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Specifically, WPS is responsible for organizing all
federal
Clean Water Act (CWA)
§319(h) related activities in watersheds with TMDLs
or with assessed data. Organized efforts include
outreach, facilitation, administration and oversight of
CWA §319(h) projects. More specifically, WPS staff
cooperatively work to educate others and implement best
management practices (BMPs) to reduce nonpoint source
(NPS) pollutants from entering the surface and ground
water resources of New Mexico. Workplans developed and
funded under CWA §319(h) comprise a variety of efforts,
including watershed association development, riparian
area restoration, spill response, and treatment of
abandoned mines. The WPS also coordinates the
state's CWA
§401 certification and §404
dredge-and-fill permits with the
US
Army Corps of Engineers in addition to enforcing
portions of the New Mexico
Mining Act pertaining to water quality. In
response to the §404 reissued nationwide permits on
March 19, 2007, a Conditional §401 Certification
for discharges to ephemeral surface water has
been issued.
New Mexico’s approach to water quality planning and
management has evolved substantially over the last three
decades, largely in response to the changing federal and
state statutory mandates. Although the state currently
conducts water quality planning on a statewide level,
these efforts are focusing toward more of a watershed
level in the context of statewide planning and
management efforts. That is, planning and management are
moving toward a holistic strategy to protect or attain
the desired beneficial uses and levels of water quality
within a watershed, including, where appropriate,
protection of human health and aquatic ecosystems. A
successful watershed protection approach must be founded
on cooperative interaction between the federal, state,
and local levels of government, and between the public
and private sectors. |
