Red River Basin Disaster Information Network
On-Line Workshop
July 27, 2000 -- 12:00 Noon CDT

Water Quality
A Watershed Approach

John Giedt
Source Water & Ground Water Team Leader
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region VIII
U.S. Secretary, International Red River Board

Molly MacGregor
Principal Planner, Red River Basin Coordinator
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

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According to the U.S. EPA's Introduction to the Watershed Approach ...

A Watershed Protection Approach is a strategy for effectively protecting and restoring aquatic ecosystems and protecting human health. This strategy has as its premise that many water quality and ecosystem problems are best solved at the watershed level rather than at the individual waterbody or discharger level. Major features of a Watershed Protection Approach are: targeting priority problems, promoting a high level of stakeholder involvement, integrated solutions that make use of the expertise and authority of multiple agencies, and measuring success through monitoring and other data gathering.

John Giedt discussed International Red River Board (IRRB) water quality objectives, alert levels, and the recent action of the IJC in combining the former International Souris-Red Rivers Engineering Board and the International Red River Pollution Board into the new IRRB. Then, Molly MacGregor of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency provided current information on Minnesota water quality planning and implementation in the basin.

IJC International Red River Pollution Control Board

U. S. EPA Region VIII Rivers & Lakes Page, Watershed Approach Page
U. S. EPA Office of Water Watershed Protection, Top 10 Lessons Learned

Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Home Page, Red River Basin Page, Water Quality Basin Planning Effort

About John Giedt
John Giedt currently serves as Source Water & Ground Water Team Leader for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region VIII, and also serves as U.S. Secretary to the newly formed International Red River Board.

About Molly MacGregor
Molly MacGregor became Principal Planner, Red River Basin Coordinator for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in February 2000. Previously, she served as Executive Director of the Rivers Council of Minnesota, a nonprofit dedicated to river conservancy, from 1997-2000, and as Director of the Mississippi Headwaters Board, a joint powers board of the first eight counties on the Mississippi Riover, from
1985-1997.

Her expertise lies in building organizational structure for river management and protection activities, and especially bringing together science and citizen advocacy. She grew up near Minnehaha Creek in south Minneapolis, attended Reed College, which overlooks the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, and now lives on a hill above Leech Lake, in Walker.