United States
Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
4304
EPA-822-F-98-002
June 1998
FACTSHEET
National Strategy for the Development of
Regional Nutrient Criteria
Abstract
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is presenting a National strategy which describes
the approach the Agency will follow in developing nutrient information and working with
States and Tribes to adopt nutrient criteria as part of State water quality standards. The
strategy presents overenrichment assessment tools and recognizes current capabilities for
conducting these assessments at the regional watershed and waterbody levels. The major
focus of this strategy is the development of waterbody-type technical guidance and region-
specific nutrient criteria by the year 2000. Once waterbody-type guidance and nutrient
criteria are established, EPA will assist States and Tribes in adopting numerical nutrient
criteria into water quality standards by the end of 2003.
The President's Clean Water Action Plan
On October 18, 1997, Vice President Gore
requested the Secretary of Agriculture and the
Administrator of the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), in consultation with all other
affected agencies, to develop a comprehensive
Action Plan that builds on the Administration's
clean water successes over the past five years
and addresses three major goals: enhanced
protection from public health threats posed by
water pollution; more effective control of
polluted runoff; and promotion of water quality
protection on a watershed basis. As part of this
Action Plan, the Vice President expects that EPA
will identify the major sources of nitrogen and
phosphorus in our waters, and identify actions to
address these sources. In particular, the Vice
President called upon EPA to accelerate nutrient
water quality criteria development for waters in
every geographic region in the country and to
establish a schedule so that EPA and
States/Tribes are implementing a criteria system
for nitrogen and phosphorus runoff for lakes,
rivers, and estuaries by the year 2000.
On March 24, 1998, the President's Clean Water
Action Plan was presented in the Federal
Register. The Clean Water Action Plan builds on
the Vice President's initiative and specifically
states that EPA will establish nutrient criteria
that reflect the different types of water bodies
and different ecoregions of the country and will
assist States and Tribes in adopting numeric
water quality standards based on these criteria.
Background
The National Water Quality Inventory: 1996
Report to Congress Executive Summary cites
nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) as one of the
leading causes of water quality impairment in
our Nation's rivers, lakes and estuaries. Forty
percent of the rivers were impaired due to
nutrient enrichment; fifty-one percent of the
surveyed lakes, and fifty-seven percent of the
surveyed estuaries were similarly adversely
affected. Nutrients have also been implicated
with both the large hypoxic zone in the Gulf of
Mexico, hypoxia observed in several East Coast
States, and P/zesteraz-induced fish kills and
human health problems in the coastal waters of
several East Coast and Gulf States.
The national response to the nutrient problem
has been limited primarily because of concerns
over the scale of the problem, and because of the
tremendous variability of nutrient conditions,
both natural and cultural, throughout the nation.
Presently, the only national water quality criteria
in existence are for nitrate nitrogen and
phosphorus. In 1976, in EPA's publication
entitled Quality Criteria for Water (also known
as the Red Book), EPA presented ambient water
quality criteria for nitrates, nitrites and
phosphorus. The criterion for nitrate nitrogen
-------
was 10 mg/L for the protection of domestic
water supplies. The nitrate criteria were intended
to prevent overenrichment and to protect human
and animal health. The phosphorus criterion was
0.10 ug/L elemental phosphorus for the
protection of marine and estuarine.waters. This
criterion was based on a conservative estimate to
protect against the toxic effects of the
bioconcentration of elemental phosphorus to
estuarine and marine organisms, and not on the
potential to cause eutrophication.
In order to expand and update EPA guidance in
the area of nutrient assessment and control, the
Agency held a National Nutrient Assessment
Workshop (see Proceedings of the National
Nutrient Assessment Workshop: December 4-6,
1995, EPA 822-R-96-004). In response to this
workgroup effort to address nutrient assessment
and overenrichment, EPA developefd a peer
reviewed national nutrient criteria strategy.
Key Elements of the National Nutrient
Strategy
The major elements of this strategy include:
• Use of a regional and waterbody-type
approach for the development of nutrient
water quality criteria.
• Development of waterbody-type technical
guidance documents (i.e., documents for
streams and rivers; lakes and reservoirs;
estuaries and coastal waters; and wetlands)
that will serve as "user manuals" for
assessing trophic state and developing
region-specific nutrient criteria to control
overenrichment.
• Establishment of an EPA National Nutrient
Team with Regional Nutrient Coordinators
to develop regional databases and to
promote State and Tribal involvement.
• Development by EPA of nutrient water
quality criteria guidance in the form of
numerical regional target ranges, which
EPA expects States and Tribes to use in
implementing State management programs
to reduce overenrichment in surface
waters, i.e., through the development of
water quality criteria, standards, NPDES
permit limits, and total maximum daily
loads (TMDLs).
• Monitoring and evaluation of the
effectiveness of nutrient management
programs as they are implemented.
Affect on State and Regional Offices
EPA believes the development of waterbody-
type guidance and regional nutrient criteria can
only be successfully accomplished with the
cooperation and contributions of EPA Regional
Offices and State and Tribes, and other expert
parties. EPA Regions will be asked to form
regional nutrient teams which draw on the
talents and knowledge of States, Tribes,
universities and other interested/concerned
parties within each EPA Region. States and
Tribes, specifically will be asked to provide
information on nutrient levels in their surface
waters to help provide information essential for
identifying reference conditions (minimally
impacted waters) and developing regional
nutrient criteria.
Information
For additional information concerning this
National Strategy, contact Bob Cantilli, Health
and Ecological Criteria Division (4304), 401 M
Street, S.W., Washington, D.C., 20460
(telephone: 202- 260-5546).
You may view the Federal Register notice that
describes the National Nutrient Strategy on the
Internet at:
http://www.epa.gov/OST/Rules/index.htmWopen
. The notice gives complete information on how
to obtain additional information, how to review
the complete administrative record for the
National Nutrient Strategy, and how to solicit
public comment.
------- |