Oregon Department of Environmental Quality: Laboratory and Environmental Assessment Division
Sea Grant Fellowship Opportunity
Marine Water Quality Assessment Strategy
Program Overview
DEQ is responsible for protecting and enhancing Oregon's air, water and land quality. DEQ staff use a combination of technical assistance, voluntary programs, public education, inspections and permitting to help public and private facilities and citizens understand and comply with state and federal environmental regulations. Environmental data on the status, trends, and sources of pollution for air, water and land quality provide the foundation for the successful implementation of the DEQ programs. Data is used to identify problems, develop effective pollution mitigation strategies, and to assess program effectiveness. The Laboratory and Environmental Assessment Division is responsible for developing and implementing programs to assess environmental quality and to make the interpreted data available to the Agency and the public.
Fellowship Topic
Oregon currently has no established comprehensive program for assessing water quality and determining impacts from pollution for Oregon’s marine waters. The purpose of this fellowship would be to develop recommendations for a marine water quality assessment strategy to provide information to meet the needs of DEQ, other agencies and the public for Oregon’s marine waters. Tasks would include:
- Determining scope of data needs and possible uses of marine water quality data;
- Recommending core and supplemental indicators;
- Identification of existing relevant data;
- Assessing feasibility of making use of existing data by data sharing and collaboration;
- Identification of data gaps and needs for future monitoring or research;
- Development of options for sampling design strategies and the appropriate applications of those designs;
- Recommendations for a process to promote ongoing collaboration between non-governmental organizations (NGOs), state, local and federal agencies, and universities and research institutions.
Project Scope
This project would provide the opportunity to work with staff from EPA, NOAA, DEQ, ODFW, DSL, OSU, UO, NGOs and others interested in marine water quality. It would provide a broad experience in working with both the scientific and policy issues connected to this topic. The Fellow selected would work out of the Laboratory and Environmental Assessment Division located in Hillsboro and would work closely with the Water Quality Monitoring and Watershed Assessment programs. The Fellow would be encouraged to attend Ocean Policy Advisory Committee meetings and provide updates as appropriate. Communication both in writing and speaking will be important aspects of this project.
Opportunities and Benefits
- Knowledge and experience in state, regional and federal marine environmental issues;
- Meet with and learn from leading marine scientist and policy makers
- Opportunity to help establish policies to ensure the long term health of Oregon’s marine waters