**If this course has Remote Live Attendance -- USA as the location, it is a live stream remote course. You will need a computer and an internet connection. 

In this course, attendees will learn the role of quality assurance and quality control in developing environmental programs for site investigations, remediation, and monitoring at contaminated sites. Participants will become comfortable with concepts, tools, and the basic statistical methods needed for designing and implementing a field program, and will gain knowledge regarding how to work with a laboratory to ensure the right chemical analyses are performed on the right samples. There will be empahsis on how to plan for and then evaluate data produced to achieve the greatest usability.

Upon completion of the course, attendees will come away with tools for deciding how to assess environmental laboratory data, how to maximize data defensibility, and when an independent data validator is needed. The extensive hands-on exercises include working through a Quality Assurance Project Plan and setting up Excel worksheets to perform efficient assessments for standard analytical data.

**Note - This course provides a 3-year Construction Stormwater Certification valid in both Washington (CESCL) and Oregon (1200C).  You must finish this course within 6 months of your current CESCL/1200C expiration date, you must take the 2-day certification course again if you are beyond that timeframe.

This exciting course examines the most up-to-date techniques in the management of sediment and construction sites. Students who complete the course will receive a Certified Erosion and Sediment Control Lead (CESCL) card, good for three years. CESCL certification is required in the state of Washington by the Washington State Department of Ecology for personnel responsible for construction stormwater inspections and sampling at construction sites. Participants will also benefit from a dynamic interaction between traditional lectures and hands-on exercises. The course covers the essentials of being a certified lead and includes information on how new regulations will impact CESCL job functions. Upon completion, students will know how to simply and confidently comply with federal, state, and local regulatory requirements of stormwater management.

Note: This CESCL certification course is recognized as meeting the training and certification requirements of the General Permit, and BMP C160 Certified Erosion and Sediment Control Lead (CESCL) in Washington State Department of Ecology’s stormwater management manuals for Eastern and Western Washington. The Construction Stormwater General Permit requires that site inspections be conducted by a CESCL. 

This course is designed for anyone collecting ambient water samples for the analysis of low-level total and dissolved mercury and other trace metals, as well as various metals species (including methylmercury and inorganic arsenic species). This one-day course will include a half-day in a classroom with lectures covering the circumstances in which low-level detection limits would be desired or required, EPA analytical methods that must be used, proper handling and preservation of samples, necessary sampling supplies, considerations that should be made prior to and during sampling activities in order to collect samples correctly and avoid contamination, various sampling and field-filtration techniques, and field quality assurance sample collection requirements.*

The second half of the day, students will engage in hands-on field exercises, where they will be given the opportunity to practice several surface water sampling protocols using various sample collection methods and following the “Clean Hands/Dirty Hands sampling techniques. Time permitting, sample collection techniques and recommendations for additional sample matrices may be discussed that are specific to the student’s needs and area of interest. See the “Course Topics” area below for topic list.                          

Please wait to receive a course confirmation email, roughly one month prior to the class, before making any travel arrangements.

During this two-day course, attendees will gain practical insight into industrial stormwater management and proper EPA sampling methods and techniques. Focus is placed on plan preparation and best management practices to meet current regulations. The content includes an overview of policy and regulations shaping industrial stormwater requirements, SWPPP development, best management practices, monitoring, reporting and other key strategies to achieve compliance. During the second day of the course, attendees will learn the most up-to-date techniques in the management of sediment and construction sites.

Hands-on exercises will allow each student to practice choosing and correctly installing mats, blankets, check dams, bonded fiber matrix, straw, and other erosion control techniques for various site locations. Upon completion students will know how to simply and confidently comply with federal, state, and local regulatory requirements of stormwater management.

How can we restore form and function to rivers, streams, and wetlands that support Pacific Salmon?  This course provides the intellectual tools to tackle assessment monitoring and restoration design of Pacific salmonid habitat.  

Some of the basic topics and questions covered include:

• History of salmonid habitat restoration – How long have salmon issues been issues?  How have we responded?  What’s been working and what hasn’t?
• Ecohydraulics – How does stream flow affect salmonid ecology and habitat forming processes?  What basic ecohydraulic processes do we need to account for?  What tools should we use? How can we use ecohydraulics to understand why a site is functional versus non-functional? 
• Ecohydraulic design – the basic act of designing channel and floodplain features to meet specific target depths and velocities.  How do we take basic habitat information and design functional ecosystems?
• Sediment transport – sediment is a vital aspect of rivers and streams and a key variable known to affect spawning.  How does sediment move in rivers?  How can we measure and model it?   What tools are available?
• Forcing Elements – what role does wood and coarse sediment play in salmon rivers and streams?  How can we integrate Forcing elements into our design and management plans?
• Monitoring – How do we measure project success?
• Modern river restoration techniques – What tools do we have to restore salmonid habitat form and function?
• Fish passage – How do we assess and correct fish passage limiting factors?

Salmonids, including Pacific salmon and trout, are an important component of ecologic and economic health in western North America. Salmon and trout of the Pacific Coast have continued to evolve in the face of natural disturbances such as floods, fires, volcanoes, wind-throw and disease. In fact, these influences have helped these species maintain their resiliency. Even when natural disturbances have been severe their effects have remained localized, thereby allowing ecosystems to more easily recover. However, the magnitude of human-caused disturbances may be so great that irreversible changes will occur by increasing the impact that natural disturbances have on aquatic communities, resulting in both acute and chronic consequences for salmonids. Moreover, the changes that human activities create may be so widespread that the recovery of individual ecosystems and their components, including salmonid stocks, could be drastically altered.

While each salmonid is unique, the genetic diversity within species across drainages may be as significant as those found across different species. Despite this variety, salmonid stream management, recovery and protection initiatives rely on certain fundamental biological requirements.

This course will provide general information regarding:

• Origins and evolution of Pacific North American Salmon;
• Life stages of salmon and trout in both coastal and inland streams;
• The habitat requirements applicable to each life stage;
• Substrate quality and hydraulic flow affecting spawning behavior and redd success;
• How habitat features, in-stream complexity, bank structure and large woody debris influence success of salmonids at different life-stages;
• How water chemistry, water temperature and food availability affect trout and salmon behavior; and
• How migration patterns can be impeded or enhanced by changes in flow, water quality, barriers or obstacles

Please wait to receive a course confirmation email, roughly one month prior to the class, before making any travel arrangements.
 

This training course will present the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) practitioner with a set of practical skills for preparing either an Environmental Assessment (EA) / Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) or Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and includes all the required content, as well as practical skills for safely leaving out unnecessary content. NEPA lessons will come from various project examples.

Major themes include: how to make the findings required by law; timing the NEPA process to the decision making process; eight good legal reasons not to prepare an EIS; scoping a reasonable range of alternatives; writing the “perfect” cumulative effects analysis; and administrative record. This course includes a substantial handout with graphic models, updated case lists that support the models, and sample documents. Each attendee may keep the handout to serve as a reference in the workplace.

$50 discount: This course is part of the Midwest Water and Policy Workshop Series. Attendees will receive an additional $50 discount off their order total when registering at the same time for  "The New Approaches and Implementation Methods for Municipal Stormwater Management" or "The Ecological Significance of High Flows on Alluvial Rivers."

$100 discount: Attendees will receive a $100 discount off their order total when registering for all three courses at the same time.

*Reduced tuition is available to employees of Native American tribes, government agencies, nonprofits, students and NAEP members. You may register online or by calling the Northwest Environmental Training Center at (425) 270-3274.

Please wait to receive a course confirmation email, roughly one month prior to the class, before making any travel arrangements.