Shaheen Requests Environmental Protection Agency Delay Final Permits For Exeter, Great Bay Area

Calls for modeling to provide a complete picture of the Bay’s health

(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) today requested that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) delay any decision on final permits for Exeter and other communities surrounding the Great Bay Estuary in New Hampshire until a comprehensive model of the Squamscott River has been completed—a way to ensure that scarce resources can best be used to protect water quality.  The permits in question address what can be discharged by local wastewater treatment plants.

“The Great Bay is one of New Hampshire’s greatest treasures and ensuring its continued health and vitality are of the utmost importance to our state and to the communities around the Bay,” Shaheen wrote in today’s letter to Administrator Lisa P. Jackson of the Environmental Protection Agency. “The communities face the challenge of ensuring that their already scarce municipal resources are expended appropriately. Completion of the modeling by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services will provide a complete picture of the Bay’s health and the factors affecting water quality.  This, in turn, will provide certainty to the affected communities that any investments required by EPA are appropriate given the science of the water quality modeling. 

The EPA recently issued a draft National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit that imposed a 3-milligram-per-liter limit on the amount of nitrogen the city’s wastewater treatment plant can discharge into the Squamscott River, a tributary of the Great Bay Estuary. 

Exeter and a number of other towns and cities around the Great Bay area have expressed concern that simply addressing nitrogen limits on point sources, such as wastewater treatment plants, may not be the best or most effective way to reverse damage to the Bay and improve water quality. In order to meet the nitrogen limits, cities will need to make costly investments to retrofit their plants with new technology that reduces the amount of nitrogen being released.  These necessary upgrades would likely force cities to raise the sewer rates charged to residents.

Other communities whose wastewater systems ultimately discharge into the Bay will likely receive similar draft permits over the next three years.

The text of today’s letter is below:

April 27, 2011

Administrator Lisa P. Jackson

Environmental Protection Agency

Ariel Rios Building

1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20460

Dear Administrator Jackson:

I am writing to you today to request that EPA delay any decision on final discharge permits for the communities surrounding the Great Bay Estuary in New Hampshire until comprehensive modeling has been completed. 

Exeter, New Hampshire was recently issued a draft National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit imposing a 3 mg/L limit on nitrogen effluent for the town’s wastewater facility which discharges into the Squamscott River, a tributary of the Great Bay Estuary.  Attainment of this limit will take significant investment by the town and could considerably raise sewer rates in the town. Exeter and a number of other towns and cities around Great Bay who are facing similar limits have expressed concern that simply addressing nitrogen limits on point sources may not be the best or most cost effective solution to help reverse damage to the Bay and improve water quality.

These communities have been working closely with the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) on the issue of nutrient limits and are collaborating with NHDES in developing a comprehensive and sophisticated model of the water quality and hydrodynamics of the Squamscott River.  This model will attempt to more closely identify the contributing factors to the high levels of dissolved oxygen in the Great Bay, which many believe are contributing significantly to its degradation. 

The Great Bay is one of New Hampshire’s greatest treasures and ensuring its continued health and vitality are of the utmost importance to our state and to the communities around the Bay.  The communities face the challenge of ensuring that their already scarce municipal resources are expended appropriately. Completion of the modeling by NHDES will provide a complete picture of the Bay’s health and the factors affecting water quality.  This, in turn, will provide certainty to the affected communities that any investments required by EPA them to make are appropriate given the science of the water quality modeling. 

I am respectfully requesting that you delay any decision on final permits for Exeter and other surrounding New Hampshire communities until this modeling has been completed. Thank you for your attention to this matter.  I look forward to your response.

                                        Sincerely,

                                        Jeanne Shaheen

                                        United States Senator

Cc: Curt Spalding, EPA Region 1 Administrator

      The Honorable Scott Myers, Mayor, City of Dover

      Todd Selig, Administrator, Town of Durham

      Robert Aldrich, Chair, Exeter Board of Selectmen

      Eric Botterman, Chair, Newmarket Town Council

      The Honorable Tom Ferrini, Mayor, City of Portsmouth

      The Honorable T.J. Jean, Mayor, City of Rochester

Great Bay Estuary Water Quality Coalition (Dover, Durham, Rochester, Portsmouth, Exeter, Newmarket) Works to Protect $250 Million in Taxpayer Funds

The Great Bay Water Quality Coalition, consisting of the municipalities of Dover, Durham (serving the University of New Hampshire), Exeter, Newmarket, Portsmouth and Rochester, have joined together to try to ensure that scarce municipal dollars (DES estimate $250M) are directed to infrastructure, programs and practices with demonstrable environmental benefits to the Great Bay Estuary.  The Great Bay Estuary is an important and irreplaceable resource; yet, regulatory decisions by the State of New Hampshire’s Department of Environmental Serves (DES) relative to nutrient criteria for the Great Bay Estuary may result in municipal dollars being misdirected.

          The Health of the Great Bay and DES Action:  Much has been written regarding the decline of eelgrass and oyster beds in the Great Bay Estuary; yet, the causes of that decline are not well understood.  In 2008, DES identified nitrogen as a prime water quality concern in the Great Bay Estuary.  Nitrogen enters water systems through both point sources, such as discharges from wastewater treatment plants, and non-point sources, such as storm water runoff, septic systems and fertilizers.  Excessively high levels nitrogen can, in some systems, impair eelgrass and oyster beds.

• Since 2008, the Coalition has questioned DES’ data and conclusions relative to role of nitrogen in the Great Bay Estuary relative to other factors (i.e. turbidity and sediment accumulation, effects of flood events, etc.) .
• June 2009 - ignoring objections from the Coalition, DES issued its report entitled Numeric Nutrient Criteria document for the Great Bay Estuary establishing allowable nitrogen limits effecting point and non-point sources discharges.
• The nutrient criteria document concludes that the Great Bay and Piscataqua River are impaired for nitrogen.
• 2010 - Communities continue to question the accuracy of the science; additional sampling conducted for the communities by UNH has brought into question whether nitrogen is the source of water quality problems in the Great Bay.

          The Local Impact of DES’ Regulatory Actions Regarding Nitrogen:  New permits for wastewater treatment plants are expected to have unreasonably low nitrogen limits that may result in no demonstrable environmental benefit.

• Scarce dollars will be spent on misdirected capital improvements.
• Operational requirements to achieve low nitrogen limits are not sustainable; personnel, electrical and chemical cost increases will be substantial.
• DES acknowledges cost to wastewater plant communities will be in excess of $250M
• These unfunded mandates could take away our NH advantage.   Even if nitrogen is a concern, overregulation of wastewater plants will not solve the problem.
• DES acknowledges that the vast majority of nitrogen (70-80%) entering the Great Bay Estuary comes from sources other than wastewater treatment plants.    
• Moratoriums on development may be mandated.

          How Can Citizens Help? After almost two years of requests, in December 2010 DES signaled its possible willingness to collaborate with the communities to conduct a comprehensive peer review of nitrogen impacts to the Great Bay Estuary.

• Encourage collaborative efforts between DES and communities to evaluate the science.
• Encourage informational meetings to hear communities concerns.
• Talk with legislators to increase understanding of impact of regulatory actions.
• Encourage EPA not to issue wastewater permits with unreasonably low nitrogen limits until DES and the communities complete a comprehensive peer review of the science. 

         Attached you will find the coalition's most recent correspondence with DES regarding this matter.

Shea-Porter Announces $1.8 Million for the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services

WASHINGTON, DC — Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter today announced that the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES) will receive $1,800,000 for a Revolving Loan Fund to assist funding cleanup planning and remediation activities.  These activities will promote redevelopment of the funded sites and future reuse of property that does not pose a threat to human health and the environment.  This funding is provided by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and is made possible by the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.            

NH Health Department Launches Environmental Health Tool

New Hampshire’s Environmental Public Health Tracking Network Designed to Protect Residents’ Health

Concord, NH – As part of continuing efforts to protect the health of New Hampshire citizens and guests from environmental hazards, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the Department of Environmental Services (DES) today announce the launching of the Environmental Health Data Integration Network (EHDIN). EHDIN is a first-of-its-kind environmental health tool and part of a national initiative led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to close the gap in what is known about the impact of environmental hazards on health.

This web-based system tracks key environmental hazards and health problems, such as air pollution and asthma as well as arsenic and bladder cancer, across New Hampshire. The data will improve understanding of such hazards and lead to actions that can prevent chronic illnesses.

“In the face of challenging issues such as increasing cancer rates and growing health care costs, tracking and understanding the impact of environmental conditions is a top priority,” said Dr. Jose Montero, Director of Public Health at DHHS. “The Environmental Health Data Integration Network is a major step forward in web-based surveillance. We have worked hard to preserve an environment of clean air, pure water, and safe housing in our state – now its time to show our past success and track our continued progress. It may sound simple, but better health statistics really does mean better disease prevention.”

With EHDIN, residents will be able to access both environmental data and health outcome data simultaneously. This will help them make informed decisions and take action to protect themselves and their communities. On the website people can learn about environmental hazards and related health effects in New Hampshire and in their county, including:

Asthma and heart attack hospitalization rates for counties and the State

Air pollution trends for ozone and particulate matter

Drinking water contaminants, such as arsenic, in public water systems

Cancer rates for counties and the State as a whole

“Environmental hazards are one factor in the overall health equation. These data will be available for the public to use in conjunction with consideration of how certain lifestyle issues and genetic factors play a role in health outcomes,” said DES Commissioner Thomas Burack. “The launch of the new EHDIN system provides a new tool to help make existing data more accessible.”

New Hampshire is one of 16 states to receive funding from the CDC to build tracking networks and conduct pilot projects in order to improve our knowledge of potential links between environmental hazards and health effects.

There has been a fundamental gap in the country’s knowledge of how and the extent to which environmental hazards affect health. For example, chronic disease accounts for 70% of deaths in the United States. Links between certain chronic diseases and environmental hazards have been reported; however, whether there are additional causal connections remains unclear. With New Hampshire’s participation, CDC’s environmental public health tracking efforts are working to develop additional information to help determine the role of environmental hazards in health outcomes.

For more information and to access the New Hampshire EHDIN, please visit www.nh.gov/epht. To visit the national Tracking Network, go to www.cdc.gov/ephtracking.

Shea-Porter Announces $500,000 for Winnicut River Fish Passage Restoration

Washington D.C. - Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter today announced that the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services will receive $500,000 dollars to remove the Winnicut Dam and install a fish passage structure under an upstream bridge, restoring a channel to more than 39 miles of habitat for migratory fish. This structure will allow upstream and downstream passage of fish native to New Hampshire waters, including river herring, American eel, and rainbow smelt. Funding for this project is made possible by the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

“I am pleased that New Hampshire will be receiving funds to improve our natural resources,” said Congresswoman Shea-Porter. “This is an environmentally sound project that will benefit our native fish.”