Forum Shines Light on TMDLs

EPA to Reveal Nutrient Allocations This Fall

Chris Torres
Staff Writer

LANCASTER, Pa. — Pennsylvania Sen. Mike Brubaker (R-36) praised the state’s progress in reducing its share of nutrient loads to the Chesapeake Bay.

But he reminded attendees at last Thursday’s “Wake Up to the Issues” forum at the Eden Resort that the state still has a long way to go to reach its long-term goals.

With the advent of soon-to-be-established Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) requirements on polluters, the process could speed up quickly.

Brubaker led a panel discussion on bay issues, which focused on TMDL cap loads that are scheduled to be released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this fall.

The meeting drew a packed house to the forum, sponsored by the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

TMDLs will establish limits for “point source” polluters (wastewater treatment plants) and “non-point source” polluters (farmers) on the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment they will be allowed to discharge into waterways that drain into the Chesapeake Bay.

According to Jennifer Sincock, an EPA representative at the meeting, the agency is scheduled to release its first draft TMDL cap load allocation in October.

Plan completion, including final cap load allocations, is scheduled for December 2010, with a fallback date of May 2011.

The agency, she said, is taking an approach of establishing bay-wide goals first and setting allocations for each state based on its share of nutrients going into the bay.

Each state, she said, will then be responsible for setting local TMDL goals. The EPA is working with states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed to develop cap loads.

“It will be unlike any other TMDL we have done,” Sincock said. “The bay TMDL is focused on implementation.”

It will also likely include “consequences” for non-compliance, which Sincock said are still being refined by the agency.

How will farmers be affected? Sincock said it will be up to the states to determine how they will meet their cap load requirement, if they get any.

But the advent of these TMDLs will likely stir more interest in the state’s nutrient credit trading program.

Ann Smith of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), said 73 nutrient credit proposals have been proposed since 2005, with 45 having been approved.

Only seven trades, though, have occurred. But she expects the program to become more attractive as point source polluters try to find less expensive ways of meeting their nutrient load budgets.

Through the program, a point source polluter can purchase nutrient credits generated from a non-point source polluter. In the case of farmers, they can only sell credits once they have met their own nutrient goals.

There was a lot of concern about the cost of complying with the new program.

Tom Baldrige, president of the chamber, seemed particularly concerned about the money industries will have to spend to get in line with the new requirements.

No one provided any answers to Baldrige, but if recent increases in water and sewer bills around the state are any indication, it could be costly.

A lot of work needs to be done to get Pennsylvania in line with its reduction goals.

John Hines, deputy secretary of water management at DEP, said the department is taking a three-tier approach of its own to address issues in Pennsylvania.

He touched on the idea of regional digesters in places such as Lancaster County, which he said could make huge strides in reducing the amount of excess manure on farms.

Hines also said educating people on the correlation between what happens on the farm and how it affects the bay’s health is an important issue.

“We have to look at how these things correlate and then communicate that with the public,” Hines said.

Brubaker, vice chair of the Chesapeake Bay Commission, a group of legislators tasked with informing lawmakers in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia on the latest issues surrounding the bay, said Pennsylvania must reduce its nitrogen load by another 30 million pounds in order to meet its yearly goal for cleaning up the bay.

He expressed support for the Chesapeake Bay Program’s newly revised schedule for cleaning up the bay, which includes new short-term goals for compliance, with an overall goal of 2025 for cleaning up the waterway.

“We must accelerate nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment reductions,” Brubaker said.