April 1999 Biocriteria Workshop on Reference Sites and Conditions

Date Held: 14 – 16 April 1999
Location: University of Kansas, Lawrence KS
Attendance: The conference was attended by 54 people from 9 states.

Objectives

The objective of this meeting was to bring together water quality experts from various agencies in EPA Region 7 and surrounding areas for five purposes:

To introduce and discuss the theory behind the characterization and use of reference sites and condition
To share protocols, practices, and problems of characterizing reference conditions in the four states in EPA Region 7
To work together in solving any problems associated with establishing reference conditions
To reach a consensus regarding reference conditions
To create a document on the workshop

Presentations

Twelve presentations were given, nine of which are available as Powerpoint2000 slide shows for you to download.

For access to all speakers' notes and viewers' notes, be sure to DOWNLOAD AND SAVE the entire file, rather than viewing through your web browser. Notes do not appear in web browsers.

OWNERSHIP: Each Powerpoint slide and all ideas, text, and images therein remain the exclusive property of the author of the presentation. Photos have been reduced to low resolution in order to prevent unauthorized use. If you are interested in using any part of a presentation, please request permission from the author or contact the Center.

Name	Affiliation	File	Presentation Title
Dr. Barbara Hayford	CPCB Lawrence, KS.	122 KB	Workshop Goals and Purpose of Central Plains Center for BioAssessment (CPCB)
Dr. Sam Stribling	Tetra Tech, Inc. Owings Mills, MD	1.7 MB	Reference Sites and Measurement Endpoints
Dr. Bruce Moring	USGS Austin, TX		Ecological Reference Sites in an Assessment Framework-National Water-Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA) [
Shannon Donley	CPCB Lawrence, KS	251 KB	Determining a Reference Condition in the Agricultural Midwest
Dr. Jeroen Gerritson	Tetra Tech, Inc Owings Mills, MD	237 KB	Establishing and Utilizing Reference Sites and Conditions for Lakes
Tom Wilton	IDNR Des Moines, IA	1.5 MB	Reference Sites and Conditions, Iowa Department Natural Resources (IDNR)
Randy Sarver	MDNR Jefferson City, MO	1.7 MB	Reference Sites and Conditions, Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR)
Dr. Bob Angelo	KDHE Topeka, KS		Reference Sites and Conditions, Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE)
Ken Bazata	NDEQ Lincoln, NE	268 KB	Reference Sites and Conditions, Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ)
Supplemental presentations (not given at the workshop):
Gary Welker	USEPA Kansas City, KS	372 KB	Biological Criteria Development
Tom Wilton	IDNR Des Moines, IA	2.8 MB	Development of Reference Conditions for Stream Biological Assessment in Iowa

Other Workshop Resources

1. Discussion

On day three of the workshop, a facilitated discussion was held in which we discussed terms and theory associated with reference sites and conditions, restoration and improvement of aquatic ecosystems, methods in designating reference conditions, and preservation of reference conditions. The facilitated discussion lasted for nearly three hours and constituted many topics besides those listed below.

The goals of the discussion were:

to show that establishing reference conditions is an iterative process
to have scientists from State and Federal agencies and academicians come to a consensus on the issues stated above.

2. Summary/Consensus Documents
The outcome of the discussion is summarized in the following series of documents. Please click to view and/or download.

3. Literature References

Donley, S.R. 1999. Development of Biological Criteria for Macroinvertebrates for Streams of the Western Corn Belt Plains Ecoregion. MA Thesis, University of Kansas. 82 pp.

Reynoldson, T.B, R.H. Norris, V.H. Resh, K.E. Day, and D.M. Rosenberg. 1997. The reference condition: a comparison of multimetric and multivariate approaches to assess water-quality impairment using benthic macroinvertebrates. J. N. Am. Benthol. Soc. 16(4):833-852.