S 2779 Upper Mississippi River Basin Protection Act

About S.2779

Upper Mississippi River Basin Protection Act - Directs the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the United States Geological Survey (USGS), to establish a nutrient and sediment monitoring network for the Upper Mississippi River Basin. Directs the Secretary to:

• (1) establish guidelines for related data collection and storage activities;
• (2) inventory the sediment and monitoring efforts of governmental and nongovernmental entities for the purpose of creating a baseline understanding of overlap, data gaps, and redundancies; and
• (3) collaborate with other public and private monitoring efforts in establishing the monitoring program.Directs the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a water resources assessment of the Basin

Requires the Director of the USGS to establish:

• (1) a computer modeling program of nutrient and sediment sources in the Basin; and
• (2) an Internet-based system to distribute information about nutrient and sediment loss reduction projects and nutrient and sediment levels in the Upper Mississippi River and its tributaries.