________________________
Regional Themes

Resources
  & Publications

About Us

Contacts

National Program
___________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

Main > About Us
_________________________________________________________________________________

Who We Are
The Regional Water Quality Coordination Program, one component of the CSREES National Water Quality Program, seeks to ensure the integration of water quality efforts within the jurisdiction of each of the ten regions established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Program is designed to make research, education, and extension resources of the university system more accessible to Federal, State, and local water quality improvement efforts, thus enhancing opportunities for agricultural producers and agriculturally impacted communities to adopt voluntary approaches for the improvement of water quality.

States and territories within the Southwest States and Pacific Islands Region (EPA Region IX) include Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, American Samoa, Guam, Marshal Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, and Palau. Two 1994 Tribally-Controlled Community Colleges (TC3), Diné College in Arizona and D-Q University in California, are also members of the Region. The leadership team for the Program consists of the State and Territorial Extension Water Quality Coordinators, and identified instructors at the TC3.

For an idea of spatial range, consider that the region:
  • Covers seven time zones, including both sides of the International Date Line
  • Covers territories in both the northern and southern hemispheres of the world
  • Includes small islands and the third largest state in the country
  • Includes Pacific islands scattered over an area larger than the contiguous United States.
Within this spatial diversity, are climatic extremes of arid deserts and island areas where annual precipitation can exceed 40 feet. Despite great spatial, climatic, geologic, and cultural diversity within the region, common problems exist on issues related to both water quantity and water quality. By working together as a region, we gain collaborative knowledge and resources that can be used to address issues that exist on a region-wide scale.

What We Do
The Program provides leadership for water resources research, education, and outreach to help people, industry, and governments across the region prevent and solve current and emerging water quality and quantity problems.
"All communities, regardless of economic status, should have access to educational programs that empower them to understand risks posed by water quality problems, and to take action to protect or improve water quality or both in order to forestall, reduce or eliminate those risks. Access to safe drinking water, or to the information to acquire safe drinking water, is a basic right of every citizen." (USDA-CSREES, 1998)
The Regional Water Quality Coordination projects funded by the USDA-Cooperative States Research, Extension and Education Service (CSREES) are one mechanism of the National Water Quality Program to provide access to safe drinking water to every citizen.

Three major goals of the Southwest States and Pacific Islands Region are:
1. To identify and prioritize regional water quality concerns, and facilitate resource sharing through regional coordination, communication, and planning.
2. To create a watershed-based, geo-referenced, central reporting system to serve as the repository for regional water quality information and resources.
3. To implement regionally coordinated Extension, Research and Formal Education programs which effectively address water quality issues while minimizing duplication of effort.
To meet these goals, the network of extension and research personnel with the Land Grant Universities in the Southwest States and Pacific Islands Region are responding to water quality issues through technology development, technology transfer, and educational programs. By working together on such programs, we:

  • Streamline the implementation of water quality improvement plans and provide access to current information to all communities within the region;
  • Develop and distribute educational resources such as fact sheets, brochures, manuals, formal and informal classroom activities, workshops, conferences, and websites;
  • Share information and resources within and among watersheds with similar environmental concerns, thus reducing duplication of effort and streamlining implementation of improvement plans;
  • Benefit from collaborative knowledge and resources to address issues that exist on a region-wide scale; and
  • Ensure that the goal of access to education and information regarding safe drinking water for all communities is met.


This material is based upon work supported by the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Services, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under Agreement No. 2004-51130-01976.

The Effectiveness of Using H2S to Test Household Drinking Water Sources - HPIWQ005 [ pdf ]