S-EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Water EPA- 820-F-13-011
4305T
August 2013
Actions to Help States Address Barriers to Numeric
Nutrient Criteria Implementation (2012-2014)
In October 2011, EPA initiated a workgroup of
state and EPA experts to explore ways in which
EPA and states could work together to identify
and remove the barriers that have been
preventing implementation of numeric nutrient
criteria (NNC). The workgroup's goal was to
define a set of actions that would make it easier
for states to adopt and implement NNC. The
EPA-state workgroup identified several of the
highest priority barriers to NNC implementation,
and options to help EPA address those barriers.
In response, EPA began to take a number of
specific state-requested actions.
The Problem
Excess nitrogen and phosphorus entering our
surface waters can cause harmful algae blooms
and fish kills, resulting in widespread losses of
revenue from recreation (beach closures),
fisheries losses, and the need for more drinking
water treatment. The results are decreased
quality of our nation's waters, increased public
health risks, and higher treatment costs from
contamination of drinking water supplies.
These pollutants enter the environment from
urbanization and stormwater runoff, municipal
wastewater discharges, air deposition, and
agricultural livestock and row-crop activities. As
the United States population grows, pollution
from excess nitrogen and phosphorus (nutrient
pollution) is expected to grow as well. Our
population is expected to increase from about
300 million people in 2008 to 435 million
people by 2050. (U.S. Census Bureau 2008,
2009). As a result, the rate and impact of
nitrogen and phosphorus pollution will
noticeably accelerate.
The Challenge
EPA and the states have made major strides in
implementing and accomplishing the principles
of the Clean Water Act, passed 40 years ago.
Despite this progress, there is more to do.
For the past decade, EPA and states have been
working hard to control nutrient pollution. The
Agency's focus has been to support states'
development and implementation of NNC.
However, for a number of reasons, states have
been unable to achieve broad-scale success.
EPA's and the states' concerns about the
problem are intensifying, since the successes to
date will likely be outpaced by the rapidly
increasing population and the resulting increase
in the rate and impact of nitrogen and
phosphorus pollution.
Current Efforts
To date, few states have established NNC for
nitrogen and phosphorus for all their waters. In
response, EPA has identified support for state
adoption of NNC as a priority and one of its
critical next steps. This decision is described in
EPA's March 16, 2011 memorandum, Working
in Partnership with States to Address
Phosphorus and Nitrogen Pollution through Use
of a Framework for State Nutrient Reductions,
available on-line at http://go.usa.gov/26hC.
Top Barriers and Actions to Address Them
The following Barriers and Actions have
received the support of our state partners.
Sections are divided into water protection
programs implemented by EPA and the States.
Within each program, we list the major obstacles
identified by the states as preventing adoption
and implementation of NNC, and the
accompanying actions that the Agency intends
to undertake.
Water Quality Standards Program
BARRIER: Difficulty using variances as a
tool to achieve incremental improvements
States cannot fully use variances to achieve
water quality standards without case-specific
assistance on a number of issues such as timing,
requirements for justification, and the public
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perception that this approach side-steps the
intention of water quality standards.
EPA ACTIONS:
* Continue to collaborate with states and
regions to most effectively use variances;
* Propose to revise the Water Quality Standards
Regulation (submitted 2011, pending OMB
review);
* Revise the Water Quality Standards
Handbook (2012-2013); and
* Provide answers to frequently asked
questions on multiple discharger variances
(2013). Available at http://go.usa.gov/26p3.
BARRIER: Challenge associated with the
costs and the temporal and spatial variability
of the causal parameters TN and TP
Stakeholders lack confidence in the link between
TN/TP criteria and their associated responses,
and want to use shifts in a suite of response
parameters to confirm a nutrient-caused
environmental problem exists before imposing
costly controls.
EPA ACTIONS:
* Help states to integrate chemical and
biological response parameters into their
TN/TP criteria (2013 forward);
* Organize a workshop/panel for scientific
evaluation of methods to integrate chemical
and biological response parameters into
TN/TP criteria (i.e., bioconfirmation)
(completed April 2013); and
* Develop cost estimates of nutrient controls
and pollution impacts (2013).
Assessment, Listing, Total Maximum Daily
Load (TMDL), and Nonpoint Sources
Programs
BARRIER: Challenges in streamlining
TMDL development
States and dischargers in general want to apply
adaptive management approaches to implement
nutrient TMDLs, but have not always been able
to effectively utilize such approaches. Also,
TMDLs are re source-intensive to develop and
take significant time to implement and to
generate improvements.
EPA ACTION:
* Continue working with states to build
understanding of opportunities to use adaptive
management concepts for mixed-source
TMDLs (2013).
BARRIER: Inability to reduce nonpoint
source loads of nitrogen and phosphorus
Unlike states, EPA and citizens cannot enforce
nonpoint source reductions under the Clean
Water Act. Additionally, some states have
expressed the view that trading is constrained
because nonpoint source TMDL allocations
must be met before generating credits for trading
with permitted point sources.
EPA ACTIONS:
* Collaborate with US Department of
Agriculture (USDA) to better quantify the
environmental results of targeting suites of
agricultural conservation practices/BMPs in
priority watersheds (beginning 2013);
* Collaborate with US Department of
Agriculture (USDA) to implement the
National Water Quality Initiative, Mississippi
River Basin Initiative, and other collaborative
efforts to build partnerships at state and local
levels that leverage USDA resources for
conservation practices to reduce nutrients and
other impairments (continue in 2013);
* Continue and improve implementation of the
CWA Section 319 grant program with a focus
on protecting and restoring impaired waters,
including those impaired by nutrients, through
implementation of watershed-based plans
(2014).
* Address the challenges of manure
management by engaging large animal
growers and poultry integrators in
sustainability agreements and practices that
reduce nutrient pollution (begin in 2013); and
* Develop, compile, and share tools that
facilitate identification of specific solutions to
targeting the reduction of nonpoint source
loads (2013).
Permits, Technology, and Compliance
Programs
BARRIER: Problems implementing water
quality-based limits
It may not be feasible for some dischargers to
meet water quality-based effluent limits
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(WQBELs) in the immediate term.
EPA ACTION:
* Develop a compendium of nutrient removal
efficiencies.
BARRIER: Lack of training and tools for
permit writers
Permit writers often lack a translator tool to help
in deriving numeric nutrient WQBELs from
narrative criteria; in addition, there is also no
specific guidance or training for developing
WQBELs when water quality criteria are
measured by the protection of aquatic life rather
than by actual chemical concentrations.
EPA ACTION:
* Continue effort to develop training materials
to aid permit writers in the development of
WQBELs in NPDES permits to address
nutrient pollution (2013).
BARRIER: Difficulty setting case-specific
effluent limit expressions for nutrients
Because regulations generally require the use of
daily, weekly, or monthly effluent limits—
unless impracticable—permitting authorities
find it burdensome and difficult to justify the use
of annual water quality-based effluent limits for
nutrients on a case-by-case basis.
EPA ACTION:
* Develop training materials to aid
permit writers in the development of
WQBELs for nutrient pollution, which will
identify circumstances where annual or
seasonal limits may be appropriate (2013).
future efforts.
For More Information
Contact Mario Sengco sengco .marioigiepa. gov
or (202) 566-2676, or visit the EPA website at
http://www2.epa.gov/nutrientpollution/.
Outcomes
As a result of these actions, EPA hopes to see
broader adoption and implementation of NNC
across the states, and a subsequent reduction in
nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in our surface
waters. The Agency is keenly aware that the
pervasive and pernicious effects of nutrient
pollution cannot be entirely solved simply by
removing the barriers to state implementation of
NNC. However, EPA expects these actions will
result in meaningful reductions in nutrient
pollution entering our water bodies and will
establish a foundation that can be expanded with
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