Staff of the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program Office have their noses to the grindstone as they feverishly work to complete the computer modeling and the analysis of the modeling results necessary for the proposal of the Chesapeake Bay TMDL this fall.
Last year, the EPA expected that the TMDL would be proposed in May, but that proposal date has now been pushed back until sometime in the fall because of a number of issues cropping up, including working out the kinks in the latest updates to the modeling software. Nevertheless, the EPA is committed to finalizing the Bay TMDL by the end of this year with an expectation that new restrictions on nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment discharges will be reflected in all NPDES permits in the bay watershed in 2011.
While the EPA is concentrating on putting together the TMDL, the states in the bay watershed are busily putting together their Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs), which will contain the details of the actions that each state will take to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment loadings during the period of 2011 through 2017, which runs to the midpoint of the bay restoration program.
By 2017, each state is expected to have achieved 60% of the pollutant reductions necessary to meet their state TMDL water quality goals, and to have completed an outline of how the state will achieve the remaining pollutant reductions by the end of 2025.
Because of the severity of the pollutant reductions needed and the lack of state experience in putting together WIPs, the EPA is not expecting the states to finalize their WIPs until sometime in 2011, after the TMDL has been finalized. In addition, each state must publish its two-year milestones for the 2012-2014 period by January 2012. The two-year milestones consist of short-term actions and goals that the state will use to comply with the new requirements.
Because of the many challenges that the EPA and the states face to complete the TMDL by the end of 2010, only a very short public comment period might be provided for the proposed rule, perhaps as little as 30 days. NAHB has used several forums to voice its opposition to a shortened comment period for the proposed rule, even though the EPA has not sought public comment on the matter.
On May 6, the EPA met with representatives of the “development community” at the NAHB offices in Washington, D.C. Attending the meeting were NAHB staff members, developers, builders and representatives from other trade associations involved in development activities.
Prior to the meeting, the EPA aired a three-hour on Chesapeake Bay issues of interest to the development community. The intent of the morning webinar and the afternoon meeting was two-fold:
- For EPA to provide the latest thoughts on potential new Chesapeake Bay TMDL requirements for development and redevelopment
- For NAHB to talk to EPA about its concerns, comments and suggestions concerning the potential new Bay requirements. At EPA’s request, other development organizations were invited to listen to the webinar and discussion and participate if they wish. NAHB also provided a conference call number for its members to listen in to the afternoon meeting.
The EPA made plain that the TMDL will be very challenging and that all stakeholders should be working with their particular state to provide their input to the state as it develops its plans for meeting the TMDL requirements.
During the meeting, both NAHB and the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program Office expressed their desire to establish a long-term relationship to continue the discussion of new requirements affecting development and redevelopment. It was also mentioned that other federal agencies that lend money to developers, and those that have an interest in affordable housing, have been missing — but should be a part of — these storm water discussions about new requirements on development.
For more information, contact Jim McCulley at LandmarkJCM
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