National Water Program Performance Results Fiscal Year 2010

• In FY 2010, 70% of National Water Program (NWP) measures were met (an increase from 68% in 2009), 24% were not met (up 3% from 2009), and 6% did not have data available (up 1% from 2009).
• Trend data shows that the Program has gradually increased percent of measures reporting for end of year, whereas the percent of commitments met and not met has remained fairly steady.

• The Columbia River, Puget Sound, Long Island Sound, Gulf of Mexico, Chesapeake Bay, Drinking Water, and Coastal/Ocean subobjectives were most successful in meeting FY 2010 commitments (n equals number of commitment measures).
• The Mexico Border and Water Quality subobjectives had the most difficulty in meeting their commitments in FY 2010.

• Coastal and Ocean Protection, Drinking Water, and Great Lakes subobjectives have been the most successful in meeting their commitments over the past three years.
• Safe Swimming and Chesapeake Bay show greatest improvement over FY 2009.
• Fish and Shellfish continues to have the greatest problems with data availability.

• The place-based programs were slightly more successful than the core programs in meeting their commitments in 2010 (74% vs 68%).
• Though the place-based programs had nearly the same number of measures not met as core programs (23% vs 24%), they had fewer measures with data unavailable (3% vs 8%).
• Place-based programs saw a significant increase in measures met in 2010, reversing trend from previous years.

• On average, all EPA regions performed well above the national level, meeting approximately 87% of their commitments in FY 2010.
  • Region 2 had the highest and Region 8 had the lowest percent of measures met in FY 2010.
  • Regions 2 and 7 showed great improvement from FY 2009 (up from 85% and 64%, respectively).

• The number of commitments met for tribal-specific measures decreased in FY 2010 (down 1 from FY 2009).
• Tribal commitments not met reached their highest point to date in 2009 and were split between drinking water and water quality.

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• Of the 62 commitment measures reported at mid-year, 82% (51) were on target. Thirteen percent (8) were not on track.
• Of the total 101 commitment measures reported at the end of the year, 70% (71) measures were met; and 24% (24) were not met.
  • Several measures that were on target at mid-year were not met at the end of the year.
  • Note the Gulf Oil spill occurred after FY 2010 mid-year results were reported.

EPA was successful in meeting three-fourths of its commitments under the Water Safe for Swimming subobjective in 2010. For coastal and Great Lakes beaches monitored by state-based beach safety programs, EPA found that 95% of days of the beach season were open and safe for swimming (FY10 commitment–95%). EPA has consistently met this commitment over the past five years.
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EPA and authorized States have exceeded their annual commitments for issuing high priority permits for the past five years.
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The 28 National Estuary Programs (NEP) and their partners protected or restored almost 90,000 acres of habitat within the NEP study areas--10,000 short of EPA's goal of 100,000 acres. This is a substantial accomplishment despite the fact that several Gulf NEPs diverted attention away from habitat protection to respond to the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill. In FY 2010, the 28 NEPs played the primary role in directing nearly $274 million in additional funds to on-the-ground activities (leveraged from approximately $20 million from EPA funds) which is a ratio of $14 raised for every $1 provided by EPA.
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Construction delays in 2010 had a significant impact on the U.S.-Mexico Border program's performance. EPA removed 18.7 million pounds of BOD loadings from the U.S.-Mexico Border area, short of its commitment of 36 million pounds.
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The Great Lakes program received a significant increase in funding in FY 2010 and showed improvement in meeting its annual commitments over FY 2009.
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EPA's Chesapeake Bay Program made significant improvements over its FY 2009 results meeting five out of six (83%) of its commitments in FY 2010.
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Based on annual monitoring from the prior year, the Bay Program reported 85,899 acres of submerged aquatic vegetation in the Chesapeake Bay. This represents approximately 46% of the Bay program's long-term goal of 185,000 acres. For the second consecutive year, EPA met its annual goal for implementing phosphorus pollution control measures and came very close to meeting its annual goal for implementing nitrogen pollution control measures reduction practices. EPA expects enhanced implementation of nitrogen pollution control measures as a result of the TMDL that was established December 2010.
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EPA met five of its commitments and was unable to report on one commitment in FY 2010.
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Although the Gulf Program ended the year ahead of its FY 2010 cumulative target (27,500 acres) and restored, protected, or enhanced an additional 200 acres of coastal and marine habitats (29,552 acres), this was significantly less than the approximately 4,000 acres restored in 2009.

The size of the hypoxic, or "dead," zone in the Gulf of Mexico increased significantly from 3,000 square miles (8,000 square kilometers) in 2009 to 8,000 square miles (20,000 square kilometers) in 2010. There were a number of hydrological, climate, and monitoring factors that led to the large increase in the hypoxic zone over the past year.
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EPA improved its performance from previous years by meeting all three of its commitments for the Long Island Sound in FY 2010. The Long Island Sound program significantly exceeded its 2010 commitment (79 acres) by restoring or protecting 1,361 acres of coastal habitat, including tidal wetlands, dunes, riparian buffers, and freshwater wetlands.
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In 2010, the duration of hypoxia in Long Island Sound was 40 days and the area affected was 101 square miles, both well below average. This was an improvement over end-of-year hypoxic conditions in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
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EPA met all of its commitments and reported data for all its measures for the Puget Sound subobjective for the third consecutive year. Over 10,000 acres of tidally- and seasonally-influenced estuarine wetlands have been restored in the Puget Sound Basin since FY 2006. The program significantly exceeded its 2010 commitment due to the completion of a very large project that accounted for over 3,200 acres of habitat alone.
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In 2010, EPA and its state, local, and tribal partners improved water quality in the Puget Sound Basin, which enabled the lifting of harvest restrictions in 4,453 acres of shellfish bed growing areas (cumulative from FY 2006). This significantly exceeded the FY 2010 commitment of 1800 acres.
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EPA has met all of its commitments for the Columbia River for the second consecutive year. Working with EPA and other partners, the Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership protected, enhanced, or restored an additional 6,000 acres of wetland and upland habitat in the Lower Columbia River watershed in FY 2010 for a total of 16,000 acres since FY 2006. Much of this progress is due to landowners embracing the benefits of wetland restoration and greater access by restoration practitioners to multiple funding sources.
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EPA, in coordination federal partners, has had challenges in meeting the annual commitment of reducing the number of households on tribal lands lacking access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. More than 34,000 homes still lack access to safe drinking water and 25,700 homes still lack access to basic sanitation which fell short of the Agency's FY 2010 goals.
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• Over 2/3 of Water Program measures met their commitments in FY 2010, maintaining the rate of previous years.
• Coastal Oceans and Drinking Water subobjectives are among the most consistent high performers for core programs.
  • Gulf of Mexico, Columbia River, Puget Sound, and Long Island Sound lead the place-based programs in performance in 2010.
  • South Florida showed significant improvement over FY 2009.
• The place-based programs were slightly more successful than the core programs in meeting their commitments in 2010.
• Regions 1 and 2 were the most successful in meeting their commitments in 2010.
• Although Tribes made progress on some key indicators, Tribal performance continues to be an area of concern for EPA.