IMPLEMENTING STATE NUTRIENT STRATEGIES

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Website: www.epa.gov/msbasin

Soil & Water Conservation SocietyTuesday, June 29, 20143:30pm – 5:00pm

Presented by:Joe Piotrowski – US EPAKimberlyn Velasquez – US EPARebecca Power – University of WI ExtensionChad Watts – CTIC

N & P pollution is becoming one of America’s costliest and most challenging environmental problems

Over the last 50 years, the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus entering our waters has escalated dramatically.

N&P Pollution: Scope of the Problem

USGS Nutrients in the Nation’s Streams and Groundwater September 2010 report found that:

50% of U.S. streams have medium to high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus

78% of assessed coastal waters exhibit eutrophication

Nitrate drinking water violations have doubled in eight years

N&P Pollution: Scope of the Problem

N&P pollution can hurt the tourism industry, decimate people’s property values, and cause illnesses

The Gulf is critical to the national economy and provides some of the nation’s most valuable fisheries.

Estimated dead zone costs per year to seafood & tourism industries: $82 Million (NOAA)

Today’s Session

Intro on Hypoxia and the Hypoxia Task Force (HTF)

Getting Results Through Nutrient Strategies and Priority Watersheds

Land Grant University Partnership

Examples of activities for increasing nutrient efficiency

Questions

Closing & Takeaways

Source: NASA

Excess Nutrient Delivery to the Gulf

Source: Robertson and Saad, 2013

Total Nitrogen Total Phosphorus

The World’s 2nd Largest Dead Zone

5,800 square miles

Source: N. Rabalais

Have We Made Progress?

• US Army Corps of Engineers• US Environmental Protection Agency• US Department of Agriculture• US Geological Survey

• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

• National Tribal Water Council

5 Federal Agencies and Tribes:

12 State Agencies: • Arkansas• Missouri• Iowa• Tennessee• Minnesota• Indiana

• Ohio • Louisiana• Illinois• Mississippi • Kentucky• Wisconsin

Each state is represented by either:Agriculture agency , Environment (pollution control) agency, or Natural Resources agency

The Hypoxia Task Force

Mississippi River BasinHTF States

HTF Focus: State Nutrient Strategies

• Prioritize watersheds based on N&P

• Set watershed load reduction goals

• Control Ag. runoff

• Control point source pollution

• Implement accountability and verification measures

• Submit progress reports

• Develop work plan and schedule for numeric nutrient criteria development

1. Indiana

2. Iowa

3. Louisiana

4. Minnesota

5. Mississippi

6. Ohio

7. Tennessee

8. Wisconsin

9. Kentucky

Recommended Strategy Framework

9 States Have Complete or Draft Strategies

State Identified Priority Watersheds

HTF Federal Nutrient Strategy

• Monitoring and modeling to help demonstrate progress

• Research on the impacts and relationship between nutrients and hypoxia

• Targeting of conservation practices and economic analysis of their benefits

• Development of technical tools to help planners and conservationists make informed decisions

• Expanding outreach and partnerships with organizations sharing similar goals and interests

Federal Efforts to Support States

EPA Tools Available to You

Community Outreach Toolkit

How's My Waterway

Discharge Monitoring Report Pollutant Loading Tool

Nitrogen and Phosphorus Pollution Data Access Tool

Water Quality Data Portal

This is Where the HTF

Wants Your Help

University of Wisconsin Extension

Rebecca Power

CTIC

Chad Watts

Expanding Partnerships to Implement State Nutrient Reduction Strategies

Increase understanding of issues Partner with states in priority watersheds Identify opportunities for progress

We Need Your Help!

Questions For Us To Consider

Does the state priority watershed approach resonate with you as a rallying point for federal, state, and other stakeholder efforts?

What are you already doing, if anything, to collaborate on the development of state nutrient strategies?

What could the HTF as a whole do to better engage you as a partner - either formally or informally?

Questions for You

What are you doing to collaborate on a larger watershed scale - nutrient management research or implementation?

What could we on the Hypoxia Task Force do to strengthen your organization's connection with your state's HTF member agency, related to state nutrient strategy development? Are there any barriers that need to be addressed?

How can your organization help with state nutrient strategy implementation? Research, monitoring, outreach, education, etc.

Today’s Takeaways…

Together, The 12 HTF States and 5 federal Agencies have a plan that we think will work

We have begun to enlist partners, starting with the Land Grant Universities

We want to, no NEED TO, enlist more partners to help in many different disciplines if we hope to accelerate conservation efforts that need to occur.

Today’s Takeaways…Some of the Help we can Use

University staff can help by:

• Getting the word out on economically feasible tools, techniques, BMPs and nutrient reduction techniques

• Providing nutrient BMP information to Crop Advisors

• Assisting local stakeholders with implementing promising BMPs in priority watersheds (e.g. cover crops, bioreactors)

Corporations can help by:

• Supporting the development of local stakeholder groups where they don’t yet exist

• Financial and technical with implementing a watershed plan where one does exist

NGOs can help by:

• Considering whether in the future you believe it makes sense to align with an approach that has significant state and federal backing

• Adopting high priority watersheds & developing watershed plans that reduce nutrients

Everyone can help by:

• Connecting with your HTF state agency(s) & researching your state nutrient strategy

• Staying on top of HTF activities and progress (e.g., Alton meeting)

THANK YOU!WE LOOK FORWARD TO WORKING WITH YOU

Website: www.epa.gov/msbasin

For More Information Contact:USEPA, Hypoxia Task Force TeamJoe Piotrowski – Piotrowski.Joe@epa.govKimberlyn Velasquez – Velasquez.Kimberlyn@epa.gov

Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) Chad Watts – Watts@ctic.org

University of Wisconsin-ExtensionRebecca Power – Rlpower@wisc.edu