Watershed Management for Potable Water Supply Assessing the New York City Strategy (2000) / Chapter Skim
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9 Nonpoint Source Pollution Management Practices
9 Nonpoint Source Pollution Management Practices
Pages 386-426
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From page 386... ...
the Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans. Conclusions and recommendations are made for the BMPs and for the NPS pollution control programs in general.
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From page 387... ...
Sources for NPS pollution programs that affect the New York City water supply include (1) the Watershed Rules and Regulations of the MOA, (2)
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From page 388... ...
The Watershed Agricultural Program is included under the FAD, although agricultural BMPs are not specified. Finally, the Watershed Protection and Partnership Programs include the Watershed Forestry Program and the Stream Management Program, which discuss control of NPS pollution.
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From page 389... ...
With funding usually supplied by NYC DEP, scientists at Cornell have studied the hydrology, phosphorus transport, parasitology, and economics of the Catskill/Delaware watershed. Cornell 1"351" refers only to those farms having a gross annual salary of at least $10,000, making them eligible for the Watershed Agricultural Program.
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From page 390... ...
lower the risk of waterborne cryptosporidiosis by a factor of ~ 00. It is clear that if other factors controlling water quality remain the same, treatment beyond disinfection alone can enhance public health protection in an unfiltered water supply.
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From page 391... ...
Whole Farm Plans Whole Farm Plans are comprehensive strategies for controlling potential sources of pollution at individual farms. For those farmers that participate in the WAP, a Whole Farm Plan, which addresses their specific problems and needs, is developed by a planning team consisting of the farmer and representatives from local Soil and Water Conservation Districts, the U.S.
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From page 392... ...
2 Inventory and analyze water, soil, air, plant, and animal resource information. 3 Determine the priority water quality (and other)
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From page 393... ...
Thus, extensive monitoring of soil and water quality does not take place on a regular basis at all farms participating in the program. Planning teams ensure maintenance of the BMPs via field inspection and try to keep abreast of improvements in technology that should be considered for use.
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From page 394... ...
This approach requires performance monitoring of BMPs, determining pollutant loadings emanating from these BMPs, and modeling the resultant water quality in nearby receiving waters. Unfortunately, linking the performance of BMPs with nearby water quality conditions is much more difficult to accomplish than determining the number of farms in the program or the number of plans implemented.
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From page 395... ...
Because of the level of resources available to the WAP and the early recognition that new scientific information was needed to accomplish the Whole Farm Plans, the WAP has been instrumental in attempting to integrate scientific information and farm plans for controlling nonpoint source pollution. Although the accomplishments of the WAP and the whole farm planning projects are substantial, gaps in knowledge, implementation, and monitoring underscore the difficulty of determining the level of ecological and environmental sustainability provided at the watershed scale by a suite of agricultural BMPs.
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From page 396... ...
a water quality model for the Cannonsville Reservoir that predicts long-term phosphorus concentrations in relation to varying inputs and (2) phosphorus loadings from adjacent agricultural areas, considering both surface and subsurface contribu
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From page 397... ...
The Cannonsville Reservoir regularly exceeds the water quality standard for total phosphorus (20 ,uglL) , although concentrations of dissolved phosphorus entering
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From page 398... ...
Although a large number of BMPs have already been installed and Whole Farm Plans have been implemented on 198 farms, there is very little known about the net result. Monitoring data are available for the Robertson Farm and Shaw Road sites for a two-year period prior to BMP installation at Robertson Farm (Pre 1 and Pre 2)
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From page 399... ...
Thus, the sample load per sampling station can be reduced to 50-100 per year, rather that 350-365 per year. Although the monitoring system would involve a substantial commitment of resources, without it there will be no way to quantify the water quality effects of Whole Farm Plans.
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From page 400... ...
Although the effectiveness of particular BMP types may change from farm to farm because of site-specific conditions, performance data for specific BMPs would be very useful to the WAP in validating models and formulating future Whole Farm Plans. Modeling has already played a prominent role in the preliminary evaluation of the farm-scale impacts of WAP.
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From page 401... ...
indicate significant nutrient load reductions from barnyard treatments, while estimates of nutrient runoff from watershed studies indicated little effect on overall watershed loading from barnyard treatments (Brown et al., 1984~. What is clear from earlier studies is that phosphorus loadings from barnyards are primarily dependent on the amount of runoff rather than on the amount of manure phosphorus in contact with the runoff.
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From page 402... ...
New Directions for the Watershed Agricultural Program Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program. The Conservation Reserve
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Although a complete prohibition on direct access may be desirable to maximize water quality (CTIC, 1998) , it is unlikely to be achieved.
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reductions in phosphorus loading rates for specific BMPs applied to dairy and other farms, and (3) reductions in watershed-scale loading rates for pathogens and phosphorus for systems of BMPs and Whole Farm Plans.
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2. Additional farm-scale monitoring should be implemented to determine the ability of Whole Farm Plans to reduce nonpoint source pollution.
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WATERSHED FORESTRY PROGRAM Forests are the most desirable land cover for the protection of water supply watersheds in temperate ecoregions. For this reason, when water supply water
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From page 407... ...
was established in 1997 to improve the economic viability of forest land ownership and the forest products industry in ways compatible with water quality protection and sustainable forest management. Patterned after and affiliated with the Watershed Agricultural Program, the WFP was formed following the deliberations of a Watershed Forest Ad Hoc Task Force.
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From page 408... ...
national forests (now 220 million acres) was justified solely on the basis of watershed protection and restoration, not timber supply or wildlife conservation (Dana and Fairfax, 1980; Ellefson, 1992~.
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· NYS DEC and NYC DEP forest lands should, where appropriate, serve as examples of sustainable forest management. aPosition statements are direct quotations from the original source while policy recommendations are paraphrased.
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Administrative procedures for forest management plan specifications, cost sharing, and NYS DEC review have been developed and are being implemented. To date, 78 landowners and a combined area of 21,000 acres have been enrolled in the program.
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From page 411... ...
Fecal Coliforms (106/day) Viruses (106/day)
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Although a complete list of forestry BMPs being used in the Catskill/ Delaware watershed is not yet available (the WAC is developing such a manual to be released in 1999) , guidelines for forestry BMPs have been published by NYS DEC.
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From page 413... ...
, operator training and supervision, directional felling and pre-bunching Riparian Buffers Zone 1 - shade, cover, food web functions, and bank stability Zone 2 - nonpoint source pollutant assimilation Site Stabilization and Restoration Monitoring and Research Zone 3 - stormflow control (as needed) Restore secondary roads, limit access in cooperation with landowners and local communities To verify the effectiveness of BMPs, improve operational procedures, develop better techniques, reduce scientific uncertainty Source: Reprinted, with permission, from Barten, 1998.
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From page 414... ...
The Watershed Forestry Program should continue its comprehensive efforts to promote sustainable forest management in the region. Outreach,
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From page 415... ...
3. Water quality monitoring should be implemented on the model forests and in conjunction with NYC DEP and NYS DEC networks on other tributaries.
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From page 416... ...
Prior to the MOA, fewer activities required the drafting of an SPPP, and the regulatory oversight was spread among multiple agencies. It is not surprising, then, that SPPPs have spawned a great deal of confusion among engineers, developers, and local and State agencies about how SPPPs should be interpreted and implemented, since most of these organizations had no prior experience with stormwater quality control and/or stormwater BMP design.
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From page 417... ...
Table 9-7 provides a summary of reported nutrient removal rates for Stormwater BMPs. Phosphorus Removal Although their removal rates are variable, most BMP groups have median annual removal rates in the 30 percent to 50 percent range for both soluble and total phosphorus (Table 9-7~.
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The moderate phosphorus removal of stormwater BMPs needs to be balanced against the sharp rise in phosphorus loads produced by new development. The effect of stormwater BMPs on phosphorus load as a function of impervious cover is shown in Figure 9-3.
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From page 419... ...
TABLE 9-8 Comparison of Mean Bacterial Removal Rates Achieved by Different Stormwater BMP Groups Bacterial Removal Rate, % Bacterial Indicator Ponds Sand Filters Swales Fecal Coliform 65% (n =9)
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From page 420... ...
As discussed in detail in Chapter 8, the use of multiple BMPs in series at individual sites cannot reduce postdevelopment loadings below predevelopment levels. Acreage Requirements for Stormwater Quality Controls With some exceptions, the Watershed Rules and Regulations exempt development projects of less than five acres in size from the stormwater pollution prevention plan requirements4.
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From page 421... ...
The lack of a stormwater design and engineering manual and of performance criteria for individual BMPs for the New York City watersheds is a major impediment to achieving higher and more consistent pollutant removal. Other states such as Maryland have recently produced detailed and useful manuals to assist engineers in designing and building more effective BMPs (MDE, 1999~.
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From page 422... ...
Although these practices are an essential component of an effective stormwater quality strategy, they need to be combined with site design practices that reduce the amount or impact of impervious cover created by land development. Better site design techniques (narrower streets, open-space subdivisions, smaller parking lots, and on-lot bioretention)
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From page 423... ...
5. The Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans should encourage the use of nonstructural BMPs that limit the amount and the adverse effects of impervious surfaces.
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1998. Review of the Watershed Agricultural Program.
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1993. Silviculture Management Practices Catalogue for Nonpoint Source Pollution Prevention and Water Quality Protection in New York State.
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From page 426... ...
Walton, NY: Watershed Agricultural Program. Walker, F
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