address, over the next few years, the impact of agricultural practices on surface and ground water quality. The projects are under the joint leadership of the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), Extension Service (ES), and Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS).

The 16 projects represent a broad spectrum of physical conditions—soil, terrain, hydrology, and climate and farm types and agricultural practices. The projects are located in Alabama, California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin. A paramount aim of the USDA Initiative is to provide agricultural producers with the knowledge and means to voluntarily take action on their water quality concerns. Because it is difficult to accurately relate improvements in water quality to specific changes in agricultural management, the assessment will emphasize the implementation of land treatment measures that improve the efficiency of nutrient and pesticide use on problem soils.

The assessment team will ensure accuracy of data by monitoring the work of project staff and providing technical assistance and training.

The findings will be applied in developing future USDA water quality programs. Assessment reports are expected to be available in March 1993 and March 1995. For more information call John Sutton, SCS, at (202) 720-0122.

A conference in Providence, Rhode Island, this October will be the setting for discussing ways to improve interagency coordination, accelerate activity, and the use of existing funding to improve the quality of water flowing into the Nation’s estuaries. Attending will be nonpoint source coordinators for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, regional representative of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) liaisons to EPA regional offices. Discussions will center on the new Coastal Zone Management Guidance to be issued this summer, work being done under the Water Quality Act of 1987, and USDA’s water quality initiative. For more information call Harvey Mack, SCS, at 720-1871.
 * Improving Quality of Water Entering Estuaries