State Innovation Grant Program: Massachusetts
Assabet River Watershed Permit (2002 Competition)
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efforts led by state environmental agencies to test innovative approaches
for achieving better environmental results and improved efficiency in
permitting programs. Between 2002 and 2007, the State Innovation Grant
program competition awarded over six million dollars to support 35 state
projects that test permitting innovation for a variety of regulated entities
including several small business sectors. Asummary of the awards by year
appears in the table below.
State Innovation Grant Program Statistics, 2002-2007
Competition Proposals Proposals Total Program
Year Submitted Selected Funding ($)
2002/2003
$618,000
$1.425 Million
$1.479 Million
Cumulative
$1.243 Million
$1.611 Million
$6.376 Million
"Innovation in Permitting" has been the theme of the State Innovation Grant
competition since its inception. In the last three competition cycles states
received awards for projects in the following three categories:
• The Environmental Results Program (ERP) is an innovative
approach to improving environmental performance based on a system
of the interlocking tools of compliance assistance, self-certification
(sometimes, where permissible, in lieu of permitting), and
statistically-based measurement to gauge the performance of an entire
business sector. The program utilizes a multimedia approach to
encourage small sources to achieve environmental compliance and
pollution prevention. (See: http://www.epa.gov/permits/erp/)
• Environmental Management System (EMS) is a system involving a
continual cycle of planning, implementing, reviewing and improving the
processes and actions that an organization undertakes to meet its
business and environmental goals. EMSs provide organizations of all
types with a structured system and approach for managing
environmental and regulatory responsibilities to improve overall
environmental performance and stewardship.
(See: www.epa.gov/ems/info/index.htm)
• Performance Track is a partnership that recognizes top
environmental performance among participating US facilities of all types,
sizes, and complexity, both public and private.
(See: http://www.epa.gov/performancetrack/)
NCEI has provided awards also for projects testing watershed-based
permitting, and for permit process streamlining in past competitions. For
more information on the history of the programs, including information on
solicitations, state proposals, and project awards, please see the EPA State
ittD://www.eDa.aov/innovation/statear
Project Background:
In late 2002, the Massachusetts Department of
Environmental Protection (MassDEP) reached a
turning point in its efforts to restore the health of the
Assabet River. The state had designated the river as
a water body that should support fish and wildlife
habitat, and allow swimming, fishing, and boating.
However, the river did not meet the standards for this
use because of pollution and excessive plant and
algae growth choking the waterway. A primary
contributor to Assabet River's poor water quality was
the nutrient phosphorus, which originated from two
main sources: effluent from Publicly Owned
Treatment Works (POTWs) and sediments that had
collected behind obsolete dams. The dams were
built in the 1800s and early 1900s to power industrial
mills, and although most of the mills no longer
existed, the remaining dams stalled the river flow
and created impoundments where phosphorus-laden
sediments collected. In 2003, MassDEP received a
State Innovation Grant (SIG) that helped them to
develop an innovative approach to watershed
permitting not only to regulate the four independently
operated POTWs discharging into the river, but also
to investigate the potential removal of sediment in
the impoundments to reduce total phosphorus
loading into the stream.
Project Description
With State Innovation Grant Funds, as well as state
and local funds, MassDEP conducted research that
was instrumental in understanding the sources of
phosphorus pollution on the Assabet River. This
enabled Massachusetts to work toward developing a
cost effective watershed-based permitting approach.
The effort had two major components:
NCE
NATIONAL CENTER FOR
ENVIRONMENTAL INNOVATION
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Sediment Modeling and Research
MassDEP researched sources of phosphorous
pollution and potential strategies to address them by:
• Modeling a variety of phosphorous reduction
strategies, including reducing discharges from point
sources such as POTWs, removing sediments
trapped behind dams, and removing dams
altogether; and confirming the assumptions used in
these models through additional research carried out
by the United States Geological Survey (USGS); and
• Developing a detailed dam and sediment removal
feasibility study scope of work that considered cost
effective alternatives to achieve water quality
standards.
As part of its research, the state modeled nutrient
loading from the six impoundments along the Assabet
River. These models determined that once point
sources were reduced, the sediments in the dam
impoundments accounted for much of the phosphorus
pollution and that any strategy to improve water quality
would have to address both sediments and POTWs.
Watershed Based Permit
Massachusetts' Watershed Based Permit was
designed to include non-point source pollution controls
and point source permitting at the POTWs. The permit
would be implemented in two phases. Phase 1 of
permit implementation required POTWs to reduce their
phosphorous discharges and upgrade facilities so that
they could achieve additional reductions in the future if
necessary. Phase 2 (to be implemented in 2009)
could require POTWs to meet more stringent limitations
on phosphorus discharges if the towns and state
elected not to remove sediments from behind the
dams, or if the state or EPA developed new criteria for
phosphorous reduction.
Massachusetts anticipated that the watershed-based
permit would help reduce the amount of phosphorous
in the river as a step toward meeting the designated
use of the Assabet River.
Results
In May 2005, EPA and MassDEP issued discharge
permits for the POTWs that provided for an 87 percent
reduction of total phosphorous discharged during the
five-year permit cycle. The implementation of the
watershed-based permit represents an important
intermediate outcome that will change POTW behavior
and reduce pollution in the Assabet River.
In addition, the permit allows the towns to pursue the
restoration of the Assabet River to a fishable and
swimable body of water through the removal or
inactivation of the many dams and sediment in the
river. Through the combination of innovative watershed
permits and community partnerships, that goal is much
closer. This project has helped lay the foundation of a
trustful regulatory and community relationship, and
Massachusetts estimates that within the next 5 to 10
years it will achieve ecological restoration of the
Assabet River.
Connection to EPA's Goals
In May 2005, EPA and MassDEP issued discharge
permits for the POTWs that provided for an 87 percent
reduction of total phosphorous discharged during the
five-year permit cycle. The implementation of the
watershed-based permit represents an important
intermediate outcome that will change POTW behavior
and reduce pollution in the Assabet River.
In addition, the permit allows the towns to pursue the
restoration of the Assabet River to a fishable and
swimable body of water through the removal or
inactivation of the many dams and sediment in the
river. Through the combination of innovative watershed
permits and community partnerships, that goal is much
closer. This project has helped lay the foundation of a
trustful regulatory and community relationship, and
Massachusetts estimates that within the next 5 to 10
years it will achieve ecological restoration of the
Assabet River.
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Project Contacts:
For more specific information on the
Massachusetts State Innovation Grant,
please contact one of the individuals
Dennis (Rick) Dunn
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
Worcester, MA
508.767.2874
dennis.dunn@state.ma.us
Program Contact:
Sherri Walker
State Innovation Grant Program
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20460 (MC1807T)
(202)-566-2186; FAX (202) 566-2220
walker.sherri@epa.gov
Dave Pincumbe
U.S. EPA, Region 1
Boston, MA
617.918.1695
pincumbe.david@epa.aov
Gerald Filbin
U.S. EPA
National Center for Environmental Innovation
Washington, DC
202.566.2182
filbin.aerald@epa.gov
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Policy,
Economics and Innovation
(1807T)
February 2008
EPA-100-F-08-016
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