WolfeNotes.com

Delaware River, just below Water Gap

You gotta read the fine print to find the smoking guns.

In this excerpt from DEP’s proposed new regulations, DEP’s admits that they are rolling back implementation of strict water quality standards adopted in 2004 to limit the discharge of phoshorus from sewage treatment plants. Phosphorus is a nutrient that causes a process known as eutrophication, or excessive plant growth that chokes off the oxygen in the waterbody and kills aquatic life:

“Water Quality studies conducted pursuant to the Phosphorus Technical Manual were evaluated using response indicators which included dissolved oxygen, dissolved oxygen swing, chlorophyll a and biomass. The thresholds selected were able to discern where phosphorus did not cause impairment. If one indictor exceeded the threshold, the Department concluded that phosphorus did cause impairment and the numeric criterion was appropriate. 

The Department’s experience implementing the Phosphorus Technical Manual further demonstrated that a single numeric criteria may not be appropriate for all waterbodies and that the narrative criteria is a better way to determine where nutrients cause impairment.” (link   see DEP proposal  @ page 22) 

It is unusual to get this kind of complicated regulatory wonk story covered by news media, but Brian Murray at the Star Ledger got it and did a great job:

“New Jersey environmental regulators have proposed rolling back a five-year-old restriction on the levels of phosphorus dumped into the states rivers and streams by sewage plants, angering clean water advocates who say the proposal threatens to roll back hard-fought freshwater initiatives.

The change involves a regulation adopted by the state Department of Environmental Protection in 2004, imposing tough numerical phosphorus standards, measured at the point where sewage plants discharge into streams, that have forced costly upgrades at some plants. Phosphorus is a nutrient, common in lawn fertilizers, but heaviest in treated discharges from sewage plants and it leads to algae blooms and plant growth causing eutrophication, where oxygen is choked from waterways, killing fish and other wildlife.

[...]

“This [DEP proposal] will derail the entire phosphorus initiative. We replaced a subjective narrative standard that was completely unenforceable years ago and came up with a numeric standard with a scientific methodology to measure biological indicators that cause eutrophication. It’s a much tougher standard, and this new proposal rolls that back,” said Bill Wolfe, a former DEP employee and environmental activist. …

The tougher standards were opposed by sewage plant operators who feared it would mean costly plant upgrades and claimed it was unjustified because stream eutrophication also depends on factors such as sunlight and warm temperatures, and conditions vary from stream to stream.

Former DEP Commissioner Campbell, now a private attorney, declined to comment on the proposed regulation change, but said he imposed the tougher regulations in 2004 to address long-delayed water quality concerns.

“The problem with a narrative standard was that it allowed major dischargers in some of New Jersey’s most polluted waters to defer water quality improvements for over a decade. I felt strongly that a numerical standard, coupled with enforcement, was critical if we were going to get any progress on New Jersey’s major water bodies,” he said.”

sewage treatment plant

The Ledger followed up this coverage with an editorial that was surprisingly critical of DEP’s proposal:

“There are compelling reasons to keep the current, rigorous standard. Unlike New York, which has large reservoirs, New Jersey depends largely on its rivers for drinking water.

…  Bill Wolfe, an environmental activist who was involved in setting the numerical standard when he was at DEP five years ago, said returning to more flexible regulation would allow sewage authorities to conduct endless studies and stall the treatments. It would make it “virtually impossible to enforce a standard,” he said. …

Another strong argument came from those notoriously green folks in the Bush administration.

 

In January, just before Obama took office, the Environmental Protection Agency informed Florida officials that a numeric standard on phosphorous was necessary for the state to comply with the Clean Water Act. The Sunshine State had relied on the narrative standard.

 

“Numeric nutrient criteria will provide more precise, predetermined targets . . . and provide greater certainty as to the level of water quality,” the EPA told Florida’s DEP. The federal agency said the narrative approach, “is a difficult, lengthy, and data-intensive undertaking” and causes clean-up delays that would be avoided with a numeric standard.

 

NJ DEP would do well to review Florida’s experience, and heed the EPA’s advice. It’s the best way to protect both drinking water and the eco-system.“

 

The public comment period n the DEP regulatory proposal is closed, so people need to contact the Governor, their NJ legislators, and the DEP Commissioner to urge that the nutrient provisions of the “surface water quality standards proposal” are NOT adopted.