By: Carrie Turner Prepared for:

1. Watershed Management Planning Provides the Primary Support for Selecting Water Quality Improvement Projects By: Carrie Turner Prepared for: New Jersey Association of Environmental Authorities Annual Conference March 12, 2013

2. Outline • Why Water Quality? • Watershed Assessment Process • Implementation and Regulatory Considerations

3. Executive Summary • Historically, wet weather discharges are controlled based upon programmatic silo requirements • Watershed and water quality data allow comparison of controls across silos – includes modeling of controls • Watershed and water quality data allow comparisons that will provide basis for choosing controls with greatest environmental benefit

4. Why Use Water Quality? • Water quality improvement is the driving force behind the Clean Water Act • Ultimately success and need for controls will be defined by waterway conditions (“fishable and swimmable”) • Water quality spans all of the elements in the EPA’s Integrated Planning Framework • Water quality provides a common interest for regulatory, utility and stakeholders to reference

5. Traditional Management Approach

6. Integrated Management Approach

7. Watershed Assessment Approach • Characterize watershed • Monitoring • Develop analysis tools/models • Set factors to prioritize evaluation of controls • Use tools to evaluate controls • Public and other stakeholders have an important role in identifying and prioritizing controls • Develop the Integrated Plan • Incorporate affordability into planning and scheduling

8. Watershed Characterization • Objective • Identify impairments in local waterways • Not meeting designated uses • Exceedances of water quality standards • Adverse impacts • Identify impairments (responses), their causes (stressors or pollutants) and sources in the watershed

9. Conceptual Examples of Source-Stressor-Response Approach in Watershed Characterization

10. Watershed Characterization Steps • Identify impairments and/or other adverse impacts in the waterways Answer the Question: Why is the waterway not meeting WQS? i.e., bacteria levels are too high, metals are toxic to biota, etc. • Identify pollution parameters of concern and other stressors to the watershed system; Answer the Question: What pollutants in the waterway don’t meet WQS or threshold criteria? • Identify all potential pollutant sources and quantify their impact on the waterway Answer the Question: What does the waterway’s pollutant pie chart look like? • Identify critical conditions affecting waterway and watershed sources. Answer the Question: What conditions is the waterway most sensitive to and what are the associated sources? Percent of Time Meeting WQS

11. Tools to Conduct Watershed Characterization • Data and Monitoring • Data Types • Monitoring Considerations • GIS/Spatial Data • Models • Infrastructure • Watershed • Waterway • Other Analysis Tools • Watershed Health Index

12. Setting Prioritization Factors • Important to gauge success • Reflect community priorities • Examples of Water Quality factors • Increase in WQ Standard compliance • Stream miles improved • Load reduction • Other factors to consider • Public health risk • Flooding • Protection of drinking water supply

13. Using Water Quality to Identify Mix of Controls

14. Identifying Control Opportunities

15. Evaluating an Integrated Control Plan Blue = 2030 Baseline Green = 2030 Traditional Plan Yellow = 2030 Integrated Plan SSO area: Difference between blue and green is elimination of SSOs. Difference between green and yellow is added benefit of example Watershed Control Program. CSO area: Int. Plan has better WQ than Traditional Plan with lower level of CSO control Recreation Season Geometric Mean Density (cfu/100 ml) Headwaters: Only Int. Plan improves WQ

16. Developing a Watershed-Based Cost-Performance Analysis

17. Planning with Multiple Stressors Strategies: • Use ranking system • Aggregate pollutants • Address most disruptive stressor first

18. Putting It All Together:Watershed-Based Permitting

19. The End: Questions and Discussion Additional Information: Carrie Turner LimnoTech (734) 332-1200 cturner@limno.com www.limno.com