th
(Pat Leahy, Maeve Boland, Abigail Saedler, Erik Riggs – outgoing President)
[Gillman – Lead; Boak - Note Taker]
Pat Leahy emphasized a number of Congressional priorities connected to local issues with potential national impact, such as Senator Cantwell’s (D-WA) interest in volcanoes, tsumanis, and landslides, all probably more important to Washington than to other states. There was a good deal of discussion about AGI’s leadership forum, and the question of how non-profits like AGI, GSA, etc. will generate revenue from some balance of publications, meetings, and membership dues.
Maeve Boland focused on implications for geoscience policy of programs, such as 8% cuts for geoscience research in the America Competes Act of 2015. She highlighted the large uncertainties about policy direction due to the very crowded Republican campaign field, which is unlikely to be sorted out before a few primaries are past. She also introduced the AGI brochure Geoscience for America’s Critical Needs:
Invitation to a National Policy Dialogue.
Contacts: pleahy@agiweb.org
703-379-2480, ext. 202 mboland@agiweb.org
; 703-379-2480, ext. 228 cell 720-289-7517 aseadler@agiweb.org
;
703-379-2480, ext. 204
Met with Andy Radford, Senior Policy Advisor – Offshore Issues; Carrie Domnitch, Director – Federal
Relations; and Matt Haynie, Counsel. Attending from AASG – Spears, Masterman.
Biggest issues for offshore energy development are access and restrictions. Industry would like to see expanded access to new areas and minimization of restrictions on existing leases. Federal revenue sharing is not an issue for industry but they recognize it could help bring more states on board.
Induced seismicity is a serious issue for onshore petroleum industry. See reports by Groundwater
Protection Council and IOGCC. Restrictions on federal land, such as sage grouse, are reducing opportunities for domestic energy development.

API recognizes the value of state core and data repositories.
We met with Mike Nedd, assistant Director for Energy, Mineral and Realty, and Mitch Leverette, Division
Chief for Solid Minerals. Although Jerry Boak has professional connections with both, they were unfamiliar with AASG, and we struggled a bit to find common interests to discuss.
Their two issues were recruitment, and the greying of their work force, and the USMIN data base that they are funding USGS to develop for them. It is essentially the MRDS with a geospatial component.
As an aside, when Jeremy Boak checked with staff on this, they reported that they had met the USGS lead, Greg Fernette, at the AEMA conference. As a result of that meeting Greg learned that DOGAMI had already developed geospatial data for the Oregon mineral records, and in an email exchange following the BLM meeting, Greg told me how helpful it was to be able to use our data. The point being that they never contacted us directly, and only discovered our data by chance.
They mentioned recent coal listening sessions they had held in Dillon, Gillette, Denver, DC, and
Farmington NM to get public input on royalty changes.
They described the sage-grouse related withdrawal of 10 million acres for locatable minerals, and we suggested that in the face of their staffing issues, AASG members could contract with them to do the required resource assessments.
They mentioned industry concern with their fracking rules, which were blocked by injunction later that day.
David Diamond, Richard Desselles, Kumkum Ray, Lora Turner, Leighann Brant, and Matthew Frye.
AASG:
David Spears -- Lead; Kenneth Taylor – Note taker; Jon Arthur – attending
Allison Stork, Deputy Branch Chief, Program Development and Coordination Branch, was to give an update on the 2017-2022 Five Year Plan, but did not attend due to illness. A 14-page color handout was provided and is submitted with this summary.
Staff gave the briefing which focused on the process. The Draft Proposed Program (DPP) was issued in late January, 2015. The comment period ended on the last day of March, 2015. More than one million comments on the DPP were received. Slightly more than half support Atlantic leasing. Slightly less than half oppose Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific leasing. In the 2017-2022 Draft Proposed Program, the lease schedule for the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic (Sale Number 260) is in 2021. The Proposed Program
(PP) will be released in “early 2016”.

Staff next briefed on the Atlantic G&G permitting. There were eleven application submitted, one was permitted, three were withdrawn and seven are “still-in-play. BOEM is awaiting information from two companies. For three companies, the National Marine Fisheries are preparing comment letters. BOEM will review the comments from NMF.
BOEM is getting state concurrence.
Leighann Brandt from the Marine Minerals Program and a new hire, briefed next on the BOEM-State
Cooperative Agreements. These are the ones on beach nourishment associated with the Hurricane
Sandy appropriations of $200,000 per state. Sand assessment with side scan sonar, and coring with vibracore techniques. Summaries of Hurricane Sandy funded projects in North Carolina, Virginia and
Florida were given to the three SGs attending the meeting.
Matt Frye was last briefing on changes in the oil and gas assessment. Including more economic analyses of the technically recoverable with a new fact sheet in March 2016.
Contact information:
David B. Diamond, Ph.D., Chief, Leasing Division
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
45600 Woodland Rd
Mailstop: VAM-LD
Sterling, VA 20166
Telephone: (703) 787-1776
Cell: (571) 524-9284
Email: david.diamond@boem.gov
Richard Desselles, Chief, Resource Evaluation Division
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
45600 Woodland Rd
Sterling, VA 20166
Telephone: (703) 787-1568
Email: richard.desselles@boem.gov
Kumkum Ray, Geologist/Team Leader
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
45600 Woodland Rd
Sterling, VA 20166

Telephone: (703) 787-1604
Email: kumkum.ray@boem.gov
Matthew Frye, Chief, RE Methodologies Branch
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
45600 Woodland Rd
Sterling, VA 20166
Telephone: (703) 787-1514
Cell: (504) 234-6466
Email: matt.frye@boem.gov
No Action Items -- Meeting was more of a series of briefings, which we had to cut short due to scheduling with another meeting.
1. Jim Werner suggested AASG contact Dave Geiser in DOE's Office of Legacy Management regarding opportunities to support sample & data repositories, including funds for building or adding onto repositories. Jim thinks this could be an option, given Congressional reluctance to authorize and appropriate sufficient funds through the NGGDPP. It should be an easy case to make in states with past
DOE/AEC bomb testing or other nuclear activities. DOE has money in this and its bigger environmental management program.
2. Pete Folger would like to hear more from AASG about the flow of information regarding the overall geospatial enterprise among federal, state, and local governments. Perhaps this is an issue worth discussing with him at the next Liaison Committee meeting. Ken Taylor gave examples in North Carolina, where the state is providing high-quality LiDAR to everybody, including feds.
Met with: Mark Ackiewicz, Director, Division of CCS Research; Mark.Ackiewicz@hq.doe.gov
; 301-903-
3913
Notes: Discussed the status and effectiveness of the Regional CCS demonstration projects; DOE evaluating lessons learned and considering next steps with technologies such as “stacked storage”
“saline storage” “increasing tonnage in proven projects”; discussed the Subsurface Technology and
Engineering Research, Development, and Demonstration (SubTER) Crosscut which addresses major technical and socio-political issues regarding energy production and storage and the management of energy waste streams in the subsurface.
Action Items: AASG needs to develop a specific agenda for this meeting – data acquisition, proposed program, cooperative opportunity, etc.

Met with Dr. Lynn Orr, Undersecretary for Science and Energy. Attending from AASG – Boak, Gillman.
We discussed carbon capture and geologic sequestration, but within the context of current projects.
SUBTER, etc. This was the meeting that prompted suggestion that we need to have some proposal to take to DOE, some cooperative idea or program or legislation to push.
AASG Present – Joe Gillman, David Spears, Steve Masterman
USGS /DOI Present – Jennifer Gimbel, Suzette Kimball, David Applegate, Kevin Gallagher, Bill Lukas
Suzette Kimball o Mapping information critical (basic information) o Minerals moving toward life-cycle analysis and global distribution (does this mean moving away from basic data acquisition?) o Water resources of all kinds are increasingly important, possibly leading to continuing the landsat missions o Been asked to frame geoscience processes into human context o Landscape level understanding
Jennifer Gimbal – Suzette may have a confirmation hearing October 20 th .
Kevin Gallagher o Re-energizing NCGMPO necessary, as it is mature program, having mapped 50% of the nation. Possible strategy to discuss mapping requirements, data gaps and return on investment. These can be tied into the relevance to hazards and water resources.
Action Items – Develop a strategy for Omnibus / CRomnibus budget outcomes.
(Bruce Kobelski, Rose Kwok, Jeff Jolie, Robert Eu-Smith, Karen Wirth, Rachel Carlson, Jill Dean, Marilyn
Ginsburg, Jason Todd, Roy Simon, Mike Muse, Suzanne Kelly, Kyle Cary)
[Leader – Spears; Note Taker – Boak; Other AASG attendees – Masterman]
The EPA meeting focused a good deal on a new web-based searchable geographically referenceable archive for all of EPA’s water data, organized by content with greater user friendliness. However, it was apparent that displaying particular types of information would probably require considerable previous knowledge of the type of data one might wish to display. At least some part of the website was intended to launch September 30.

EPA representatives noted that the public comment period on the Clean Water Plan ended in
November, published in the Federal Register in January, and became effective in August. They also discussed issues surrounding the Waters of the U. S. implementation, which has generated a great deal of heat over the definition of tributary, and considerations of boundaries of regulated lands under the act.
I do not have notes of any actions on either side.
Contacts: Kobelski.Bruce@epamail.gov
202-564-3888
(Kasey White and Elizabeth Goldbaum)
[Leader – Masterman; Note Taker – Boak; Other AASG Attendees – Arthur]
Action: We need to provide a nominee for a seat on the GSA Policy Committee
Action: Consider and develop the idea of a workshop (Penrose or AAPG Hedberg) on increasing effectiveness of geosciences at the legislative (and executive?) level among GSA, AGI, AGU, and AASG.
There was some discussion of getting a champion, perhaps for this workshop, but also perhaps at a broader level, as well as discussion of “branding” for the geosciences. There is a need to counter the impression that the earth sciences are not innovative.
We discussed the shift at GSA toward open access publications, and the need to make everyone in the geoscience community and beyond aware that every state has a Geological Survey!
We also discussed where there was common ground, particularly on advocacy for Mapping, Data
Preservation, and Groundwater Monitoring, 3D Elevation Program, and Critical Minerals. GSA is also interested in focusing on geoscience at NSF and at NASA. Cuts in the geoscience budgets appear to be widespread. However, I do not believe we identified any joint actions to address these cuts.
Contacts: kwhite@geosociety.org
; 202-669-0466 egoldbaum@geosociety.org
; 202-909-5049
Met with: Ian Foley, Legislative Assistant, Congressman Ken Calvert (R-Ca); ian.foley@mail.house.gov
;
202-225-1986
Notes: Discussed the effectiveness of AASG/USGS partnerships in programs such as NCGMP and
NGGDPP; discussed importance of maintaining effective groundwater and surface water monitoring capability to address critical issues such as drought; Ian indicated the Congressman’s office was very appreciative of Pick & Gavel award and was aware of our issues
Action Items: AASG should try to also meet with Jason Gray, subcommittee staffer (majority); jason.gray@mail.house.gov

Kathleen Benedetto, Professional Staff Member, Subcommittee on Energy and Minerals Resources
1324 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Kathy.benedetto@mail.house.gov
Staff Office Phone: 202 225-9297
Direct: 202 226-7777
Fax: 202 225-5255
AASG:
Jon Arthur – Lead; Kenneth Taylor – Note taker; Joe Gillman – attending
Kathy started out with a statement – state geological surveys ask for a new organic act for the USGS.
The National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program (NCGMP) has been the only program with an organic act.
US MIN is a GIS application including mine features with information from state surveys – phased to go live soon.
Importance is AML – Abandoned Mine Lands – locations and extent.
Data preservation – bricks and mortar—state surveys running out of space. Office of Legacy
Management in DOE goes thru the Energy and Commerce Committee, not Natural Resources.
Under House Rules no expansion of a program w/o cutting another program.
Kathy noted that the USGS charges overhead for cooperative programs and about 1/3 of USGS’s revenues comes from other agencies, i.e. contracts such as DOE and geothermal.
DOI – Land use plans didn’t use USGS data. They used oil –producing area in Wyoming from academic arm of the Nature Conservancy.
Conformation of the USGS Director is snagged between the DOI Secretary and the Senate.
Kathy continues to focus of the loss of the Bureau of Mines. The U.S.A. is the only country without a
“minister of mines”.
Cuts of mineral programs under prior DOI leadership.
Kathy to see if next spring a Hearing on Data Preservation – focusing on the capacity of state storage facilities.

She is concerned with transparency in science. Example is the Office of Surface Mining science studies paid by feds must be released to OSM and cooperators. Contract was with National Research Council, but the rule prevented OSM from writing rules until the study was completed, which took two years.
This prevented OSM from writing clear rules. Studies for critical minerals should be done concurrently with rule making.
Action Items:
Pin-down possible dates and potential speakers for the Hearing on Data Preservation. Make the case for more bricks and mortar funding.
Met with Steve Feldgus, Senior Energy Policy Advisor. Attending from AASG – Masterman, Spears,
Madin.
Currently there has been no work on the House side on NCGMP or NGGDPP. There is no House companion to the Murkowski energy bill, but the full committee has voted positively on bills relating to pipelines, soda ash, mountaintop removal coal mining, and minerals. Amodei’s “National Critical and
Strategic Minerals Production Act” has passed a committee vote but has not been reported out; it is opposed by the minority as being too expensive.
Regarding NGGDPP, any “brick and mortar” projects will probably have to wait until earmarks come back. Reauthorization would be greatly advanced with a “Dear colleague” letter started by one member of Congress with sign-ons by other members. Letter would be addressed to Appropriations Committee.
We could offer to draft letter and get one sponsor in each party, then encourage other members to sign.
Needs one champion in each party. Emphasize the “real value to the district” of the targeted members; offer them something they can visit when they are back in their districts (such as a core repository).
Lowenthal (D- CA), ranking member, might be a good champion for us. Maybe Don Young, AK? There will be a deadline in the spring – find out when!
CRS does training for Capitol Hill staff on the legislative process – maybe they could do some training for us?
Action – Steve will send us a sample of a “Dear Colleague” letter. Find deadline for “Dear Colleague” letters for this session of Congress. Schedule a meeting with Steve Feldgus and Matthew Muirragui for
Spring Liaison.

Monday 3:00-4:00
Attended by:
AASG
Ken Taylor lead, John Metesh note taker
IRIS
Perle Dorr, Robert Detrick, Robert Woodward, John Taber, Daniell Sumy
Topics:
Update on USArray Transportable Array, Central and Eastern United States Network (CESUSN), USArray
Magnetotelluric Array. The annual report with slightly more detail is available at http://www.iris.edu/hq/files/publications/annual_reports/doc/2015_iris_annual_report.pdf
Notable topic: IRIS is pursuing the regulatory market for seismic monitoring. This would include such required- or permit-monitoring near frak sites, dams etc.
Follow up:
IRIS requests continued support from AASG with regard to NSF, USGS, and Congress. They are also seeking unspecified collaboration with groups on “applied” projects.
David Green had us down for 10:30 instead of 9:00, and was unavailable. In a subsequent phone message he expressed a desire to meet, and I will follow up with a phone call with him later this week.
Met with: Elizabeth Eide, Director, Board of Earth Sciences and Resources; eeide@nas.edu
; 202-334-
2397
Notes: General discussion regarding landslides: what opportunities exist for a landslide study; what are the states need for a project scope; inventory, protocol, and susceptibility of landslide prone areas; possibly a concept paper and/or develop a working group
Also discussed rebranding of NAS to “National Acadamies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
Action Items: none
For NGWA –
Lauren Schapker, Government Affairs Director, lschapker@ngwa.org
, 800-551-7379-x560; 202-888-9151
Laine Glisson Oliver, Baker Donelson, lglisson@bakerdonelson.com
, 202-508-3421, cell 202-279-1741
John Kinney, Baker Donelson, jkinney@bakerdonelson.com
, 202-508-3431
For AASG – Jerry Boak, Harvey Thorleifson, John Metesh
a pleasant, productive, and mutually supportive discussion

status & strategy re National Groundwater Monitoring Network – Calvert’s office supportive
importance of geological mapping and data to clarify aquifer extent, thickness, properties
NGWA also busy on brownfields reauthorization
some western drought-related activity; also geothermal
NGWA would perhaps appreciate a letter of support on drought bill
NGWA offered to look into NGGDPP authorization details – done within hours
to update the NGWA-AASG MOU, Lauren will offer minor track changes
wondering if groundwater should be one word or two
Action from AASG: Write to Lauren, to indicate who will receive the MOU with suggested edits, and whether we should write a letter of support for drought bill.
Joint Action: Emphasize the connection of surface and ground water. $2.6 MM for National Ground
Water Monitoring Network
We met with Anthony Hagman, Regulatory Affairs; Katie Sweeney, General Counsel; Tawny Bridgeford,
Deputy General Counsel; Jamie Caswell, Director of Communications; Amanda Aspatore, Director for
Water Quality; Justin Prosser, Director for Congressional Affairs; Michael Kennedy, Director for Air
Quality.
AASG members gave brief mining updates for their respective states.
NMA staff described some of their issues and concerns:

Proposed EPA Financial Assurance requirements for hard rock mining that would duplicate existing bonding

Increased interest in AML issues after the Animas River spill, including issues of environmental justice

Progress on permitting of OR and WA coal export terminals

Carlson/Ealy Critical Minerals bill

Legal issues around 404C permits, and whether EPA could veto a project before permitting, and whether EPA had colluded with NGO’s in doing so.

Sage Grouse, although there was no listing, there remain barriers to mining in the form of state or Federal Agency management plans and rules. 10 million acres of mostly BLM land has been withdrawn for locatable minerals for two years pending assessment of resources and validation of claims.

There is a rider in the Interior appropriations bill to delay Sage Grouse listing, and NMA is looking to get the language into an omnibus bill should one materialize.

Tuesday 2:00-3:00
Attended by:
AASG
Harvey Thorliefson lead, John Metesh note taker, Ian Madden attended
OSTP
Tamara Dickinson, Beth Kerttula, Hanna Safford, Timothy Stryker, Kelley Kryc, and several others who came and went throughout the meeting.
Topics:
Earthquake early warning, fraking, “air water energy food nexus”, sage grouse, water sustainability, relationship between state surveys and legislators, climate, and 400 years of ground water left in
California.
Follow up: the most common end point of every topic was the need to connect OSTP with AASG members through a road map or directory that links topics and state surveys. It was equally apparent that the one-size-fits-all misconception (eg 400 years of water, the impact of fracking is the same everywhere) is alive and well. OSTP recognizes this and seeks better information at the state level.
Met with Nikky Teutschel from Senator Cantwell’s (WA) office. She has training in marine biology, and her area of responsibility is in marine issues, Coast Guard, and hazards.
We introduced AASG and described NCGMP, NGGDPP.
She asked us how a continuing resolution would impact us, and the USGS, and we described the difficulty in planning and executing projects with the uncertainty and delays involved with a CR.

She mentioned a volcano bill that would create a hazard program, increase monitoring, we have asked for language.
She said that TWERA (tsunami bill reauthorization) continues the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation
Program with an increase in the percentage of funds that NOAA must share with states, and that the bill includes a tsunami readiness study.
She was not real familiar with our issues, but definitely was interested, and is certainly worth visiting again.
We met with Heidi Hansen in Senator Murkowski’s office, Brian Hughes was unavailable.
We introduced AASG and the NGGDPP. She suggested that we meet with OMB to try to determine why the authorization was reduced from $30M to $5M. Harvey asked whether Murkowskis’ office could do a manger’s amendment to restore the full authorization, cribbing from wording he got in an early meeting. Yay Harvey!
We introduced the NCGMP, and she had recently heard about it from USGS.
We discussed the DelBene landslide bill and the recent slides in Sitka, and described the 3DEP program, and the need for full funding for USGS.
AASG Present – Jon Arthur, Jerry Boak, Steve Masterman
Met with – Nona McCoy, Ryan Hunt
Discussed the AASG primary programs of NCGMP, NGGDPP, 3DEP and also the national groundwater monitoring program as well as the potential landslide mapping program.
Discussed possible outcomes of the federal budget and the role of the committee in that process. They will become involved once there is direction on a CR, Omnibus or CR Omnibus. The Committee chairs between House and Senate negotiate the final version and there is the possibility to provide input into the process through the committee members.
Discussed timing of meetings and March is a good time as the President’s budget is out early February, and it is a good opportunity to lobby for specific programs. Letters of support for specific budget items are critical in influencing the Appropriations committee’s decisions and direction. These letters from members of the Congress are the main currency of Committee staff, and therefore, AASG needs to mobilize efforts from delegations to argue for top priorities (StateMap - NCGMP, NGGDPP, 3DEP,
Groundwater monitoring)
Action item – prior to spring Liaison have a position and direct ask prepared for AASG priorities prior to this meeting, along with letters of support from senators.

Briefings by:
Kevin Gallagher – Associated Director, Core Science Systems
David Applegate – Acting Deputy Director, USGS
Johnathan Godt – Program Coordinator, Landslide Hazards
Bill Leith – Senior Advisor, Earthquakes and Geologic Hazards
Paul Young – Acting Associate Director, Energy, Mineral, and Environmental Health
Jeff Doebrich – Mineral Resources Program
Bill Cunningham – Chief, Office of Groundwater
Douglas A. Howard – Associate Program Coordinator, NCGMP
AASG President Gilman noted our priorities – NCGMP, Data Preservation, 3-DEP, and hazards.
Kevin Gallagher – Associated Director, Core Science Systems

Seeking replacement for Peter Little – reaching out to review candidates

3-DEP $113M matching to a little over ½ of country.

2016 increases in proposed funding for sea level models, coastal law $500K and sinkholes $200K for response.

Longer planning on academy study – joint partnership

Data preservation – in 2015 13 projects recommended by panel for approval

3-DEP big priority – showed maps and offices got a written report. Building stakeholders specification and contracting. Working with state geological surveys to encourage look at websites for geospatial information – find out who is submitting the proposals.
David Applegate – Acting Deputy Director, USGS

Short-term Continuing Resolution in December.

Another Confirmation Hearing for Kimball – Thanks for coming and the value of the partnership.
Johnathan Godt – Program Coordinator, Landslide Hazards

Peter Little wore both hats and the initiative in the last few years is post-fire landslides – Debris flow assessments to web in a few days. Verification of data in NM and CO, early warning system for post fire assessments in San Diego.

Oso in 2014 took full bandwidth of program. State Geologists in workshop with AEG and
National Academies
David Applegate – Acting Deputy Director, USGS

FY 2016 increases are constituent driven increases in House Report language – “look at the language”. Books are not closed on the FY16 process.
Bill Leith – Senior Advisor, Earthquakes and Geologic Hazards

EQ early warning prototype 3 ½ years running. Implications of WA, OR, and CA – increase in funding to move from research to open prototype. Adding Anchorage into the potential sites.

Induced seismicity since the USGS and AASG had the session at the annual meeting. OK, CO, TX and KS increased regulation of wastewater disposal. Retirement of SG and resignation of State

Seismologist in OK along increased seismicity in KS and TX have resulted in two earthquake scenarios for emergency managers to use from a USGS simulation.

USGS hazard ground motion probability maps with induced seismicity for the next few years.
Did not want induced effect to change the long-term earthquake hazard. In OK City – seismicity shows an increase.

Geomagnetic storms – threat to the power grid. In 2016 conducting studies of conducting crust to see induced current in the power grid. Magneto-Telluric survey starting in Florida. FERC must address this.
Paul Young – Acting Associate Director, Energy, Mineral, and Environmental Health

Support reviews of geology and petroleum resources in your states.

Work on link with on energy and mineral resources assessment and look at issues with groundwater, surface water, biota, and ecosystem services that the ecosystem provides.

Three modest energy uranium assessment in TX and LA looking an environmental health and sensitivity. Assessment, outcomes, and impacts on the contamination pathways.

Powder River Basin coal assessment and now looking at biophysical models for any coal, coalbed methane, and groundwater impacts. In NM new decision-support tool for the region which includes the ecosystem impacts.
Jeff Doebrich – Mineral Resources Program

US MIN is replacing the MRDS –internal release on-line which is GIS-friendly. Location inaccuracies in MRDS fixed with time series of topographic maps.

In AK – critical minerals on both federal and state lands. Working together with BLM on area plans to evaluate critical minerals. Aeromagnetic survey in area of the Yukon.

Upper part of MI modeling the mid-continent region imaging rift. Complementing magnetotelluric from Earthscope.

In FY 2016 looking at mining districts in NY and connect NCCGMP with aerorad and aeromagnetic to get better idea of the Ir-rich and rare earth systems.

In SE U.S. heavy minerals in Coastal Plain. New efforts on market and supply chain analysis to show VA, NC and GA. He gave a plug for the National GSA Mtg. in Baltimore where there is
Coastal Plain Fieldtrip looking at the heavy minerals in the Coastal Plain which will be led by a
Virginia Geological Survey staff member.

Budget has taken a significant dive, combined with retirements, and lost institutional knowledge. Seven new hires including a geo-statistician.
Bill Cunningham – Chief, Office of Groundwater

Water mission – program trends drought. Budget restructuring seven line items to four and legally required went from six to three. Need to improve message of what is being done.

Two new programs – Drought in California and federal response to enhance water data collection.

Groundwater withdrawals cause subsidence and forecast changes as areas go into and out of drought.

Program announcement is forthcoming on providing a new portal for water information. Two years for a new data provider.
Douglas A. Howard – Associate Program Coordinator, NCGMP


Received lots of feedback on the NCGMP webinars on the application, review, and submission process.

NCGMP – STATEMAP review meeting will be in Asheville – hosted by NCGS.
Gillman thanked the USGS for the meeting on cooperative issues / advise, hazards, and youth education.
Additional notes from the note taker:
David Applegate, Acting Associate Director, Natural Hazards, 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive, MS 101, Reston
VA 20192, applegate@usgs.gov
, 703-648-6600
Jonathan Godt, Program Coordinator, Landslide Hazards, Box 25046 MS 966, Denver CO 80225, jgodt@usgs.gov
, 303-273-8626
Jeff L. Doebrich, Associate Program Coordinator, Minerals Resources Program, 12201 Sunrise Valley
Drive, MS 913, Reston VA 20192, jdoebric@usgs.gov
, 703-648-6103
John W. Haines, Program Coordinator, Coastal and Marine Geology Program, 12201 Sunrise Valley
Drive, MS 905, Reston VA 20192, jhaines@usgs.gov
, 703-648-6422
Spoke with Applegate about the process in the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) see -- http://www.emacweb.org/
Action item will be to build mission-ready packages to be prepared to respond to incidents in other states.
Spoke with Godt about the NCGS experience with landslide mapping and the defunding of the program with Jen Bauer forming her own company – Appalachian Landslide Consultants. Godt was aware of
Jenn’s contribution to the AGI pamphlet.
Meeting summary:
Action items – FY 2016 is not yet closed – may want to talk with AGI and staff on the Hill to restore some of the proposed cuts.