This agreement provides funding to susquehanna river basin commission to carry out its program to maintain, protect, and improve the water quality of its rivers, lakes, streams, groundwater, and other…

This agreement provides funding to susquehanna river basin commission to carry out its program to maintain, protect, and improve the water quality of its rivers, lakes, streams, groundwater, and other waterbodies. The environmental benefits of this program include preventing degradation of unimpaired waterbodies and reducing the number of impaired waterbodies in the state. This action provides federal funds of $29,000. Federal funds of $588,000 are contingent upon availability. Activities:activities include collection of chemical, biological, and physical data at sites within the six subbasins on a rotating basis; probabilistic sampling of large/non-wadeable rivers; track changes in streams after further reintroduction of american eels; collect stream channel measurements before and after damn removals; furnish technical support related to site and watershed-scale restoration regarding legacy mining impacts; development of staff GIS skills to support watershed and water quality activities, including technical support for member states; enhanced data analytics; program requirements as outlined in the 106 program guidance and the CWA; help guide the lower susquehanna source water protection partnership; run the early warning system to provide real-time, continuous water quality data to water suppliers; support padep central office spill response unit with time-of-travel model runs.subrecipient:no subawards are included in this assistance agreement.outcomes:the anticipated deliverables include: completing individual project qapps annually for projects with probabilistic sites; sharing data with member states as part of the states' next integrated report data requests; posting a technical report on the commission website; providing technical reports to member agencies for potential use in regulatory decisions; updating the commission section 106 dashboard; collecting new water quality, biological, and habitat data; listing new sites and associated information; updating watershed attribute metadata for new and existing monitoring sites based on updated, released shapefiles; and semi-annual and final reports to EPA as required by the program. The expected outcomes include: advancement of knowledge regarding the water quality status of streams within targeted subbasins; increased knowledge regarding the water quality, biological communities, and hydrology that affects larger river systems in the basin; increased knowledge of the factors that may be negatively impacting fish populations in the larger river systems in the basin; increased knowledge of changing fish and macroinvertebrate community dynamics following american EEL reintroduction; advancement of knowledge of legacy sediment transport after removal of a historic mill DAM; assist member states with fisheries-related priorities associated with regional issues; increase the number of migratory fish returning to the basin; control and prevent the spread of aquatic nuisance species in the basin; increased protection of water quality within the basin due to coordinated activities among government agencies and increased knowledge of the general public; increased coordination with smaller watershed groups within the basin; improved knowledge of regional issues; and enhanced information sharing of smaller groups with the public regarding local resources. Direct beneficiaries of this assistance agreement include residents of the susquehanna river basin.