6
WatershedManagement,
Nutrients &Nonpoint
Source Control
NACWA Continues to Advance
Dialogue on Nutrients
Controlling nutrient-related water quality impacts was
among the top environmental issues this year – and NACWA
remained actively engaged to ensure the clean water commu-
nity perspective was represented. From the Chesapeake Bay
to the Gulf of Mexico to watersheds nationwide, the increas-
ing impacts related to nutrient over-enrichment – and the
lack of progress to date – are putting pressure on the states
and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to come up
with solutions. Much of the focus this year has been on the
development of numeric nutrient criteria (NNC), the debate
over whether they are needed for all waters, and the appropri-
ate methods for developing and implementing meaningful
criteria. NACWA’s advocacy efforts continued to focus on
ensuring that any point source controls result in a water qual-
ity benefits commensurate with the required investment – and
that all sources are held accountable for their fair share of the
nutrient load.
Nutrient Summit Provides
Foundation for Ongoing Work
Building on its September 2010
Nutrient Summit
, NACWA
developed an issue paper outlining some of the major
shortcomings of existing nutrient efforts and noting where
improvements could be made. First and foremost, the issue
paper underscored the importance of setting meaningful and
achievable water quality goals – noting that EPA’s insis-
tence on independently applicable nitrogen and phosphorus
values was inappropriate and may lead to wasted municipal
resources. The paper lists a set of guiding principles for
developing water quality criteria and highlights the need to
evaluate the biological condition of local waters, in addition
to monitoring pollutant levels. NACWA also listed several rec-
ommendations for improving implementation of criteria once
developed, including better use of existing Clean Water Act
(CWA) tools – like use attainability analyses and variances – to
ensure requirements placed on municipalities are reasonable
and sustainable.
Using the issue paper, NACWA initiated dialogues with senior
EPA staff, with a focus on improving implementation once
criteria are set. Few stakeholders debate that when mean-
ingful criteria are developed many clean water agencies will
have difficulty achieving the necessary levels of reduction with
current technology. This discussion is in its infancy and will
continue into the next year. NACWA also built on its existing
relationship with the Association of State & Interstate Water
Pollution Control Administrators (ASIWPCA) to explore pos-
sible approaches where state regulators, regulated entities,
and other interested parties could work together to develop a
more collaborative approach to addressing nutrients. Recent
examples, including work in Wisconsin, have provided a model
that may work in other states.
Key Pressure Points Provide
Opportunities for Engagement
EPA continues to feel pressure on several fronts. Active
petitions for rulemaking and other legal action from environ-
mental non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including
one petition seeking amendments to the secondary treatment
definition to address nutrients, continue to serve as lever-
NACWA Defends Watershed Approach via
Intervention in Chesapeake Bay Litigation
As part of NACWA’s efforts to ensure that all
dischargers within a watershed do their fair share
to improve water quality, the Association moved to
intervene in May 2011 in the American Farm Bureau,
et al v EPA. The litigation involves a challenge to the
final total maximum daily load (TMDL) developed by
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for
the Chesapeake Bay. The case is being brought by a
collection of agricultural interests attempting to remove
themselves from the TMDL process, arguing that EPA
has no authority to regulate or assign allocations to
nonpoint agricultural sources. These claims present
a significant threat to the comprehensive watershed
approach upon which point source interests are highly
dependent and which NACWA strongly supports –
and could result in increased regulatory pressure on
municipal wastewater and stormwater dischargers.
For this reason, NACWA filed
court papers
to
intervene in the litigation on the side of EPA to ensure
that the interests of NACWA’s public utility members
are protected, and to ensure that EPA’s ability address
nonpoint sources and administer a holistic watershed
approach through the TMDL program is upheld.
NACWA’s intervention seeks to protect clean water
utilities from facing additional economic costs in
meeting more stringent TMDL allocations if nonpoint
sources are not held accountable, and to ensure that
the cost of water quality improvements are shared
equally throughout a watershed.