October 5th is a busy evening in Northern Virginia for the environment. On the agenda for the October 5th meeting of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, is a proposal to change to the zoning and land use regulations within the county. Currently chickens and other farm animals are allowed on 2 acres or more of agricultural land, but only if there's no house on the land. If there's a house, the property is considered residential and chickens are not allowed. County staff and Planning Commission have offered two differing recommendations for changes to the zoning regulations. The Planning Commission would allow chickens on properties under two acres within the county's rural area, whereas staff recommended that all properties should have to be at least two acres. Two emus, ostriches and similar large birds would be allowed on parcels of at least two acres, but less than 10 acres.
There are two risks that should be carefully considered by the Prince William Board of County Supervisors when making this decision, potential contamination of the drinking water supply for the area and potential for contaminated runoff to impact the Chesapeake Bay. As our area has become more suburban, density has increased, along with the utilization of groundwater for domestic purposes and the density of septic systems. This suburban development has increased the suburban runoff and nutrient contamination to our groundwater and watershed. The proposed zoning change would allow additional nutrient load in the form of backyard poultry. Unless, the county intends to regulate the micro poultry “farms” and require the implementation of and maintenance of BMPs to manage the waste and locating of coops according to the protective separation requirements of the septic regulations, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors should consider only the more conservative staff recommendation.
Also on October 5th is the Northern Virginia’s EPA's Chesapeake Bay TMDL public meeting. The meeting is being held on October 5th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at the Annandale, campus of Northern Virginia Community College. The address and building appear in the list below. There are 4 public meetings and a webinar scheduled for Virginia. The meetings are scheduled to allow EPA to have a 40-45 minutes presentation, followed by an overview of the Virginia WIP for 15-20 minutes, followed by Q&A and public comments for about 1 hour.
Over the past quarter century the excess nutrient contamination to the Chesapeake Bay has decreased, but the Bay’s waters remain seriously degraded. As a result, US EPA has taken control of the situation and has developed a new federally mandated total maximum daily load, TMDL, of contaminants to restore the local waters. The TMDL (released as a Draft standard in July) allocates a pollution budget among the states which will decrease over time. There is no segment of the Virginia watershed that meets the TMDL at this time, yet Prince William is considering increasing the nutrient load on properties by allowing backyard poultry.
Virginia's secretary of natural resources, Doug Domenech, submitted Virginia's Watershed Implementation Plan to the Environmental Protection Agency on Sept. 3, 2010. For the urban and suburban storm water to meet the federal mandated pollution diet, new developments will be subject to storm water management, urban nutrient management and erosion and sediment controls that have recently be implemented and development of a nutrient exchange program to encourage voluntary implementation of BMPs (best management practices). However, the new storm water regulations will not address the sediment and nutrient loads associated with existing development and septic systems, or even the proposed expansion of residential nutrient loads by allowing backyard poultry. EPA is mandating nutrient and sediment reductions to the EPA’s determined acceptable level on a segment by segment basis. Prince William Board of County Supervisors needs to carefully consider what steps they are going to have to take to meet the federally mandated reduction in TMDL when considering any zoning changes. Even with statewide compliance and the new storm water management regulation the WIP talks of restrictions on lawn and turf fertilizers, increasing regulation on both traditional and alternative septic systems. Increasing the waste load from backyard poultry does not fit into these reductions in nutrient runoff.
The WIP does not specify how Virginia will reduce nonpoint runoff pollution from farms, suburban and urban areas beyond allowing the local governments to make those decisions. Prince William Board of County Supervisors have the opportunity to demonstrate how communities in Virginia will rise to the occasion. The reaction by EPA to the WIP and their comments at the public meetings will tell us if the federal regulators intend to regulate down to the suburban backyard or if they will allow the Commonwealth to have the local communities address how to reduce their contributions to pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. The actions of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors will tell us if they can rise to the challenge of restoring and managing our natural resources.
The Prince William Board of County Supervisors will meet on Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010, in the Board Chambers of the James J. McCoart Administration Building. The zoning change is scheduled for the evening session.
EPA's Chesapeake Bay TMDL public meetings are being held in Virginia October 4th to 7th 2010.
October 4 - from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Grafton Theatre, James Madison University, 281 Warren Service Drive, Harrisonburg, VA.
October 5 - from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale Campus, Ernst Community Cultural Center, 8333 Little River Turnpike, Annandale VA
October 6 - from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Robins Pavilion Jepson Alumni Center, University of Richmond, 28 Westhampton Way, Richmond, VA
October 7, webinar 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/689259867
October 7 - from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Crowne Plaza Hampton Marina Hotel, 700 Settlers Landing Road, Hampton, VA
Showing posts with label Chesapeake Bay Basin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chesapeake Bay Basin. Show all posts
Monday, October 4, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Chesapeake Bay Basin Pollution Diet Support Group
Over the past quarter century the excess nutrient contamination to the Chesapeake Bay has decreased, but the Bay’s waters remain seriously degraded. As a result, US EPA has taken control of the situation and has developed a new federally mandated Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) of nutrients and sediments to restore the local waters. The TMDL (released as a Draft standard in July) allocates a pollution budget among the states and is intended to decrease over time with the goal of restoring the Chesapeake Bay to the best conditions observed in the past 70 years. EPA describes the TMDL as a pollution diet and appropriately enough has created a diet support group. EPA has been having a series of webinars to provide the latest news, information, support and guidance for the state regulators and to provide an approach to implementing the new federal standards in the six Bay watershed states and the District of Columbia.
In the past 25 years much of the improvement in the Chesapeake Bay water quality has been achieved through regulation and control of point source contamination coming from sewage treatment plants and industrial plants combined with the improved management practices in agriculture. During this period, storm water pollution prevention and management planes were developed and implemented for large scale commercial construction. The largest producers of pollution have been regulated. The new pollution diets mandated by the EPA will require more reductions and a new strategy for achieving these reductions.
Nutrient and sediment contamination from mixed open, urban runoff and septic have all increased with the growing population and expanding suburbs over the past 25 years. So, while agricultural and industrial pollution have reduced their contamination of the Chesapeake Bay basin by a quarter to over half depending on which nutrient and which model is used to measure the pollution, the nutrient pollution form open space, urban runoff and septic have grown. To meet the new TMDLs sediment and nutrient limits that are being mandated by the US EPA the six Chesapeake Bay water shed states and Washington DC are going to have to reduce the nutrient pollution and sediment from urban and suburban residential sources.
The historic regulatory approach will not work with home owners and other small source contributors. Households do not have compliance officers to generate Storm Water Management Plans and implement and maintain best management practices. Many homeowners are not educated on the appropriate steps that should be taken to reduce run off and impact from their properties. Instead they are bombarded with advertisements for lawn care products, services and sprinkler systems and pressured by homeowner associations to maintain the appearance of their properties. Hospitals, libraries, schools, public spaces, parks, and retail locations are all landscaped and watered. The old maximum recommended elapsed time for pumping a septic tank is the one required in sensitive areas within the watershed and it is not monitored and enforced. Many homeowners seem unaware that septic systems require maintenance and care. We wash our cars in driveways instead of utilizing commercial operations with recycled water. There is no easy or obvious way to change this.
The entire state and Federal regulatory structure is geared toward large deep pocket corporate sources of contamination not towards ensuring that septic tanks are pumped with adequate frequency, fertilizer is used sparingly (if at all in ornamental applications) and storm water is adequately controlled in all areas. Many small and older developments were built without addressing the storm water flow and sheet flow of water off streets. This clearly needs to be addressed, but how that is to be accomplished in a non-punitive manner and consistently enforce and implemented is not clear. DC’s idea of requiring every structure of more than 5,000 square feet to have a Storm Water Management Plan does not appear workable in the suburbs where mile of developments were built without urban storm sewers, without storm water management plans, or the plans have proved inadequate over time.
I do not know how to improve homeowner behavior in maintaining a septic systems, lawns, garden care and in managing run off to and from residential properties without creating a regulatory and bureaucratic nightmare for the homeowner and a quagmire for the regulators. I look forward to reviewing the Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) when it is released for comment on September 24th 2010 to see how our regulators have chosen to approach the problem if at all in this first iteration of the WIP. I am planning on attending one of the Virginia meetings for a complete list of meetings go to the EPA web page listing. We should all be informed and know what the regulatory community has planned for us.
The schedule for the EPA public comment meetings in all jurisdictions can also be found on the EPA Bay TMDL page at http://www.epa.gov/reg3wapd/pdf/pdf_chesbay/BayTMDL2010PublicMeetingDates.pdf
In the past 25 years much of the improvement in the Chesapeake Bay water quality has been achieved through regulation and control of point source contamination coming from sewage treatment plants and industrial plants combined with the improved management practices in agriculture. During this period, storm water pollution prevention and management planes were developed and implemented for large scale commercial construction. The largest producers of pollution have been regulated. The new pollution diets mandated by the EPA will require more reductions and a new strategy for achieving these reductions.
Nutrient and sediment contamination from mixed open, urban runoff and septic have all increased with the growing population and expanding suburbs over the past 25 years. So, while agricultural and industrial pollution have reduced their contamination of the Chesapeake Bay basin by a quarter to over half depending on which nutrient and which model is used to measure the pollution, the nutrient pollution form open space, urban runoff and septic have grown. To meet the new TMDLs sediment and nutrient limits that are being mandated by the US EPA the six Chesapeake Bay water shed states and Washington DC are going to have to reduce the nutrient pollution and sediment from urban and suburban residential sources.
The historic regulatory approach will not work with home owners and other small source contributors. Households do not have compliance officers to generate Storm Water Management Plans and implement and maintain best management practices. Many homeowners are not educated on the appropriate steps that should be taken to reduce run off and impact from their properties. Instead they are bombarded with advertisements for lawn care products, services and sprinkler systems and pressured by homeowner associations to maintain the appearance of their properties. Hospitals, libraries, schools, public spaces, parks, and retail locations are all landscaped and watered. The old maximum recommended elapsed time for pumping a septic tank is the one required in sensitive areas within the watershed and it is not monitored and enforced. Many homeowners seem unaware that septic systems require maintenance and care. We wash our cars in driveways instead of utilizing commercial operations with recycled water. There is no easy or obvious way to change this.
The entire state and Federal regulatory structure is geared toward large deep pocket corporate sources of contamination not towards ensuring that septic tanks are pumped with adequate frequency, fertilizer is used sparingly (if at all in ornamental applications) and storm water is adequately controlled in all areas. Many small and older developments were built without addressing the storm water flow and sheet flow of water off streets. This clearly needs to be addressed, but how that is to be accomplished in a non-punitive manner and consistently enforce and implemented is not clear. DC’s idea of requiring every structure of more than 5,000 square feet to have a Storm Water Management Plan does not appear workable in the suburbs where mile of developments were built without urban storm sewers, without storm water management plans, or the plans have proved inadequate over time.
I do not know how to improve homeowner behavior in maintaining a septic systems, lawns, garden care and in managing run off to and from residential properties without creating a regulatory and bureaucratic nightmare for the homeowner and a quagmire for the regulators. I look forward to reviewing the Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) when it is released for comment on September 24th 2010 to see how our regulators have chosen to approach the problem if at all in this first iteration of the WIP. I am planning on attending one of the Virginia meetings for a complete list of meetings go to the EPA web page listing. We should all be informed and know what the regulatory community has planned for us.
The schedule for the EPA public comment meetings in all jurisdictions can also be found on the EPA Bay TMDL page at http://www.epa.gov/reg3wapd/pdf/pdf_chesbay/BayTMDL2010PublicMeetingDates.pdf
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