CHAPTER 5 



ACTION PLAN 



INTRODUCTION 



The management of aquatic resources in the Clark Fork 

 Basin is the statutory responsibility of many agencies. 

 Although rules and statutes place some limits on their 

 flexibility, state, federal, and local governments can 

 maximize their effectiveness through basinwide planning and 

 cooperation. 



This chapter presents an action plan for maintaining and 

 enhancing the quality of water and related resources in the 

 Clark Fork Basin. It identifies primary issues and recom- 

 mends the agency or coordinated agency actions needed to 

 resolve them. In some instances, the action may be an interim 

 step that must be taken before final solutions are obtained. 

 It should be clearly recognized that the plan will continu- 

 ally evolve — the results of past efforts, as well as plans 

 for new programs, will require continuous reevaluation. Most 

 importantly, the responsible agencies must progress in a 

 logical sequence to address priority issues in coordination 

 with other agency efforts. 



The action plan attempts to categorize the recommen- 

 dations according to major issues, but there is clearly 

 overlap among categories. This overlap demonstrates the 

 critical need for coordination and continuous integration of 

 information into a Clark Fork Basin management plan. 



COMPONENTS OF THE PLAN 



Data Management 



Throughout the past few decades, various individuals and 

 organizations have collected environmental data in the Clark 

 Fork Basin. These data were often not published or were 

 generally unavailable to other interested parties. However, 

 through a cooperative agreement with the EPA, the DHES has 

 developed a central Clark Fork Data Management System. The 

 initial emphasis of this system is to store and manage data 

 collected for CERCLA (Superfund) purposes. Other data 

 pertaining to the Clark Fork Basin are also important to 

 Superfund and other programs and will be added to the system 

 as needed. The Clark Fork Data Management System is also 



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