1 / 19

By: Carrie Turner Prepared for:

Watershed Management Planning Provides the Primary Support for Selecting Water Quality Improvement Projects. By: Carrie Turner Prepared for: New Jersey Association of Environmental Authorities Annual Conference March 12, 2013. Outline. Why Water Quality? Watershed Assessment Process

gracie
Télécharger la présentation

By: Carrie Turner Prepared for:

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Watershed Management Planning Provides the Primary Support for Selecting Water Quality Improvement Projects By: Carrie Turner Prepared for: New Jersey Association of Environmental Authorities Annual Conference March 12, 2013

  2. Outline • Why Water Quality? • Watershed Assessment Process • Implementation and Regulatory Considerations

  3. Executive Summary • Historically, wet weather discharges are controlled based upon programmatic silo requirements • Watershed and water quality data allow comparison of controls across silos – includes modeling of controls • Watershed and water quality data allow comparisons that will provide basis for choosing controls with greatest environmental benefit

  4. Why Use Water Quality? • Water quality improvement is the driving force behind the Clean Water Act • Ultimately success and need for controls will be defined by waterway conditions (“fishable and swimmable”) • Water quality spans all of the elements in the EPA’s Integrated Planning Framework • Water quality provides a common interest for regulatory, utility and stakeholders to reference

  5. Traditional Management Approach

  6. Integrated Management Approach

  7. Watershed Assessment Approach • Characterize watershed • Monitoring • Develop analysis tools/models • Set factors to prioritize evaluation of controls • Use tools to evaluate controls • Public and other stakeholders have an important role in identifying and prioritizing controls • Develop the Integrated Plan • Incorporate affordability into planning and scheduling

  8. Watershed Characterization • Objective • Identify impairments in local waterways • Not meeting designated uses • Exceedances of water quality standards • Adverse impacts • Identify impairments (responses), their causes (stressors or pollutants) and sources in the watershed

  9. Conceptual Examples of Source-Stressor-Response Approach in Watershed Characterization

  10. Watershed Characterization Steps • Identify impairments and/or other adverse impacts in the waterways Answer the Question: Why is the waterway not meeting WQS? i.e., bacteria levels are too high, metals are toxic to biota, etc. • Identify pollution parameters of concern and other stressors to the watershed system; Answer the Question: What pollutants in the waterway don’t meet WQS or threshold criteria? • Identify all potential pollutant sources and quantify their impact on the waterway Answer the Question: What does the waterway’s pollutant pie chart look like? • Identify critical conditions affecting waterway and watershed sources. Answer the Question: What conditions is the waterway most sensitive to and what are the associated sources? Percent of Time Meeting WQS

  11. Tools to Conduct Watershed Characterization • Data and Monitoring • Data Types • Monitoring Considerations • GIS/Spatial Data • Models • Infrastructure • Watershed • Waterway • Other Analysis Tools • Watershed Health Index

  12. Setting Prioritization Factors • Important to gauge success • Reflect community priorities • Examples of Water Quality factors • Increase in WQ Standard compliance • Stream miles improved • Load reduction • Other factors to consider • Public health risk • Flooding • Protection of drinking water supply

  13. Using Water Quality to Identify Mix of Controls

  14. Identifying Control Opportunities

  15. Evaluating an Integrated Control Plan Blue = 2030 Baseline Green = 2030 Traditional Plan Yellow = 2030 Integrated Plan SSO area: Difference between blue and green is elimination of SSOs. Difference between green and yellow is added benefit of example Watershed Control Program. CSO area: Int. Plan has better WQ than Traditional Plan with lower level of CSO control Recreation Season Geometric Mean Density (cfu/100 ml) Headwaters: Only Int. Plan improves WQ

  16. Developing a Watershed-Based Cost-Performance Analysis

  17. Planning with Multiple Stressors Strategies: • Use ranking system • Aggregate pollutants • Address most disruptive stressor first

  18. Putting It All Together:Watershed-Based Permitting

  19. The End: Questions and Discussion Additional Information: Carrie Turner LimnoTech (734) 332-1200 cturner@limno.com www.limno.com

More Related