Nonpoint Source Liaison Workgroup
Rachel Carson State Office Building
July 17, 1997
Minutes
Eric Carlson chaired the meeting and opened with information that the members of the Governor’s 21st Century Environmental Commission had been announced. Members of the Nonpoint Source (NPS) Forum have not yet been announced to avoid confusion. More information on the Nonpoint Source Forum should be available for our October 16 meeting. Fran Koch briefly highlighted the difference between the NPS Task Force (members of DEP/DCNR) and the NPS Liaison Workgroup (agencies/organizations outside DEP) and the role of each in rewriting Pennsylvania’s NPS Management Plan. The Liaison Workgroup is needed to provide input to the Department, who will actually write the Plan. (Overview of this had been mailed out with 7/17 agenda.) Mike Sherman presented the draft Nonpoint Source Management Strategy and explained the following nine objectives:
1. Use Geographic Information System Technology for Nonpoint Source Management.
2. Implement a Statewide Monitoring and Watershed Assessment Program.
3. Use the 303(d) List of Impaired Waters to Target Program Resources.
4. Revise the State Nonpoint Source Management Plan.
5. Expand Nonpoint Source Education and Outreach Efforts.
6. Streamline the Grant Administration Process.
7. Incorporate EPA’s Nine Key Elements Grant Guidance into the Commonwealth’s Program.
8. Improve Public Participation in the Nonpoint Source Program.
9. Use Watershed Definitions & Initiatives to Achieve Comprehensive Water Quality Improvement.
The GIS data will be managed and updated by the Bureau of Watershed Conservation. We will make information available to download from PASDA at a web site. Eric mentioned that the watershed assessment biologists in the field have landowners questioning their purpose. Mike said the Department will work with the Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts to provide information on what is being done and why.
Sarah Blackman, EPA, discussed Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) and the EPA/DEP Memorandum of Understanding. Copies of overheads and PA TMDL Lawsuit Settlement Summary were provided by EPA. The 1972 Clean Water Act required states to develop Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for all impaired water bodies by 1979. If the states failed to do so, the EPA was supposed to withhold money to the states and write the TMDLs. The states had been prioritizing the impaired streams and doing a few each year. Now this is no longer an option, TMDLs must be developed for all waters on the 303(d) list. Nicki Kasi noted that there is information available now to justify removing some impaired waters from the 303(d) list. Mike Sherman read a paragraph from the Bay Journal "TMDLs: Do it the right way or wrong the Bay." The article advocates that the TMDL process take a more flexible approach to the nonpoint source issue, relying on states to use their own laws as authorities. It was noted that EPA has 26 lawsuits involving various states with similar settlement requirements. Congress may have to make adjustments to the Clean Water Act and allocate more money to address nonpoint source pollution.
After lunch each workgroup gave a brief report. (Workgroup reports were sent out with 7/17 agenda.) Questions/suggestions from the larger Liaison Workgroup were as follows:
CONSTRUCTION/URBAN RUNOFF
· BMPs should allow for flexibility/creativity to be built into projects.
· Identify what can or cannot work.
• Betty Connor with the League of Women Voters provided a copy of the Anacostia Study to be used as a reference.
RESOURCE EXTRACTION
The following were suggested areas needing more information:
· Educational needs.
· Oil and gas dischargers without permits - follow-up on compliance.
· Evaluate passive treatment systems: What works? What is cost effective?
· Re-mining - cost effective solution in some cases; provide more information on parameters to be considered.
AGRICULTURE
· Are small operations (such as horse, goat, or sheep farms) being considered as a nonpoint source?
· Is the use of pesticides in orchards included?
· In referring to the Chesapeake Bay, include the Potomac Watershed as well as the Susquehanna Watershed.
· Include chemical fertilizers under nutrients.
HYDROMODIFICATIONS
· Rich Bulavinetz, ACOE, provided copies of one of the ACOE’s special area management plans and a publication on the Corps restoration projects as references.
· The suggestion was made that all workgroups provide suggestions to the 21st Century Environmental Commission for consideration (contact Carol Collier).
SILVICULTURE
· Clarify role of Sustained Forestry Initiatives (SFI).
· Emphasize landowners responsibility in logging operation/stewardship (Goal #4).
WASTE MANAGEMENT/LAND DISPOSAL
· Act 537 already has existing buffers and setbacks for septic systems.
· Evaluate alternate on-lot systems.
· include. Include all aspects in management plan but indicate which should be eligible for 319 funding to abate/prevent nonpoint source pollution.
· Include abandoned leaking landfills pollutants under nutrient management.
· Reference Penn State University’s Act 6 Study.
· Promote distribution of information on the suggested guidelines for the pump out frequency of septic tanks.
THE FOLLOWING WERE SUGGESTIONS FOR ALL WORKGROUPS:
· Review "Break-out" and "Discussions" from the 1995 State Nonpoint Conference LOCAL SOLUTIONS to POLLUTION provided in your NPS LIAISON WORKBOOK. Incorporate participants suggestions that are appropriate for your category.
· Any suggestions the workgroups have for the 21st Century Environmental Commission to consider should be forwarded to Mike Sherman or Carol Collier.
· Measure how much pollution you are preventing.
General discussion focused on timeline for developing Pennsylvania’s Nonpoint Source Management Plan. Consensus was that DEP should draft plan using the information the small workgroups have provided with the understanding that more can be added. The Task Force and the agencies/organizations represented on the Liaison Workgroup would then forward information/milestones that their respective programs provide. These will include programs/technical assistance/funding that will implement stated goals and objectives, education needs, remediation plans or assessments that are already in place or that will be in place during the next five years.
The Management Plan will also consider pollution prevention and measures to protect threatened and exceptional value waters. The riparian buffers initiatives, specific watershed initiatives, demonstration projects, TMDLs, remediation plans, watershed associations and volunteer stream monitoring will be important elements in the Management Plan. Examples of how we are institutionalizing the NPS Management Plan will be included, such as USDA’s EQIP, the Great Lakes Initiative, the Delaware Estuary Program and the Chesapeake Bay Programs. The Commonwealth’s Nonpoint Source Management Plan will also explain how our program implements EPA’s Nine Key Elements.
The next meeting of the Liaison Workgroup scheduled for October 16, 1997, has been postponed until Tuesday, January 13, 1998, 10:00 a.m., in the Rachel Carson State Office Building, first floor conference room (105), 400 Market Street, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.