The President's Clean Water Action Plan provides that a significant
part of any new funding be targeted at restoration of those watersheds identified
as not meeting clean water and other natural resource goals. The plan calls for states to
develop Watershed Restoration Action Strategies (WRAS) for those watersheds.
Unified Watershed Assessments (UWAs) provide a road map of priority areas to be
addressed in 1999, 2000 and beyond. Watershed Restoration Action Strategies (WRASs) are
described in the Clean Water Action Plan as response plans to restore the health of
waterbodies that do not meet clean water or other natural resource goals and will be
supported by more specific grant workplans. In many cases, development of Total Maximum
Daily Loads (TMDLs) for impaired waters within a watershed will form the core of each
strategy.
The WRAS should also include tasks and schedules to implement solutions to water
quality problems. It should specifically identify funding needed to implement action,
including expected roles of available federal assistance programs, state funds, and other
resources. Local involvement in the development and implementation of WRASs is critical.
A WRAS is largely a Plan of Work. The need to develop a watershed management
plan is an example of one item of work that may be identified by the sponsors in
developing the strategy. Typically, a WRAS will not actually include a watershed
plan unless the sponsors believe this document is critical to the quality of the
overall strategy or the plan is needed to support requests for financial or
technical assistance. Very likely, an existing watershed management plan that
was well conceived, and which includes the 7 strategy components, would also
meet the requirement for a WRAS. The process of preparing the strategy, or a
watershed management plan, will surface technical and financial assistance needs
to address the water quality impairments and restore the watershed. Sponsors
carrying out this planning process and documenting their watershed decisions
will comply with the Clean Water Action Plan's intent.
Components of WRASs
Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL)
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