Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act Programs and Forests

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Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act
Programs --- and Forests

• Chesapeake Bay Program
• Forestry Work Group
• November 28, 2006
• Katharine Dowell
• Acting Land, Growth and Stewardship Coordinator

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Potential Water Regulatory Drivers Affecting
Forest Conservation

• TMDLs
• Stormwater NPDES Permits (MS4s)
• Source Water Protection

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Clean Water Act Total Maximum Daily Loads
(TMDLs)

• State water quality standards (WQS) are designed
  to protect, restore, and preserve water quality.
  
• WQS are usually in the form of numeric criteria
  established to achieve beneficial uses, such as
  protection of biota, recreation, or drinking
  water supplies.
• When a lake, river, stream or other water body
  fails to meet water quality criteria, the CWA
  requires that states place it on a list of
  impaired water bodies (known as the 303(d)
  list),
• and to prepare an analysis called a Total Maximum
  Daily Load (TMDL) for the pollutant or pollutants
  causing the impairment(s).
  
• TMDL quantitative assessment of the extent of
  the water quality problem(s) and the pollutant
  sources

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TMDL objectives

• 1. Protection Prevent the degradation of healthy
  waters
  
• 2. Restoration Develop and execute plans to
  reduce pollution
  
• 3. Maintenance of Reductions Institutionalize
  technical and administrative processes to offset
  the introduction of new pollutants.
  
• G. Tracy Mehan, former AA for Water A strength
  of the TMDL Program is its ability to support
  development of information-based, water quality
  management strategies.

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TMDLs offer

• Common understanding of impaired waters a TMDL
  diagnoses problem pollutants and sources
  
• Action plan with measurable goals -- a catalyst
  (roadmap) for improving overall watershed health
  
  
• Water quality trading opportunities potential
  production and brokering of point or nonpoint
  source credits to achieve or maintain caps
  

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.
TMDL Components

• Wasteload allocation -- the pollutant comes from
  a discrete source (referred to as a point source)
  such as an industrial facilitys discharge pipe,
  that facilitys share of the loading capacity.
  Note In addition, EPA requires urban stormwater
  sources managed under an NPDES permit (municipal
  and industrial) to be classified as waste load
  allocations (point sources) for the purpose of
  TMDL analyses.
• Load allocation -- the pollutant is associated
  with a diffuse source (referred to as a nonpoint
  source) such as surface water runoff
  
• Reasonable assurance The TMDL documentation
  includes a section that explains how the nonpoint
  source allocation will be attained.
  

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Offsetting Loads

• Offsetting future loads is implicit in federal
  law requiring TMDLs, which place a loading cap on
  impairing substances. Federal regulations
  prohibit issuing NPDES permits that would
  increase pollutant loads causing or contributing
  to an existing violation of water quality
  standards.
• TMDLs may help drive water quality offsets that
  involve forests to help reduce or maintain cap
  loads, e.g., by
  
• consideration of the need to offset increases in
  pollutant loads that accompany deforestation
  
• identifying potential areas for reforestation in
  an amount of acreage estimated to offset
  pollutant loads from existing sources or proposed
  development areas.

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Forests could be Offset Opportunities

• For example, a local jurisdiction might decide to
  set aside certain forested land in perpetuity to
  use for future spray irrigation of municipal
  wastewater.
• This would accommodate future growth in a way
  that is consistent with TMDLs.
  
• And, by making use of public sewer systems it
  would avoid pollutant loads associated with
  septic systems, promoting more efficient growth
  principles, thereby preserving the rural
  character of the surrounding countryside and help
  ensure the economic viability of local
  agriculture and/or forestry.

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Note Some TMDLs are directly linked to riparian
forest cover temperature

• There are a number of temperature (shade-related)
  TMDLs within the Pacific Northwest. For
  example,
  
• Water monitoring data on the Colville National
  Forest, Washington, showed several streams did
  not meet fecal coliform bacteria (grazing
  impacts) and temperature standards.
• The TMDL temperature assessment used percent
  effective shade as a surrogate measure of solar
  shortwave radiation leading to elevated water
  temperatures. It allocated the level of effective
  shade necessary to reduce water temperatures to
  meet the 16 degree C water quality criteria.
• The percent increase needed in shade by stream
  segment is the reforestation target.
  

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NPDES Urban Stormwater Permits

• Large municipal separate storm sewer systems
  (MS4s) are covered under Phase I. The Stormwater
  Phase II rule generally requires operators of
  small MS4s to develop and implement a stormwater
  management program that addresses six minimum
  control measures..
• In addition, construction activity disturbing
  between 1 and 5 acres of land is subject to the
  Phase II rule.
  
• Implementing these minimum control measures
  typically requires the application of one or more
  BMPs.
  

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Nonstructural Stormwater BMPs

• Under the stormwater permit program,
  nonstructural, site-based BMPs can include buffer
  strip and riparian zone preservation,
  minimization of disturbance and imperviousness,
  and maximization of open space.
• EPAs list forest-related BMPs includes, e.g.,
• Protection of Natural Areas
• Reforestation
• Riparian Forested Buffer
• Urban Forestry
• Promoting Low Impact Development
• For example Marylands Stormwater Design Manual
  encourages as a nonstructural practice, Natural
  Area Conservation to helps to retain pre-
  development hydrologic and water quality
  characteristics

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Source Water Assessments

• Every state has an approved source water
  assessment program and has completed source water
  assessments for most public water systems.
  
• Each assessment identifies the area of land that
  most directly contributes the raw water used for
  drinking water (source water delineation) and
  evaluates the risk of contamination of the water
  system.
• Some states also have mandatory requirements for
  wellhead protection at the local level.
  

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Source Water Delineations

• For a community that uses surface water from a
  stream, river, lake or reservoir, the land area
  in the watershed upstream of the intake is
  identified on the map.
• For ground water supplies, states commonly use
  information about the flow of underground water
  to delineate source water assessment boundaries
  where protection and groundwater recharge are
  especially important.
• Communities are encouraged (but not required) to
  use a wide array of different source water
  protection methods to prevent contamination of
  their drinking water supplies, including
  protecting valuable forests.

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Forward thinking communities

• More than a century ago, many of Americas
  fastest growing cities, such as Boston and New
  York, bought land in their source areas to
  provide lasting protection of water resources
  critical for sustaining their populations into
  the future. To this day, these cities, some of
  the largest in the country, have relatively clean
  source waters that require minimal treatment.

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Cost-Effectiveness of Forests for Drinking Water

• Protecting forests which reduces erosion and
  sediment, improves water purity and in some cases
  captures and stores water is a cost-effective
  way to provide clean drinking water.operating
  treatment costs decreased as forest cover in a
  source area increased.
• Given that some Bay communities are already
  undergoing conflict over growth and water
  supplies (e.g., Carroll and Frederick Counties,
  MD), and the expected population growth in the
  Bay watershed, protection of forests to help
  provide drinking water could be key. For many
  cities, time is running outProtecting forests
  around water catchment areas is no longer a
  luxury but a necessity.

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Source Water Protection and Forests

• States may use Drinking Water State Revolving
  Funds (DWSRFs) to provide loans to water systems
  for either land acquisition or conservation
  easements.
• However, since the DWSRF program is managed by
  the states, project funding varies according to
  the priorities, policies, and laws within each
  state. States develop annual Intended Use Plans
  (IUPs) that describe how they will use funds in
  the program.

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Sources of funding for forest conservation
easements or acquisition

• DRSRF loans for land acquisition and conservation
  easements and source water protection measures
  can only be made to public water systems.
  
• However, land trusts and other organizations can
  facilitate source water protection by providing
  technical assistance to water suppliers in
  identifying properties that qualify for funding
  or offering expertise in negotiating land
  acquisitions or conservation easements with
  willing sellers.

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Acknowledgements

• TMDL offsets discussion -- MDEs 2006 TMDL
  Implementation Guidance for Local Governments.
  
• Quotations regarding source water protection --
  Caryn Ernst, Richard Guilick, and Kirk Nixon.
  Protecting the Source Conserving Forests to
  Protect Water, Vol. 30, No. 5, May 2004 American
  Water Works Association journal Opflow

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Discussion

• Opportunities?
• TMDLs
• Stormwater permits
• Source water