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Getting Stewardship Started in Massachusetts. Brian R. Brodeur PhD GIS Program Director Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. Brian.Brodeur@State.MA.US. Background. Geographer by training
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Getting Stewardship Startedin Massachusetts Brian R. Brodeur PhD GIS Program Director Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Brian.Brodeur@State.MA.US
Background • Geographer by training • Got into GIS because it was the logical place to do hydrologic and water quality modeling on a watershed scale • Joined the DEP in the Watershed Management Program, Became a GIS Programmer, and been the Program Director for the last 12 years
MassDEP • Agency of 825 people • Down from 1200 9 years ago • The GIS Program has 9 people • Down from 16 9 years ago
Massachusetts • 45th Largest State in the Union • 14th In Population • 3rd In Population Density That puts serious pressure on our water resources!!
Peter Raabe, American Rivers, praabe@americanrivers.org • Kerry Mackin, Ipswich River Watershed • Association kmackin@ipswichriver.org
Mass DEPResponsible for • Public Water Supply • Water Withdrawals and Transfers • Water Quality Standards • Integrated List of Waters 303d 305b • Wetlands Protection • Rivers Protection Act • NPDES Enforcement • Discharges to Groundwater
On the one hand.. • NHD offers a structure to unify all of our regulated, assessed and or protected waters regardless of program • And manage characteristics as events • A network for routing / modeling water. What utopic vision
On the other hand.. • We have to be able to edit NHD and improve its scale in order for it to work for our Programs. • There are conflicts between NHD and WBD that will need to be resolved IF WBD is going to represent our protected watersheds. • We will need new working relationships with many programs now working independently.
Why become Stewards of NHD? • MassDEP is the state agency with the greatest vested interest in hydrography. • We are keeping up several versions of Hydro anyway. • Without the ability to fix issues, NHD will not be used by our water programs. • We want our standards, and protections on the national map.
Issues • Estuaries • Scale • Staff / Resource Scarcity