Border International Water Quality Standards Committee Seeks Active Contributors

by Mark W. Kilgore

The Border International Water Quality (BIWQ) Standards Committee met in July at the Conference on Integrated Trans-Boundary Water Resources in Traverse City, Michigan.

Caroline Gerwe of the University of Texas at Austin presented the committee with a first draft of Water Quality Management along the Mexico - United States Border. This material may form the basis for a case study to be included in the BIWQ's document Developing Guidelines for the Development of an International Water Quality Management Plan.

The Management Plan Subcommittee is chaired by David Eaton, Professor at the LBJ Policy School of the University of Texas at Austin. The committee is actively seeking volunteers to assist in writing and reviewing a document that provides guidelines to transboundary officials involved in developing water quality plans along international boundaries or between sovereign states such as Indian tribes. For information on joining the subcommittee, please contact the BIWQ recording secretary Mark Killgore at 425-881- 9083 or mkillgore@louisberger.com. The Management Plan Subcommittee is scheduled to meet on Friday, November 22, 2002 in Monterrey, Mexico in conjunction with the First International Symposium on Transboundary Waters sponsored by the Mexican Hydraulics Association (AMH).

A second subcommittee is developing Standard Guidelines for the Development of Border International Water Quality Standards and Criteria. This document will produce a more general reference that provides a set of considerations that are applicable to most situations where a need may exist for water quality standards and criteria at an international border. Raymundo Aguirre is chair of this Subcommittee and interested potential members can contact Mark Killgore for a membership application.

Recently elections were held and David Eaton was voted the new chair of the overall BIWQ Standards Committee. Conrad Keyes Jr. moves into the position of Past Chair effective with the new fiscal year. The overall BIWQ Standards Committee will likely meet in Philadelphia during the EWRI Congress in late June 2003.

In 2002, the committee released the Comprehensive Transboundary International Water Quality Management Agreement (EWRI/ASCE 33-01). This document is available for sale from ASCE publications.