Nutrient Subcommittee Chesapeake Bay Program Office, Annapolis February 22, 2006 Nancie L. Imler PA DEP and IMS Chair Nutrient Subcommittee Regional Data Exchange for Non Point Source Best Management Practices for the Chesapeake Bay States Chesapeake Bay Program Office, Annapolis February 22, 2006 Nancie L. Imler PA DEP and IMS Chair

Leveraging Projects in the Chesapeake Bay Program with the Commonwealth of PA In order to understand the NEIEN grant for NPS BMP data exchange – there is a need to know the water initiatives undertaken by the state

An Enterprise Approach to Water Attributes… Finally

Framework – The Nation Gets a Water Addressing System The National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) is a USGS/EPA created set of digital spatial data that contains information about naturally occurring and constructed bodies of water, natural and artificial paths through which water flows, and related hydrographic entities. Within the NHD, features are combined to form reaches, which provide the framework for linking (or geocoding) water-related data to the NHD surface water drainage network.

Parts of the NHD Streams Watersheds Waterbody Junctions

Benefits of the NHD Data models utilizing the NHD can be used with limited additional development. Commonwealth now has streams outside of Pennsylvania. The NHD is better at using the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) to properly name stream segments. The NHD provides easier integration with our Federal partners and surrounding states. The NHD eliminates competing stream layers.

PA DEP Pays USGS to Finish 13 Remaining HUCs to NHD in 9 Months

The Future of the NHD: Stewardship PA DEP has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with USGS to be the NHD data steward for Pennsylvania. The NHD is designed to be continuously updated by data stewards to correct any errors, along with adding new features and updates. Waiting for USGS’s NHD Geo Edit Tool.

Hydrologic Unit Levels

Conflation – Moving Existing Enterprise Data to the NHD Due to the complexity of moving existing enterprise records, the task was contracted to Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International, a non-profit company. RTI was picked because of their history with helping USGS/EPA create the NHD, and their support of reach indexing of EPA programs such as 303(d), 305(b), WQS. All “enterprise” water attributes conflated and geo-referenced to NHD.

305(b) 303(d) Stream Impairment Data TMDLs MacroInvertebrates Fish Chapter 93 Water Quality Standards Act 220 State Water Planning Data the Department has Prioritized for Placement on the NHD Framework

Streams and Lakes Integrated Management System (SLIMS)

DEP’s NHD Locator Web-based GIS tool to link enterprise records from the Environment, Facility, Application, Compliance Tracking System (eFACTS) and the Sample Information System (SIS) with the NHD Enables the data to reference the NHD without having to go through the conflation process Determines reach code and measures.

NHD Locator

Instream Comprehensive Evaluation (ICE) The geometry and attribute input portion of SLIMS, to include stream assessments, lake assessments, TMDLs, existing use, designated use, fish surveys, and macroinvertebrate surveys Station and stream geometry now reference the NHD, and are stored in an enterprise geodatabase Desktop GIS solution utilizing ESRI’s ArcMap

ICE

SLIMS – Next Steps Land Practices NPDES and eDMRs Other State Partner Data

Tying Non-Point Source Best Management Practices (BMPs) with State Water Plan Initiatives

Many Reasons for Tracking NPS BMPs Chesapeake Bay Model Coastal Zone Management Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) Tributary Strategies 319 Grants Growing Greener Department of Agriculture Private Conservation Programs Nutrient Trading

Implementation Occurs by Personnel at Many Organizational Levels County Conservation Districts (CCDs) technicians NRCS State Conservationists River Basin Commissions Regional Office teams Central Office Mineral Resources Local Watershed Groups

Implementation Occurs at Various Geographical Levels County Watershed Regional Tributary Commonwealth-wide

Tracking/Reporting NPS BMPs has no Overall Strategy or Technology Plan Commonwealth-wide Paper tracking NRCS inputs data into ToolKit DEP 319 program has new pilot for AVNPS tool developed by Penn State Some decent (GIS) tracking tools at some advanced CCDs. CCD eGOV Project Part 2 (Act 6 Nutrient Management Plans)

Various Funding Sources Contribute to Implementation and Tracking of NPS BMPs Chesapeake Bay Implementation Grant NRCS EPA 319 program EPA National Environmental Information Exchange Network grant Clean Water

2004 EPA National Environmental Information Exchange Network Challenge Grant Challenge Grant Lead: PA Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) Challenge Grant Partners: MD Department of Natural Resources MD Department of the Environment MD Department of Agriculture VA Department of Conservation and Recreation VA Department of Environmental Quality USEPA Chesapeake Bay Program Office PA DEP

Resident Agencies for State EPA Nodes PA – PA DEP VA – VDEQ MD – MDE DC – Department of Health

State Agencies Responsible for NPS BMP Collection and Reporting PA – PA DEP VA – VDCR MD – MDA, MDNR DC – Unknown

Grant Objectives 1.Build an EPA Network Node at the Chesapeake Bay Program Office (CBPO) to support environmental information exchanges in an automated fashion. 2.Develop standard templates to be used on the NEIEN to move tabular and spatial data for Non-Point Source (NPS) Best Management Practices (BMP). 3.Map jurisdictional NPS BMP data from state sources into the templates. 4.Transfer the NPS BMP data from the CB jurisdictions to the CBPO network node for assembly into the model deck and for use in Geographic Display Tools for the region.

To accomplish this will mean changes to jurisdiction business processes; tools; and network nodes

Orientation Meeting January 2005 NEIEN 101 – What is it? What templates exist now? What exchanges are occurring? (Molly O’Neill) Brief explanation of the Chesapeake Information Management System (CIMS). (Brian Burch) What are Web Services? (Brian Burch) Review of CB jurisdictions’ proposal to EPA and its objectives. (Nancie Imler) Why select NPS BMPs? NRCS as a Federal Partner for NPS BMP data standards. (Jerry Griswald) What will be the Governance Model for the Grant activities?

Why NPS BMPs? the most difficult business process that has no set standard template to send to the bay that has no set technology to deliver the data to the bay and arrives in various file formats that requires manipulation prior to its use in the model due to disparate spatial scales and processing discrepancies that is not easily imported into regional graphical tools that has federal and state financial and business processes involved that could be reusable by all states and other regional groups.

CB Business Requirements Standardize and move extracted BMP practice data from state to CBPO for use as input decks for calculations to the CBP Watershed Model Display BMP information from multiple sources, locations and environments via web tools to display regional data Demand for access to real-time regional bay information Need to aggregate or compare data from many sources. Required access to multiple, different, back-end data systems Need for personalized user functionality

Opportunities! Model inputs Tributary Strategies TMDLs Nutrient Trading NRCS

Requested 2-Year Grant Total Funds Requested: $395,424 Total Project Cost: $395,424

Breakdown of Funding PA DEP -- $111,576 for Travel and Contractual Services for BMP repository work in state and regional node support at CBPO VA -- $141,924 for BMP and Node Personnel and Travel MD -- $141,924 for BMP and Node Personnel and Travel

DEP Grant Agreement Between DEP and the Maryland Department of the Environment Between DEP and the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation Scope of work and budget

Scope of Work Each jurisdiction provides a “Network Readiness Assessment Report” Status of State Node, standards for building web services; security and exchange tools; and its ability to handle the BMP Flow “AS IS” business processes for BMP reporting to the Bay “TO BE” business processes for BMP reporting to the Bay

Scope of Work Completion of a CB Jurisdictional joint report “Lessons Learned for Determining NEIEN Project Readiness” for other regional projects desiring to utilize the NEIEN. Build the Network Node at the CBPO to facilitate the exchanges “from” and “to” the CB states. Modify the CIMS Memorandums of Agreement (MOA) with its partners to further define the standard node catalog of available information with its metadata. CIMS will need to have its enterprise architecture documented for the distributed data system and released to its partners. The MOA could be the Trading Partnership Agreement. Diagram of current data flows of BMP with list of problems and issues. Design of the Data Exchange Template with Headers and Subsets for NPS BMPS.

Governance Model

NPS BMP Workgroup Identify and prioritize NPS BMPs for template development Identify common and unique data elements for NPS BMPs for headers and subsets Taxonomy Quality Assurance

Technical Workgroup Build the CBPO network node under EPA specifications XML technology applied to NPS BMP Workgroup’s templates taxonomy Support taxonomy Quality Assurance Training needs

PA Commitments to Date: 319 project will put AVNPS tool at county level. NRCS agreement - provide data for AVNPS pilot. CCD eGOVERNMENT Project Part 2 (Act 6 Nutrient Management Plans). Agreement by Chesapeake Bay Program to accept raw source NPS BMP data instead of manipulated data for Bay formats. Agreement of CBP and National NRCS liaisons to participate and use the NPS BMP templates to transfer data.

An Enterprise Solution Will not permit funding expenditures for any like technology projects. Will build on investments already committed by the EPA, NRCS, Agriculture and DEP. Will fit with the State Water Plan initiatives, especially placing the NPS BMP data on the same mapping tools as the surface water data for department environmental and future funding decisions.

Enterprise NPS BMP Repository The AVNPS Tool is the closest working tool to hold enterprise inventory of NPS BMPs. PSU is under contract to upgrade the tool from ArcView 3.x environment to ArcGIS 9.0/ArcIMS application, from a desk-top tool to a server tool, upgrade to NHD. The upgraded “web-based” application will reside on servers maintained by DEP for integration with SLIMS.

Enterprise NPS BMP Repository Serves 2 purposes: Provide designated users around the state with the ability to submit information on BMPs and related activities to a statewide database through direct entry, export files or XML web services. Provide other users the ability to summarize and download information pertaining to the Commonwealth’s NPS BMPs to support their own locally-based efforts.

Addressing the “Local” level of the Repository NRCS state conservationists would continue their business processes which require updating the NRCS ToolKit software. CCD/Bay Technicians would use the server version of AVNPS to input “non-NRCS” NPS BMPs. CCDs with advanced software could electronically feed the AVNPS with tabular and graphic information NPS BMPs from ToolKit will electronically feed the AVNPS for complete county NPS BMP data. DEP’s eGovernment CCD Part 2 reporting will be linked where appropriate to NPS BMP data from AVNPS. The complete suite of Penn State Tools can exist at the local level.

Addressing the “Regional” Level Regional Offices could access their correlating counties’ AVNPS server data for tabular and graphic information. TMDL/Tributary Strategy Teams/NPS Staff/MRM Staff would input regional/district implemented NPS BMPs to the already collective repository of that region’s county data. The complete PSU tool suite can be available at the regional level. SLIMS is the repository of TMDL.

Addressing the Enterprise Level All AVNPS data would interface with SLIMS. Water attribute and NPS BMP information will be located on NHD network. All water attributes, including NPS BMPs can be viewed through the SLIMS “Viewer”.

Questions? Questions? Questions? Questions? Questions? Questions?