Development of Criteria and Refined Designated Uses for Bay States Adoption as Water Quality Standar

1
Development of Criteria and Refined Designated
Uses for Bay States Adoption as Water Quality
Standardand BeyondNutrient Subcommittees Role

• Rich Batiuk
• Associate Director for Science
• Chesapeake Bay Program Office

2
Key Players

• Reminder workgroup membership includes the
  following
• PA, MD, VA, DC, DE, NY, WV representatives
• EPA HQ, Region 3 (CBPO, WPD)
• Representatives from each of the Nutrient,
  Modeling, Monitoring, Living Resources, Air
  Subcommittees, as well as the CBPs Scientific
  and Technical Advisory Committee

3
Key Players

• Workplan establishes a series of task groups to
  ensure key experts from across the Bay community
  are directly involved at all steps
• Water Quality Standards
• Monitoring/Modeling Implications
• Water Clarity Criteria
• Dissolved Oxygen Criteria
• Chlorophyll a Criteria
• Task group membership includes state, federal
  managers and staff, Bay scientists, stakeholders

4
Five Principal Tasks

• Identify elements to be included in the standards
• Define series of refined designated uses
• Develop the numerical criteria
• Document standardized determination of attainment
• Provide for scientific and stakeholder review

5
Workplan Schedule

• Fall 1999
• Convene workgroup, draft workplan, mtg. w/EPA HQ
• Winter 2000
• Focus on drafting designated uses which will
  drive application of appropriate criteria
• Agreement on elements within the WQ standards and
  implications for Bay modeling/monitoring
• Set up task groups for criteria development
• Spring 2000
• Focus on criteria development
• Extensive review of draft designated uses

6
Workplan Schedule

• Summer 2000
• Extensive review of draft criteria
• Draft WQ standards attainment procedures
• Fall 2000
• Expanded stakeholder and independent scientific
  review of all interim draft products knit
  together as an integrated package
• Winter 2001
• Approval of resultant refined designated uses,
  applicable criteria, attainment determination
  procedures, and underlying documentation

7
Supporting Scenarios

• Natural Conditions
• Build in recognization of water quality under
  natural conditions into the designated uses
• Determine whether and where physical process and
  natural background nutrient and sediment loads
  combine to effectively eliminate any future
  attainment of water quality conditions necessary
  to fully support the target living resource
  species and communities and thereby, related
  designated uses
• Need scenario run this spring in order to factor
  into designated use refinements

8
Supporting Scenarios

• Permanent Alterations
• Build in recognition we can not go back to John
  Smiths time into how we set our WQ standards
• Determine whether and where permanent
  alterations in the Bays and tidal tributaries
  physical habitats and the Bay watersheds
  landscape and their combined effects on surface
  runoff, stream flow, and resultant
  nutrient/sediment loads would effectively
  eliminate any future attainment of water quality
  conditions necessary to fully support the target
  living resource species and communities and,
  thereby, related designated uses

9
Supporting Scenarios

• Permanent Alterations Scenario Content
• What projection of land use do we use?
• How do we factor in restoration of resource
  lands?
• What human population projections do we use?
• What level of BMP implementation is applied?
• What level of point source concentration/flow are
  used?
• Not looking for the be all, end all of scenarios
• Need to factor some reality on water quality
  limits into refinement of the designated uses
• Need first cut at such a scenario this spring,
  with opportunity for refined scenario further on
  in the year

10
Other Clean Bay by 2010 Needs

• Compile annual BMP implementation data from 1985
  through 1999
• Input for actual hydrology watershed model runs
• Critical for monitoring communitys
  interpretation of non-tidal and tidal water
  quality trends
• Key to evaluation of real implementation
  progress
• Make the 1999 BMP and point source loading
  progress data accessible to your partners
• Key to interpretation of WQ status and trends

11
Other Clean Bay by 2010 Needs

• Help lay out first and second rounds of watershed
  model scenarios
• Finalize whats needed to support interim cap
  strategy development
• Finalize whats need for the June Executive
  Council meeting
• Planning to dedicate spring, summer, fall to
  in-depth WSM scenarios and analysis to position
  us for 2001 focus on cap revision

12
Other Clean Bay by 2010 Needs

• Dust off the Priority Nutrient/Sediment
  Reduction Areas protocol
• Actively apply the protocol in the coming 9
  months to set the stage for revisions to the cap
  in 2001
• Put focus on looking for opportunities for
  further reductions versus naming specific areas
  at this time
• Actively contribute to the content of the
  watershed profiles
• Providing tributary strategy stakeholders with
  direct access to wide array of directly relevant
  information

13
Other Clean Bay by 2010 Needs

• Direct your CBPO Nutrient Team to undertake
  series of in-depth analyses of issues anticipated
  to come up during cap revision process in 2001