Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) – Land and Cultural Preservation Fund, Inc.

Countdown to 2017: risks to the Chesapeake Bay

ADMIN — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 16:24:13 +0000

Check out this Center for Progressive Reform report Countdown to 2017 Five Years In, Chesapeake Bay TMDL at Risk Without EPA Enforcement

Executive Summary

When the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (Bay TMDL) out of local TMDLs for 92 individual Bay segments in 2010, reactions were polarized. Supporters of Bay restoration hoped this unprecedented, legally enforceable, multi-state approach would break the gridlock and compel compliance with a “pollution diet” that would restore the world-famous estuary from its continued state of degradation and ever-present dead zones. After all, billions of dollars in state and federal funding and decades of previous “cooperative” efforts had repeatedly failed to reach their stated goals, rendering an enforceable TMDL framework the only remaining option. Even opponents of the significant expenditures required to meet the Bay TMDL pollution reduction goals seemed to share the view that this time would be different. As EPA, the seven Bay jurisdictions – Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia – and the Chesapeake Bay Program began work on implementing the Bay TMDL in 2010, affected industries hurried to the courts, legislatures, and media, seeking to overturn the TMDL and obstruct EPA and state regulators from pursuing their commitments under the new framework. To its credit, EPA vigorously defended the TMDL in federal court, twice triumphing. The agency also deflected the most destructive legislative efforts to undermine implementation of the TMDL. However, EPA has no time to rest on its laurels. Instead, EPA must recognize another, equally potent threat to Bay restoration. The seven Bay watershed jurisdictions are lagging far behind in implementing the Bay TMDL….

Read the report, and the recommendations. In summary, they are:

1. Pennsylvania’s failure to uphold its commitments jeopardizes the entire Bay TMDL.

2. Agriculture is the largest pollution source and the most promising and cost-effective sector for future reductions. Accelerating progress means solving the manure crisis.

3. The Bay TMDL is vital to water quality for communities located far from the Chesapeake Bay.

4. The model is not perfect, but is good enough to show where more progress is needed.

5. Too much Bay pollution is unregulated or under-regulated. States must close this gap.

EIP report: Frederick County discharges 111,158 pounds of nitrogen/year over permitted level

rich — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:58:55 +0000

Last week the Environmental Integrity Project released its report The Clean Water Act and the Chesapeake: Enforcement’s Critical Role in Restoring the Bay (December 2012) Appendix A in that report shows the Ballenger McKinney Waste Water Treatment Plant discharging 111,158 pounds of nitrogen each year over the permitted level. It is the worst offender in the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed.

“Far too much nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment pollution choke the Chesapeake Bay, making it impossible to sustain a healthy watershed. To restore the Bay and protect aquatic life, users will have to meet a pollution diet – a diet that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has already set by establishing “Total Maximum Daily Loads” (TMDLs) to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus loadings to the Bay by 25% by 2025, and sediment loadings by 20%.1 Measured in pounds, that means decreasing the nitrogen that flows to the Bay by more than fifty million pounds a year; phosphorous by more than three million pounds; and sediment by more than one and a quarter billion pounds.”

Citizen examines reports on waste water treatment capacity

ADMIN — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 21:44:27 +0000

Frederick City resident, concerned by the debate and potential problems with wastewater treatment capacity in Frederick County, did his analysis of the DUSWM narrative and the FoFC report, and then sent this Narrative Analysis of the DUSWM Report to the Board of County Commissioners.

Frederick County farmer speaks out in favor of better farm management to protect our streams

ADMIN — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:36:58 +0000

www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-ed-bay-pollution-20120303,0,3882790.story

baltimoresun.com

New rules must require all farmers do their fair share to clean up the bay

12:45 PM EST, March 3, 2012

Regarding your recent commentary on animal waste and pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, I would like to point out that agriculture is not a monolithic industry uniformly opposed to the regulation of harmful nutrients that foul the Chesapeake Bay (“The biggest problem,” Feb. 20).

I am a farmer in Frederick County who took the time from my operation to go to Annapolis Tuesday to testify in support of legislation to require better management of farm animal manure and sewage. I raise sheep, goats, hogs and poultry whose manure would be subject to the new rules.

Our farm is bordered by Tom’s Creek, which feeds into the Monocacy River and which ultimately drains into the Chesapeake Bay. Our watershed is one of many in the region that suffers from excessive runoff of nutrients from agriculture.

We follow voluntary best management practices recommended by the state, and although we get some financial and technical assistance, implementing these best practices still costs us time, money and the use of land adjacent to creeks and drainage swales that we have to take out of production.

It is frustrating to do all of this only to drive off my farm and see cows standing in the creek, barren fields without any cover crops, and farmers spreading manure on frozen ground in violation of state regulations.

Worse yet is to leave my driveway on warm, wet winter days and see black/brown water running into the drainage ditch along the road, which then dumps into the creek. The soil in our part of the county is orange, not black/brown, so this is not sediment coming off our fields.

Taxpayers are footing the bill to fund best management practices on farms across the state. The problem is you cannot have a patchwork in which some farmers try to prevent the runoff of nutrients into the bay, while others do nothing. We’re all on the same body of water, and we will never clean it up unless we all do our fair share.

Voluntary, incentive-based approaches have failed. We’ve tried that strategy for more than 30 years now. The reality is speed limits are for speeders, not for people who never drive above 55. Rules are for people who aren’t following them. Right now, we have a lot of farmers who are not following the rules.

If we are serious about cleaning up the bay, what we need are a set of uniform — and uniformly enforced — rules for all farmers to abide by.

William Morrow, Emmitsburg