Section D-1: Goals and Staff
IDEM will develop one document that will describe an evaluation procedure for the overall statewide NPS program. The evaluation strategy must describe how the state will implement the evaluation activities for the NPS program and its relationship with the state monitoring and assessment programs. The state must be able to demonstrate this accomplishment as part of the annual NPS program report.
A. Goals of the Evaluation Framework:
- develop indicators to improve performance-monitoring systems: administrative, environmental, and social;
- develop logic models containing indicators that can be used to evaluate successes and failures of the 319 program and 319 projects;
- develop specific, measurable, agreed-upon, realistic, and time-specific (SMART) objectives at the program and project level;
- integrate monitoring results of the NPS program with the AIMS database in the Assessment Branch, or an acceptable alternative;
- provide a mechanism for front-end, formative, and summative evaluations;
- describe the strategy’s adaptive management process by which evaluation results will “feedback” into the project and statewide;
- integrate the goals of the evaluation framework into the 319 program by 2009; and,
- identify a schedule, with milestones, for fully implementing the Evaluation Strategy.
B. NPS Programs and Staff Organization:
- NPS Programs: The Federal Clean Water Act Section 319(h) provides funding for various types of projects that work to reduce NPS water pollution. Funds may be used to conduct assessments, develop and implement TMDLs and watershed management plans, provide technical assistance, demonstrate new technology, and provide education and outreach. Organizations eligible for funding include nonprofit organizations, universities, and local, state, or federal government agencies. A 40 percent (non-federal) in-kind or cash match of the total grant cost must be provided.
- Staff Organization of the NPS program:
- Section Chief: This position manages the staff and work of the NPS/TMDL section, which includes the state’s Sections 319 and 205(j) Grant Programs, IR Report, and TMDL development.
- Program Administrator: This position is responsible for assisting with grant selection and program administration.
- Project Management Team Leader: This position oversees project management activities, drafting of contracts, reporting to U.S. EPA, and current operating procedures. This position also serves as a project manager.
- Special Projects Coordinator: This position works with projects such as the Indiana Water Quality Atlas, the Nonpoint Sources Indicators Guide, and the Conservation Tillage Initiative. This position provides technical support to the NPS/TMDL section in the areas of GIS, BPS, database development/maintenance, and Web-accessible Web site design. This position also serves as a project manager.
- Quality Assurance Manager: This position reviews and approves quality assurance project plans required of all projects conducting water quality or other technical monitoring. This position also serves as a project manager.
- Project Manager: Project managers assist grant recipients with their projects, ensuring that project tasks/duties, schedules, and budgets are implemented according to contractual requirements. Project managers draft contracts, review quarterly and final reports, review watershed management plans, review financial claims, and conduct quarterly site visits.
- Watershed Specialists: Water Specialists work with local groups and agencies to promote watershed management planning.
- Operations Staff: Operations staff works with sub-grantees to prepare and process contracts and provide financial tracking and interface with the U.S. EPA.
C. IDEM Assessment Branch Relationship with NPS program:
The IDEM Assessment Branch has conducted water, sediment, macro invertebrate, habitat, fish community, and fish tissue collection programs that will be used for NPS projects. This data is stored in one database (AIMS) that can be queried by staff to supply NPS sub-grantees with historical data. In addition to the monitoring programs listed above, the IDEM Assessment Branch is also conducting TMDL sampling projects and special studies involving both fish community and water chemistry. After the full implementation of the Evaluation Strategy, the IDEM Assessment Branch will provide services for collecting follow-up sampling for 319 projects on a limited number of watersheds.
The long-term NPS program will be included in the five year rotating basin monitoring schedule performed by the IDEM Assessment Branch. The TMDL 303(d) list investigations are integrated into this five year rotating basin monitoring schedule.
In 2006, the IDEM Assessment Branch Biological Studies Section Staff (ABBSSS) selected a new 319 project that had several stream reaches on the 303(d) list for impaired biotic communities. The staff worked with the Salt Creek project coordinator and the 319 project manager to collaborate monitoring efforts. The ABBSSS collected fish community, habitat, and chemistry samples in several locations in the Salt Creek watershed. The project members collected additional samples with ABBSSS to complete their monitoring goals. A follow-up with the same sampling parameters is expected from ABBSSS after the implementation stage is complete. This is expected to result in the ability to measure quantitative improvements in the water quality in this project area.
The IDEM Assessment Branch, USGS, and the NPS/TMDL section are working together with a 319 grant in establishing relationships between algal/chlorophyll, water chemistry, land use, habitat, macroinvertebrates, and fish communities, and to use these relationships for the purpose of establishing a state nutrient criteria. A final report will be submitted to IDEM by February of 2009.
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