2001 Roanoke Sec C Chap 2

Chapter 2 -
Future Water Quality Initiatives
2.1 Overall DWQ Goals for the Future
The long-term goal of basinwide management is to protect the water quality standards and uses
of the surface waters in the state while accommodating reasonable economic growth. Attainment
of these goals and objectives will require determined, widespread public support; the combined
cooperation of state, local and federal agencies, agriculture, forestry, industry and development
interests; and considerable financial expenditure on the part of all involved. With this needed
support and cooperation, DWQ believes that these goals are attainable through the basinwide
water quality management approach.
In addition to these efforts, DWQ will continue to pursue several programmatic initiatives
intended to protect or restore water quality across the state. These include NPDES Program
Initiatives, better coordination of basinwide planning, use restoration waters program for
nonpoint source pollution, and improving database management and use of GIS capabilities.
Summaries of these initiatives are provided below.
NPDES Program Initiatives
In the next five years, efforts will be continued to:
• improve compliance with permitted limits;
• improve pretreatment of industrial wastes discharged to municipal wastewater treatment
plants so as to reduce effluent toxicity;
• encourage pollution prevention at industrial facilities in order to reduce the need for pollution
control;
• require dechlorination of chlorinated effluents or use of alternative disinfection methods for
new or expanding facilities;
• require multiple treatment trains at wastewater facilities; and
• require plants to begin plans for enlargement well before they reach capacity.
Long-term point source control efforts will stress reduction of wastes entering wastewater
treatment plants, seeking more efficient and creative ways of recycling by-products of the
treatment process (including reuse of nonpotable treated wastewater), and keeping abreast of and
recommending the most advanced wastewater treatment technologies.
DWQ requires all new and expanding wastewater dischargers to submit an alternatives analysis
as part of its NPDES permit application. Non-discharge alternatives, including connection to an
existing WWTP or land-applying wastes, are preferred from an environmental standpoint. If the
Division determines that there is an economically reasonable alternative to a discharge, DWQ
may deny the NPDES permit.
DWQ will continue to make greater use of discharger self-monitoring data to augment the data it
collects. Quality assurance, timing and consistency of data from plant to plant are issues of
importance. Also, a system will need to be developed to enter the data into a computerized
database for later analysis.
Coordinating Basinwide Planning with Other Programs
The basinwide planning process can be used by other programs as a means of identifying and
prioritizing waterbodies in need of restoration or protection efforts and provides a means of
disseminating this information to other water quality protection programs. For example, the plan
can be used to identify and prioritize wastewater treatment plants in need of funding through
DWQ’s Construction Grants and Loan Program. The plans can also assist in identifying projects
and waterbodies applicable to the goals of the Clean Water Management Trust Fund, Wetlands
Restoration Program or Section 319 grants program. Information and finalized basin plans are
provided to these offices for their use and to other state and federal agencies.
Use Restoration Waters (URW) Program for Nonpoint Source Impairment
DWQ has developed a conceptual strategy to manage watersheds with nonpoint source
impairments as determined through the use support designations. In July 1998, the state
Environmental Management Commission approved the Use Restoration Waters (URW) program
concept which will target all NPS impaired waters in the state using a two-part approach. As
envisioned, this classification will apply to all watersheds that are not supporting or partially
supporting their designated uses. The program will catalyze voluntary efforts by stakeholder
groups in impaired watersheds to restore those waters by providing various incentives and other
support. Simultaneously, the program will develop a set of mandatory requirements for NPS
pollution categories for locations where local groups choose not to take responsibility for
restoring their impairments. This URW concept offers local governments an opportunity to
implement site-specific projects at the local level as an incentive ("the carrot"). If the EMC is
not satisfied with the progress made towards use restoration by local committees, impairment
based rules will become mandatory in those watersheds ("the stick").
These mandatory requirements may not be tailored to specific watersheds but may apply more
generically across the state or region. DWQ staff has developed a timeline to accomplish the
following within five years from July 1998: work with stakeholder groups to develop mandatory
requirements; acquire the resources needed to carry out the program; develop criteria for
voluntary local programs and supporting incentive tools; and proceed through formal rule
making for the mandatory requirements. The form of the URW program will be strongly
influenced by the year-long stakeholder input process.
With more than 400 impaired watersheds or stream segments in the state, it is not realistic for
DWQ to attempt to develop watershed specific restoration strategies for nonpoint source
pollution. By involving the stakeholders in these watersheds, we believe we can catalyze large-
scale restoration of impaired waters. We anticipate that one of the major implementation
challenges of this new program will be educating public officials and stakeholders at the local
level as to the nature and solutions to their impairments. To address this challenge, the state
plans to develop a GIS-based program to help present information at a scale that is useful to local
land management officials. Other incentives that the state might provide include seed grants and
technical assistance, as well as retaining the authority to mandate regulations on stakeholders
who are not willing to participate.
In cases where incentives and support do not result in effective watershed restoration strategies,
mandatory impairment source management requirements would be implemented in the
watershed. This is not the state’s preferred alternative, as it would add to state monitoring and
enforcement workload. However, in areas where it is necessary, DWQ plans to implement such
requirements. In the management area, DWQ would be assisted by regulatory staff from the
Division of Coastal Management, Division of Environmental Health, Division of Land
Resources and the Division of Marine Fisheries to insure compliance.
Improved Data Management and Expanded Use of Geographic Information System (GIS)
Computer Capabilities
DWQ is in the process of centralizing and improving its computer data management systems.
Most of its water quality program data (including permitted dischargers, waste limits,
compliance information, water quality data, stream classifications, etc.) will be put in a central
data center which will then be made accessible to most staff at desktop computer stations. Some
of this information is also being submitted into the NC Geographic Data Clearinghouse (Center
for Geographic Information and Analysis or CGIA). As this and other information (including
land use data from satellite or air photo interpretation) is made available to the GIS system, the
potential to graphically display the results of water quality data analysis will be tremendous.
Additional Research and Monitoring Needs
DWQ staff have identified some additional research and monitoring needs that would be useful
for assessing, and ultimately, protecting and restoring the water quality of the Roanoke River
basin. The following list is not inclusive. Rather, it is meant to stimulate ideas for obtaining
more information to better address water quality problems in the basin. With the newly available
funding programs (Clean Water Management Trust Fund and Wetlands Restoration Program)
and the existing Section 319 grant program, it may be desirable for grant applicants to focus
proposals on the following issues:
• More resources are needed to address nonpoint sources of pollution. Identifying
nonpoint sources of pollution and developing management strategies for impaired
waters, given the current limited resources available, is an overwhelming task.
Therefore, only limited progress towards restoring NPS impaired waters can be
expected unless substantial resources are put towards solving NPS problems.
DWQ would like to work more closely with the Conservation Districts in each county of the
Roanoke River basin to identify nonpoint sources of pollution, develop land use and land cover
data, and to develop water quality management strategies for impaired watersheds within the
Roanoke River basin.
2.2 DWQ Compliance and Enforcement Policy Revisions
DENR began implementing a new two-stage compliance and enforcement policy in 1997. Both
stages of the revised policy are in effect as of July 1, 1999. The five major elements of the policy
are intended to provide a comprehensive route to strengthen enforcement and heighten
compliance for all dischargers and nonpoint sources of water pollution in North Carolina. The
five major components of the policy are to:
1. Foster compliance through pollution prevention, technical assistance and training, reevaluate
existing grant and loan funding priority criteria, and develop recognition and incentive
programs.
2. Enhance enforcement through increased penalties, penalties for sewer collection systems,
reduced thresholds for noncompliance, and delegation of civil penalty assessment authority to
the DWQ regional office supervisors.
3. Focus on chronic and willful violators through increased use of moratoriums on expanding
and additional connections, expansion of notification to the public of violators, clarification
of process of determining "noncompliance", and initiation of discussion with stakeholders on
possible legislative actions.
4. Assure improvement in compliance and enforcement through development of accountability
measures.
5. Find and use all available resources for compliance needs with local, state and nonprofit
groups.
DENR is also in the process of conducting assessment of its enforcement programs. The goal of
the assessment is to identify potential areas for improvement in DENR’s efforts to enforce
environmental laws and ultimately improve compliance. This effort got underway in July 1999
with two focus group meetings. If you would like to see the Scope of Work for the enforcement
assessment, see DENR’s web page at http://www.enr.state.nc.us/novs/scope.htm/.