POTOMAC RIVER SHARED STRATEGY DISCUSSION GROUP SEPTEMBER 25, 2001 MWCOG HANDOUTS • 9/25/01 meeting agenda Chesapeake Bay Tidal Water Designated Uses and Criteria: Draft Recommendations for First Round of Review C2K Water Quality Time-line, Implications for the Potomac River Basin Restoring the Chesapeake Bay, Working Draft Water Quality Criteria Property Managers Conference on Turfgrass and Water Quality announcement, Nov. 8 A Citizen's Guide to the Water Quality Improvement Act of 1998 Fertilizer Practices for Professional Grounds Managers 1. CALL TO ORDER (Simpson) The meeting was called to order at 10:15 a.m. Introductions were made. 2. REVISED TIME LINE (Graham) The basic Chesapeake 2000 Agreement water quality goal is: "By 2010, correct the nutrient and sediment related problems in the Bay and its tidal tributaries sufficiently to remove [them] from the list of impaired waters...". The attainment tower to reach this goal begins with setting the designated uses and water quality criteria, to be completed 2001-2002. The Water Quality Model (WQM) is expected to be approved in October, 2001. In late 2001, the Watershed Model (WSM) will run Scoping Runs, which will be variations of delivered loads to the WQM. The WSM will also run Ranging and Managing Scenarios, which will be defined by the Tributary Strategy Workgroup. The criteria will be adopted as the water quality standards (2003), and will be used in the tributary & state load allocations(2002). Jurisdictions must adopt the new standards as part of their state regulations by December 2003. Each state is required to develop a Use Attainability Analysis (UAA) to show that current uses are not attainable. The UAA is to be completed by June 2002. The states will revise their list of impaired waters based on the water quality standards, as they are setting their tributary strategies. The Potomac River will be one of the most difficult tributaries to allocate source loads. Adjustments to the Potomac River is going to influence load allocations in other tributaries. There are several items of common concern, such as whether the load allocations will be done by state or by source. 3. TIDAL WATER DESIGNATED USES & CRITERIA (Simpson) The Water Quality Steering Committee (WQSC) formed to guide the effort to remove the Bay from the impaired list and develop new water quality standards. The three water quality standards are water clarity, chlorophyll a, and dissolved oxygen. Designated Use Subcategories specify boundaries and ------- seasonal applications of water quality criteria. The following are the use boundary recommendations: 1) migratory spawning and nursery: go with established boundaries; 2) shallow water: keep 2 meters overall, go with draft clarity application depths for specific tidal reaches; 3) open water: upper pycnocline defining lower depth, in ocean exchange areas - down to the bottom; 4) deep water: bounded by upper and lower pycnocline depths; 5) deep channel: lower pycnocline defining upper depth, seasonally unavailable defined by depth to be established. There is a recognition that different zones have different levels and needs. The WQSC has criteria teams responsible for the public review of each criteria. Presently, there are conference calls with the criteria team members to respond to comments. Responses will be posted on their web page. The chlorophyll a criteria is initially focused on five lines of evidence: historical concentrations, ecosystem trophic status, direct contribution to light attenuation, contribution to dissolved oxygen, and higher trophic level food quality. This criteria is clearly still a work in progress, but with definite results to share and approaches to be reviewed. Draft Implementation Plans on how the criteria will be applied helps to address what the models can show us. The Use Attainability Analysis Workgroup (UAA W.G.) is under the WQSC. Each jurisdiction must develop a UAA to show that current uses are not attainable. There are six factors that can be used to demonstrate that uses are attainable or non-attainable. Of those factors are physical, biological, economic and social constraints. Chris Miller, US EPA, is on detail at the Chesapeake Bay Program Office doing use attainability and economic analysis. He is using jurisdictional specific information instead of generic cost curves. SAIC will administer the staff work for these analyses. It will be up to the states to interpret the UAA. 4. EDUCATION/OUTREACH DISCUSSION (All) Virginia is having a nutrient symposium in February, 2002. The symposium will have a Potomac River focus. Land application of biosolids will be looked at, and solutions offered. Virginia is adding five new staff members to their Office of Education/Outreach. Maryland has a couple commercials airing on the Eastern Shore. The commercials were used in Washington State. They explain how driving your car or fertilizing your lawn can directly impact water quality. Tom Simpson handed out several pieces of literature that Maryland has as educational materials. The Chesapeake Bay Program's Education and Communications Subcommittee has requested $1.75 million for a high quality multi-media campaign. The Budget Steering Committee has committed $250,000 for this year, with a state match. This group will continue a discussion on education at future meetings. Each discussion will focus on a specific topic. Suggested topics included urban nutrient management, pollution prevention, and animal 2 ------- waste management. With all topics, each jurisdiction will need to report on their goal, target audience, and information they have available to them in and outside their state. The group will look to see where the gaps are, and will also look at the transferability of the material. The group decided that at the January meeting the topic would be urban nutrient management. They will discuss the use of plants and fertilizers (or alternatives - i.e. Bay Scaping) in urban settings. The topic will not go into storm water. ACTION ITEM: Mary Apostolico will write up a summary on what the Potomac Watershed Group is doing with urban land management. 5. ALLOCATION ISSUES AND OPTIONS (All) The WQSC is looking for guidance on the allocation process for the Potomac River. One of the biggest concerns is all jurisdictions are starting from different levels of implementation and different BMP infrastructure, so it will be difficult to identify the baseline for this distribution. It needs to be determined what effect the Potomac River has on the Bay, the aggregated watershed load. By September 2002, a White Paper will be developed listing out principles and options. The group brain stormed items that need to be considered in the allocation process. Those items are listed below: cost-effectiveness - cost of implementing new practices as well as cost of maintenance of current progress (BMP maintenance) load reduction potential - total vs. remaining by jurisdiction, sector, and/or sub-watershed the definition of base line - what is starting point?; suggested 2000 progress but need to assure credit for WVA implementation before 2000 levels of implementation vs. total potential reduction (accounting for current effort) other/local benefits, including addressing local nutrient or sediment impairments first delivered loads - recognizes that further distance can mean more pound reduction equity - all sectors have a role to play, "equal pain" loss of development opportunities in "rural" areas - favor those areas already developed reasonable science-based approach/goal, in which there is access/influence Once the jurisdictions receive their allocation amount, it will be up to them to determine how to reach their level. Further break-downs of state level allocations will be left to the states as well. 6. "POTOMAC CONGRESS" (All) The "Potomac Congress" was an idea to bring elected and appointed officials to the table, to kick-off the opportunity of a shared strategy. This will hopefully rid the thought of neighbors not doing their part. It was decided that the best time to hold this would be in late July, 2002. Around this time, the numbers will be available for Tributary Strategy development. The meeting will be two-fold, with each 3 ------- jurisdiction meeting separately first, but held on one day. The objective/purpose needs to be further thought out. Initial thoughts are that it will be an opportunity to get feedback before the final strategies are in place, will break down the barrier of frustration with new allocations, will hopefully build a sense of watershed, and can serve as an education forum on the new goals and strategies. Friends of the Potomac or the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay may be potential funding sources. ACTION ITEM: A sub-group will hold a conference call to discuss the "Potomac Congress" further. They will report back to the group in January. Nominated participants included Karl Berger, Mary Apostolico, Danielle Lucid, Norman Goulet, Carlton Haygood, and Tom Basden. 7. FUTURE STEPS (All) ACTION ITEM: Tom Simpson and Ted Graham will develop a straw man draft of the work plan and objectives, for review by the group. 8. ADJOURNMENT (Simpson) The meeting was adjourned at 3:05 p.m. NEXT MEETING The next meeting of the Potomac River Shared Strategy Discussion Group is scheduled for January 16, 2001. The meeting will be held at MWCOG from 10:00-3:00 p.m. PARTICIPANTS Shan Abeywickrama sab evwi ck ram a!xvm de. state. m d. us Mary Apostolico mapostolicofoldcr. state, va.us Tom Basden torn.basden®,mail, wvu.edu Karl Berger kbergerfalmwcog. org Steve Bieber sbieber(3),mde. state.md.us Patrick Bowen patrick.bowenfa),wv.usda.gov Tom Brand tbrandi r(3),vahoo. com Teresa Byler tbvler(3),wvsca. org Ted Graham tgrahamfa), mwcog.org Kelly Greene kellv. greenefoldc. gov Norman Goulet ngouletfalnovaregion.org Carlton Haygood chavwoodfa),potomac-commission.ors John Kennedy j mkennedvfoldeq. state, va.us Danielle Lucid dlucidfoldnr. state.md.us Russ Mader rmaderfa),chesapeakebav.net Paul Massicot pmassicotfoldnr. state.md.us 4 ------- Kenn Pattison Tom Simpson Tanya Spano Julie Trask kpattison@state.pa.us ts82@umail .umd. edu tspano@mwcog. org i trask@chesapeakebav. net 5 ------- |