At last Tuesday’s Board of County Supervisors meeting the Ben Eib a Senior Environmental Program Manager in the Stormwater Branch of the County government gave an update on the Watershed Improvement Program as it pertains to the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load, TMDL.
The TMDL sets a total Chesapeake Bay watershed limit for the
six states and Washington DC of daily releases of nitrogen, phosphorus and
sediment per year. The Virginia TMDL translates into a 25% reduction of
nitrogen and sediment and a 24% reduction in phosphorus and a 20% reduction in
sediment from 2009 the base year. The Virginia TMDL is further broken down into
the 39 segments of the river basins that are in Virginia and EPA established a
specific TMDL for each segment that must be met.
Virginia developed Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs) for
the Commonwealth that identified the MS4 General Permit as one of the key mechanism
for enforcing load reductions in urbanized areas. In the latest MS4 General
Permit Virginia added special conditions to the permit to address the
reductions required by the TMDL for the pollutants of concern- nitrogen,
phosphorus and sediment. The WIPs intended the reductions to be achieved over
the course of three 5-year permit cycles, with the first cycle (2013 – 2018)
requiring 5% of the reductions be achieved. Reduction requirements for the
second and third permit cycles are anticipated to increase substantially,
requiring an additional 35% (2018 – 2023) and 60% (2024 – 2029) of the
reductions be achieved.
So, as Prince William moves forward to renewal of our permit
in December 2023 Mr. Eib updated the Board of County Supervisors on how we are
doing, what actions are planned and what some of are projects look like.
These are Prince William County’s TMDL pollution reduction
goals:
pounds per year reduction needed
Here is how we are doing against our goals:
As you can see we are ahead of plan for phosphorus and sediment, but behind plan for nitrogen. Mr. Eibe is confident that Prince William will meet their 2029 target.
The tools Prince William uses to meet these goals is:
Stream restoration
 |
| This is after the first year of the Powell's Creek stream restoration phase 1 |
Stormwater retrofits/ conversion of dry ponds to constructed wetland
Reforestation
 |
| It will be decades before the trees actually grow to be a forest |
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