EBC Water Resources Committee Meeting Overview of Current Water Related Issues at Mass DEP With Ann Lowery, Deputy Assistant Commissioner

8/10/2019 EBC Water Resources Committee Meeting Overview of Current Water Related Issues at Mass DEP With Ann Lowery, Deputy Assistant Commissioner

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Water Resources UpdateWater Resources Update EnvironmentalBusiness Council October 28, 2014

Ann Lowery

Deputy Assistant CommissionerBureau of Resource Protection, MassDEP



Overview

– Sustainable Water Management

– Stormwater and MS4

– Cape and the “208” plan

– Water Infrastructure bill

–

Climate Change efforts – Regulatory improvements



Water Management Act

A new permitting framework

• What is SWMI? - Sustainable WaterManagement Initiative - created in 2010 by the

Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs

Developed with input from a wide range ofstakeholders and support from the MassDEPand DFG, DCR and EOEEA.

Purpose: to reevaluate the way theCommonwealth manages water so that there isenough for the many and sometimes competinglong-term water needs of our communities andaquatic ecosystems.



New regulations: 310 CMR 36

The changes will establish a comprehensivewater management framework developed

though the Sustainable Water ManagementInitiative (SWMI)

Designed to ensure safe water withdrawals fromrivers and watersheds that reflect a carefullydeveloped balance among many interests.



Safe Yield and Streamflow criteria

a new methodology for calculating the “safe yield” of awatershed

a new approach to permitting which includes “streamflowcriteria”



Other new concepts for permitting

Baseline: The volume of water over which a permittee will be required tomitigate the impacts of increasing withdrawal volumes.

Permit Review Categories: Permit review categories, or “tiers,” whichdetermine the requirements for obtaining a WMA permit.

Minimization Requirements: Permitted withdrawers in our mostdepleted subbasins will have to minimize the impact of theirwithdrawal to the extent feasible through a combination of increasedconservation, optimization of withdrawal points, and returning water to

the subbasin.

Mitigation Requirements: Applicants seeking an increased withdrawalover their baseline (permit tiers 2 and 3) will be required to developand implement mitigation plans to offset the impacts of their increasedwithdrawal, to the extent feasible.



Implementation tools

A permitting Guidance Document has been created to assistpermittees with the application and permit implementationprocesses.

GIS Interactive Tool – (on line). Will display biological categories,groundwater withdrawal categories, and net groundwater depletiondata layers that were developed through the SWMI process.

WMA Permitting Tool - The WMA Permitting Tool, can be used by

Public Water Suppliers (PWS), consultants, watershed groups,government agencies and others to evaluate the impact ofgroundwater withdrawals.



Grant Funding

Grant funding for implementation projects: Two rounds of

funding have provided support for 27 projects to date.

A request for proposals for third round closed on October 9th. Awards of another million dollars in funding expected to beannounced this year to support municipalities implement new

permit conditions.



Next steps

Consultation session for South Coastal Basin 10/30

After South Coastal: – Cape Cod (workshop in January 2015), – Buzzards Bay (workshop in February 2015), – Ipswich (workshop in March 2015), and – Boston Harbor and Taunton (April 2015).

Grant Funding Awards



Stormwater Municipal Stormwater

Systems (MS4)

Previous general permit(2003) expired.

New Draft MS4 permitavailable for public commentuntil December 29th

Public Information session10/30 in Boston at EPA

Public Hearing: November17, Leominster PublicLibrary



EPA’s highlights

Enhanced illicit discharge detection and elimination(IDDE) requirements to identify, isolate and remove

sanitary and other wastes from the stormwatersystem;

Water quality monitoring of stormwater discharges;

Encouragement of low impact development and

green infrastructure techniques; and Requirements designed to implement approved total

maximum daily load (TMDL) waste load allocations(WLAs).



Municipal Assistance and MS4

The commonwealth is committed to working with municipalities to assist themin meeting the terms of the permit -- and by doing so making real improvementsto our water bodies that receive these stormwater discharges.

The 30 town Central Massachusetts Regional Stormwater Coalition - createdto develop and implement common stormwater education and trainingprograms and a regional data management system.

The Coalition has worked on ways for towns to reduce their costs associatedwith implementing new stormwater requirements, like developing a a single

(rather than 30 separate) outreach and education programs, and creating anequipment sharing program.

The Coalition has partnered with Worcester Polytechnic Institute, to help themestimate the costs of implementing new federal stormwater requirements, anddevelop mapping standards.



Transferability – and New Coalitions

The coalition has shared their products - hoping to promote theformation of and assist other such regional groups in their efforts to

implement new stormwater programs.

New regional stormwater collaboratives have formed following theCentral Region example – hoping to create more useful (transferrable)tools for stormwater implementation.

Stormwater coalitions across the state recently received over$516,000 in support from the Patrick Administration’s CommunityInnovation Challenge 2014 grant program.



Cape Cod and Water Quality

The Problem:

Increased population and development on Cape Cod hasresulted in excessive amounts of nutrients being dischargedinto sensitive resources, making our local estuaries lessdesirable for activities such as fishing, swimming, and boating.



Updating the 208 Plan

MassDEP is currently leading a stakeholder driven effort toupdate its Regional Water Quality Management Plan (alsoreferred to as a Section 208 plan) for Cape Cod.

With funding from the Commonwealth, the Cape CodCommission is working on the updated plan – which is nowavailable for public comment (until November 20).

The goal: of this process is to generate a unified framework foractivities to abate water pollution on Cape Cod, integratingpollution control technologies for the region that will work andare agreeable to regional areas encompassing multiplecommunities.



Regional collaborative approach

Common problem - Nitrogen loading is a Cape-wide problem,

Estuaries and impairments cross town boundaries

Cost estimates for implementing the solution range from $3 to 8 billion, withthe lower range based on a regional solution. A regional solution will:

– Facilitate a more holistic, watershed-based approach to addressing nitrogenimpacts;

– Limit the amount of infrastructure needed by building “shared” systems targetedtowards area of greatest need;

– Allow greater opportunity for solutions involving decentralized and innovativeapproaches, and continued use of conventional septic systems whereappropriate; and

– Achieve greatest economies of scale, and spread costs over the largest numberof users.



New tools

Multi Variant Planner

GIS interactive tools Cost information

Matrix of nitrogen reduction technologies

Using all tools: to achieve the optimal mix ofapproaches



Next steps

End of public comment

Revise Plan Governor to designate implementing

authority

Municipal involvement and commitment toplanning



Water Infrastructure

Chapter 259 of Acts of 2014

State Revolving Fund changes

MWPAD now Clean Water Trust

Increased cap on the Commonwealth’s annual

interest subsidy from $88m to $133M. Nofunds appropriated.

Amendments to regulations – to implementnew subsidies.

Planning grants – for three categories:

CWMPs, Asset Management, and greeninfrastructure planning.

$3 million, with $30K cap

MassDEP will administer

RFP expected to be out this year



Infrastructure…

CEC innovation grants – $1.5 million

Watershed permitting – and 20 year permits

Regional entry fee grants – 1:1 matching grant program. No

funds appropriated.



Climate Change efforts

Reg changes- emergency declarations (Wetlands)

Streamcrossing standards (Wetlands)

Evaluating precipitation models (Wetlands)

Flooding pilot communities (with EPA) (WW and DW)



Climate change efforts…

Planning grants (DMS)

State Revolving Fund Loans (DMS)

Energy independence – and Resiliencysupport

New positions: – MassDEP emergency response contact: Nick Child – New climate change coordinator for BRP (in process)





Thank you

Contact information:

Ann Lowery617/ 292-5846

[email protected]

Documents

EBC Water Resources Committee Meeting Overview of Current Water Related Issues at Mass DEP With Ann Lowery, Deputy Assistant Commissioner