Join EPA for the first Water-Quality Standards Virtual Academy webinar: “Water Quality Standards 101.”  Water-quality standards are the foundation of the water-quality-based pollution control program mandated by the Clean Water Act. Water-quality standards define the goals for a waterbody by designating its uses, setting criteria to protect those uses, and establishing provisions such as antidegradation policies to protect water bodies from pollutants.

RCAP and RCAC, the Western RCAP, were among the 70 organizations that sent a letter asking the House Agriculture Committee this week to include funding in the Farm Bill for rural development. Since 1996, the Daily Yonder blog says, "Congress has included an average of $413 million in each Farm Bill for the Rural Development title.

The letter says:

by Abrahm Lustgarten ProPublica, July 9, 2012, 3 p.m.

New research has concluded that salty, mineral-rich fluids deep beneath Pennsylvania's natural gas fields are likely seeping upward thousands of feet into drinking water supplies.

Though the fluids were natural and not the byproduct of drilling or hydraulic fracturing, the finding further stokes the red-hot controversy over fracking in the Marcellus Shale, suggesting that drilling waste and chemicals could migrate in ways previously thought to be impossible.

 To help raise awareness about nutrient pollution, which is caused by excess nitrogen and phosphorus in the air and water, EPA has developed new educational materials, including: