Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Environmental Planning: October 14: WATER POLLUTION

Water Pollution
  1. 40% of the nation's water ways are impaired (you can't swim or drink from them)
    1. 20% improvement from before the clean water act
  2. Public health threats
  3. Increasing costs of clean up
    1. almost always cheaper to avoid the pollution in the first place than to allow the pollution and pay to clean it up
  4. Stormwater runoff
    1. point (factories, sewage treatment) vs. nonpoint (can't pin it down) sources
    2. non-point is 70% (the bigger problem)
    3. cities--> combined sewer overflow (becomes point)
    4. agriculture
3 kinds of pollution
  1. physical
    1. erosion
  2. biological
    1. bacteria
  3. chemical
    1. PCBs, PCEs
    2. Nitrates and phosphorus are the two big ones know as NUTRIENT POLLUTION
      1. Organic vs. Inorganic
      2. nutrients are necessary for growth, but too much washes off and gets into groundwater. eventually it will cause algae bloom (a problem).
        E.G. CHESAPEAKE
      3. when the blooms die they sink and suck up the oxygen resulting in HYPOXIA--the absence of oxygen E.G. GULF OF MEXICO (mississip holds all the agricultural runoff and dumps it)
  4. Ground water
    1. hard to clean up
    2. recharge/filter issues

  5. Surface
    1. easy to pollute
    2. moving (aerate)
    3. wetlands/filter/buffer
    4. temperature: if it is warmer it is not going to filter as easily (it is worse)
    5. dissolved oxygen (when there is enough aeration the fish can breath. algae eats this up. fish die)
    6. BOD: Biological Oxygen Demand, how much oxygen is being used and how much oxygen the water can hold. Measure of ability of wildlife to assimilate waste.
FIX

Clean Water Act 1972
  1. Permits: NPDES--> original thinking was that we would eliminate all discharge into the water system, Administered by EPA
    1. Permit contents:
      1. what and how much you are discharging
      2. five year permit
      3. case by case
        1. extremely difficult to determine the health of the watershed
      4. point sources
      5. Confined Animal Feeding Operation's have to have NPDES permits
      6. Phase I and Phase II
        1. for construction sites greater or equal to one acre.
        2. silk fences
        3. ponds
      7. SPDES permit (speedies)
        1. if EPA doesn't want to do it they can hand it to the state
    2. Section 208
      1. grants for sewage treatment plants; $ billions of dollars. they are now 30 years old.
    3. Section 404
      1. Wetlands
        1. Army Core of Engineers-Permitting
        2. How do you define a wetland?
          1. one of the most controversial things in the last five years
          2. land owners don't want their land to be a wetland because it is much more difficult to develop
    4. Section 319
      1. Non Point
    5. Section 303(d)
      1. every two years the state is supposed to send the EPA a list of impaired waters
      2. TMDLs-->total maximum daily load
        1. EPA ignored it for 22 years
        2. National Resource Defense Council sues EPA
        3. TMDLs are so much better because it is an assessment of what the WATERSHED can hold and still meet Class A and Class B water quality standards
          1. figure out major pollutants in waterway
          2. allocate an amount to each polluter
          3. STATE's responsibility
            1. the EPA can step in and do them...if they want
PROBLEM BETWEEN THE SCIENCE AND THE LAW


  1. What is an estuary: it is where freshwater and saltwater meet
    1. they clean freshwater
    2. they create a very specific habitat for shellfish and mollusks
    3. major breading and feeding ground
      1. E.G. THE CHESAPEAKE

SLIDE SHOW

With more vegetation (sponging) you will have lower peaks

Los Angeles River

604 B state water quality planning and assessment grants. Can be used for monitoring water (TMDLs)

Three levels of treatment:
Primary: removes solids and some nutrients from the water. Primary treatment remoces about 60% of solids, which contain most of the chemical and biological contaminants in sewage,a dna third of the inorganic nutrients
secondary: uses chemical and bio treatments to break down organic matter and remove chemicals, Secondary treatment is the minimum treatment now required under the CWA for potable water, and nearly all municipal treatment plants treat sewage this level. Not two thirds of all US residents are served by secondary sewage treatment plants
Disinfection
after secondary treatment the treated water is disinfect with choline flouride or ozone to kill bacteria
Tertiary treatment is mainly use when the reviving body of water has a very high quality. One type is tertiary treatment is membrane filtration in which traps contaminants yet allows water to pass through. Tertiary treatment removes virtually all contaminants, including suspended and dissolved solids, chemicals, and pathogens. It is the only process that is effective in removing parasites such as cryptospiridium. Wastewater that undergoes tertiary treatment is generaly safe for drinking and swimming.

Commercial brings two problems: impermeable roofs and parking

Bringing Back the Chesapeake Bay:Environmental Panning Challenges and Opportunities

Lots of Ag, lots of forest,
The bay is most of maryland
48 rivers, 100 smaller rivers, 25 miles wide, 200 miles wide OBVI vulnerable to lots of non point pollution

shallow depth makes it difficult to flush out pollutants, the sun can much more easily warmed up.

excess nutrients cause algae blooms
submerged vegetation is key for fish
turbidity of the water also blocks sunlight to the vegetation
basics--> the veg is dying.

bivalves filter water--> oysters ROCK because of this

Primary Pollution Threats to the Chesapeak
  • Nitrogen
    • Sewage Treatment Plants
    • Fertilizers on lawns and farms
    • manure from livestock
    • on-site septic systems
    • cars and trucks
    • acid deposition
  • Phosphorus
    • Urban Stormwater Runoff
      • Put on plants around streets
      • Detergent
  • Toxics--Factories and Stormwater Runoff
  • Sediment
2004
  • The U.S. EPA includes the Chesapeake Bay on its list of impaired waters.
  • The states bordering the bay must draft and implement plans to improve the water quality by 2010. Otherwise, the EPA will draft a TMDL plan for the plan.
  • A low oxygen dead zone (hypoxia) in 40% of the Bay
  • Loss of underwater grasses
  • high turbidity
  • rivers leading to Chesapeake a prob
  • Susquehanna (headwaters in Oswego): most endangered river--American Rivers.org
Recent Land Use Change
  • We found that rates of change across the Chesapeake Bay watershed are comparable to what has been observed in the Washington, DC area. Between 1990 and 300, there has been a 61% increase in developed area.
Eight Main Efforts
  • Urban Storm Water Management
  • BMP on Farms and Construction to minimize soil Erosion/Nutrient Loading
  • Stream buffers with Trees
  • Wetlands Restoration
  • Reduced Use of On-Site Septic Systems
  • Point Source Reduction
  • Land Preservation
  • Land Use Planning for Compact Growth
Marylands Smart Growth 1997
  • Priority Funding Areas
  • Live near your work program
  • job creation tax credit
  • brownfields redevelopment
  • rural legacy program
Flush Ta
Maryland must upgrade 66 sewage treatment plants
MD households must pay $2.50 a month if on central sewer or $30 a year if using on site septics - pay for $750 million in bonds
Must reduce effluent from sewage treatment plants to 3mg/liter of Nitrogen and .3 mg/liter of phosphorus

Problem is that the Chesapeake is being impacted by the Sesquehana.

Chesapeake Bay Commission
  • formed in 1980
  • Maryland, Penn, Virginia
  • legislative arm is the commission and plays and advisory role to legislatures
    • 1600+ governments
  • instrumental in Chesapeake bay agreements '83, '87, 2000.
CB AGREEMENT 2000
  • super aggressive
  • 50% reduction in nitrogen and phosphorus loadings
  • permanent preservation of one-fifth of the land in the Bay watershed
  • 8.5 billion over 10 years
  • CBC said $18.7 billion
Maryland's Water Quality Protection Efforts
Farmland Preservation Program 1977
Critical Areas Law, 1984
Forest Conservation Act, 1991
ReLeaf Program, 1996
STATE PLANNING ACT, 1992
Tributary Teams, 1993
Storm Water Management Guidelines, 1983, 2000
Smart Growth Legislation, 1997
Smart Growth
Flush Tax s. Ethonol production

Design Guidelines for Smart Growth
  • Density, walkability, mixed uses
  • mass transit
  • greenspace
  • historic preservation and adaptive reuse
  • brownfields
  • infill
  • smart codes
Land Preservation
  • 15% inside the watershed is preserved
  • preserve another 330,000 acres by the year 2020
Shortcomings
  • County zoning varies considerably
  • need better control of onsite septics
  • lack of growth boundaries
  • more mass transit
  • growth tracking
  • lack of regional government: There are 1650 local governemnts with the bay watershed, each with their own planning and zoning powers, subject to some state regulations
Good things
priority funding area
land preseration
bmp
watershed approach
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