Building a Green Maryland : Maryland Green Building Lawyer & Attorney : Megan Reuwer : O’Malley, Miles, Nylen & Gilmore Law Firm : MD Green Building, Sustainability

State Phase I Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs) for the Chesapeake Bay TMDL were due yesterday, September 1, to EPA for its review and approval.  Some states did not meet that deadline, but all WIPs should be done within the next few days and forwarded to EPA.  The WIPs will be available on this website.  As of  today, the WIPs that are available on the website are for Delaware; Washington, DC; West Virginia; Pennsylvania; New York; and Maryland.  I've linked to Maryland’s DRAFT WIP via the "Useful Links" section (below).  Virginia has notified EPA that it will have its WIP done by end of this week.   

Maryland's draft Plan was developed by the Maryland Departments of the Environment, Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Planning, using the State’s BayStat process, to comply with the new EPA Chesapeake Bay Total Daily Maximum Load (TMDL) requirements due by the end of this year. The agencies are now seeking public comment and input on the draft Plan and will hold four regional meetings over the next five weeks.

Useful Links:

• Maryland's Draft Phase I WIP - Executive Summary
• Maryland's Draft Phase I WIP
• Transmittal Letter to EPA
• Public Meetings - Save the Dates

The WIPs are to be finalized in November of this year and will be a part of the Chesapeake Bay TMDL package to be published on September 24, 2010.  

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

Last Thursday, July 15th, I attended the last scheduled Bay Watershed Implementation Plan Regional Exchange, held at the Prince George's County Soil Conservation District Office in Upper Marlboro...and let me tell you - The. Room. Was. PACKED! There's obviously a lot of interest in how this plan is going to be created, implemented, and then monitored, and rightly so! The plan will have a huge impact on how we address nutrient and sediment deposits in the Bay watershed.

The purpose of this meeting was twofold: first, for the primary host, Maryland's Department of Natural Resources, to explain a bit about the eventual phases of the Plan (there are three) and the basic tasks that they've been charged with addressing in the plan; and second, for input from citizens on how to tackle the challenges of meeting the interrelated goals established by the TMDL and by the President's Executive Order (see this post for general information on the WIP, this post for information on the recently announced TMDL allocations for Maryland, and this post for information on the President's Executive Order on the Chesapeake Bay).

Highlights from Catherine Shanks (Department of Natural Resources) informative presentation include the following:

• The state can and will allocate loads to sectors and sources - this means eventually allocating nutrient and sediment maximums per County (probably in Phase II of the WIP). (My editorial: important questions here include: What branch of the County government will be responsible for implementing, tracking, and monitoring the plan? How will land use designations be correlated amongst counties in determining the allocations? How will allocations within the County be doled out? What happens when maximum capacity is reached?)
• Accounting for growth will be a major component of the plan. (My editorial: this could have a profound impact on the building industry).
• The WIP's interaction with other water management plans is still something that is on the table - how will the plan interact with MS4 programs?
• DNR is considering implementing water policies at the state level as a possibility to address growth issues, including zoning and transportation factors.
• Anne Arundel and Caroline counties are currently in pilot programs at the county level, and the results of these programs will likely be attached to the Phase I WIP as an addendum.
• Phase I of the WIP will be available for public comments starting on September 24 and concluding on November 8, 2010.

The public pulse - here are a few comments and ideas generated at the meeting:

• The amount of nutrient and sediment flowing into the watersheds near already developed/urban areas will likely be higher than in less developed, rural areas. How are we going to prevent the unintended consequence of pushing development into more rural areas that have less nutrient and sediment impact (i.e., will the plan create higher allocations at urban centers to encourage infill and redevelopment?)
• MDE should raise its permit fees to help pay for inspection and monitoring (My editorial: this is of concern - the concept of increasing already high fees simply because these permitees are easy targets doesn't gel).
• There should be a critical area type program created for ALL the waters of the state
• Make those responsible for the nutrient deposits responsible for the cost of implementing the plan (My editorial: this could be very fair for the industry - many studies and reports show that farming activities are the highest producers of nutrient and sediment deposits in the watershed).
• The state should create legislation mandating a tax/fee on impervious surface area created.

As you can see, some of the comments made, if taken into consideration in the WIP, will be very unfavorable towards the industry. It's going to be important to comment during the public review phase (September 24- November 8, 2010) to get the industry's voice heard.  There were a few representatives of the industry present at the meeting who spoke quite eloquently and appealed to the plan makers on the concept of growth management, but the meeting was primarily attended by citizen environmental activists and environmental groups.

If you're interested in reading comments made at other regional exchange meetings, MDE has posted each meeting in PowerPoint format on its website, available here.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (1)
• Trackbacks

EPA submitted this letter to Maryland on July 1, 2010 detailing the revised annual nutrient loadings that will be proposed under the Chesapeake Bay TMDL for each of the Bay states and Washington, DC. 

These annual loadings are expected to be achieved by the end date of the Bay Restoration Program of 2025 (2020 for Maryland).  The TMDL’s annual loading for sediment in each state will be provided by EPA to the states on August 15, 2010. 

The nitrogen and phosphorus draft allocations are intended to be used to during Maryland's development of its Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP). Let's take a look at the jurisdiction-wide allocations for Maryland:

Important Deadlines:

• August 15, 2010: EPA to provide the basinwide, jurisdictional, and major river basin draft allocation for sediment
• September 1, 2010: EPA expects jurisdictions to submit draft WIP's which sub-allocate these nutrient and sediment allocations among source sectors and the 92 Bay TMDL segmentsheds.
• September 24, 2010: EPA to propose for comment (for a 45-day public comment period) the draft Bay TMDL.
• November 29, 2010: Maryland to submit its revised WIP to EPA

I've heard several members of the development industry remark that Maryland's Watershed Implementation Plan will have a significant impact on the industry - and, the draft nutrient load allocations presented in EPA's letter (and the sediment load allocations to come on August 15) will, in turn, play a major role in the WIP.

MDE is still hosting listening sessions on the WIP - the last one occurs on July 15, 2010 from 10:00 am to 12:00 noon in Upper Marlboro, MD at the Prince George's County Soil Conservation District Office (5301 Marlboro Race Track Road).

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks

In mid-September, the EPA published its intent to establish a Chesapeake Bay-wide Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for nutrients and sediment for “all impaired segments in the tidal portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed” via Volume 74, No. 179 of the Federal Register.

According to the notice, a TMDL is being developed for the Chesapeake Bay because water pollution in the Bay prevents the attainment of existing State water quality standards and the pollutants that are largely responsible for this impairment are nutrients in the form of nitrogen and phosphorus along with sediment.

What will the TMDL do?

The TMDL will establish the watershed pollution budget for nutrients and sediment necessary to meet water quality standards in the Bay, taking into consideration both point (i.e., sources discharging to waterbodies through a pipe or other direct conveyance) and nonpoint (agricultural and other unchanneled stormwater runoff) sources of pollutants. Because the EPA’s ability to influence nonpoint sources has been limited in the past, under the Bay TMDL, the EPA is working with local jurisdictions to develop “innovative approaches” to achieving nonpoint source reductions of nutrients and sediment.

If you’re thinking, “Well, I don’t build on the Bay, so the TMDL won’t impact me,” then you’d be sadly mistaken. The scope of the Bay TMDL will likely include about 92 impaired Bay and tidal tributary segments and may therefore result in 92 TMDLs (one for each impaired segment). The EPA estimates that when the TMDL is completed, it will the largest, most complex TMDL in the country, covering a 64,000 square mile area in six States and the District of Columbia.

What actions might I take?

The EPA will hold a series of public meetings between November and December 2009 and a second public comment period will be held in the summer of 2010 once a draft TMDL is developed. At this point, the EPA requests that the public provide to EPA any water quality related data and information that may be relevant to the development and calculation of the Chesapeake Bay TMDL by December 18, 2009. This is a great opportunity for the development and building industries to gather pertinent data (especially on nonpoint sediment runoff) and to get that information submitted so that it can be reviewed during the establishment of the TMDL.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks