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Basic Information
What is the Problem? | What is EPA's National Nutrient Policy? | What are EPA and the States Doing? | Glossary
What is EPA's National Nutrient Policy?
Many water bodies have been overwhelmed with nitrogen and phosphorus pollution.
Nutrient Pollution and Numeric Water Quality Standards (print version of this memo (PDF)) (8 pp., 513 K, About PDF) (May 25, 2007)
Some states and territories have made notable progress in establishing numeric nutrient standards—most recently in connection with the Chesapeake Bay and Tennessee streams. However, overall progress has been uneven over the past nine years. Now is the time for EPA and its partners to take bold steps, relying on a combination of science, innovation and collaboration.
- Why Action is Needed?
- Why Numeric Criteria are Important?
- What Action is Needed?
- Current Status
- Next Steps
- Conclusion
- National Nutrient Strategy
Why Action is Needed?
High nitrogen and phosphorus loadings, or nutrient pollution, result in harmful algal blooms, reduced spawning grounds and nursery habitats, fish kills, oxygen-starved hypoxic or "dead" zones, and public health concerns related to impaired drinking water sources and increased exposure to toxic microbes such as cyanobacteria. Nutrient problems can exhibit themselves locally or much further downstream leading to degraded estuaries, lakes and reservoirs, and to hypoxic zones where fish and aquatic life can no longer survive.
Nutrient pollution is widespread. The most widely known examples of significant nutrient impacts include the Gulf of Mexico and the Chesapeake Bay. For these two areas alone, there are 35 States that contribute the nutrient loadings. There are also known impacts in over 80 estuaries/bays, and thousands of rivers, streams, and lakes. The significance of this impact has led EPA, States, and the public to come together to place an unprecedented priority on public partnerships, collaboration, better science, and improved tools to reduce nutrient pollution.
Virtually every State and Territory is impacted by nutrient-related degradation of our waterways. All but one State and two Territories have Clean Water Act Section 303(d) listed impairments for nutrient pollution. States have listed over 10,000 nutrient and nutrient-related impairments. Fifteen states have more than 200 nutrient-related listings each. For these reasons, Regions have identified nutrient pollution reduction as a priority for EPA.
Why Numeric Criteria are Important?
Numeric nutrient water quality standards will drive water quality assessments and watershed protection management. They will support improved development of nutrient Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs). Perhaps most importantly, they will create state- and community-developed environmental baselines that allow us to manage more effectively, measure progress, and support broader partnerships based on nutrient trading, Best Management Practices (BMPs), land stewardship, wetlands protection, voluntary collaboration, and urban storm water runoff control strategies. The progress of states and territories in setting numeric nutrient water quality standards is extremely important to help address nutrient pollution.
Numeric nutrient standards will facilitate more effective and efficient program implementation. Notable progress has been made relying on site-specific application of narrative standards to develop nutrient TMDLs. But this can often be difficult, resource-intensive and time-consuming. Adopting numeric standards, however, has a number of key advantages:
- easier and faster development of TMDLs;
- quantitative targets to support trading programs;
- easier to write protective NPDES permits;
- increased effectiveness in evaluating success of nutrient runoff minimization programs; and
- measurable, objective water quality baselines against which to measure environmental progress.
What Action is Needed?
Today, EPA is encouraging all states, territories and authorized tribes to accelerate their efforts and give priority to adopting numeric nutrient standards or numeric translators for narrative standards for all waters in states and territories that contribute nutrient loadings to our waterways. Incremental progress can be an effective way to accelerate progress. If a state needs to implement numeric nutrient criteria incrementally, EPA strongly recommends that states adopt numeric nutrient standards for their priority waters—i.e., waters at greatest risk of nutrient pollution (such as those identified through the EPA-USGS SPARROW modeling effort) or of greatest consequence (such as drinking water sources)—first. States may also choose to prioritize their actions for waters where sufficient information is available to move quickly to adopt numeric criteria in the near-term. The state's nutrient criteria plan should reflect the state's approach to setting standards for its waters, and include schedules for adopting those standards.
To be effective, nutrient criteria should address causal (both nitrogen and phosphorus) and response (chlorophyll-a and transparency) variables for all waters that contribute nutrient loadings to our waterways. EPA encourages the adoption of standards for all four parameters because of the interrelationships between these parameters and its experience showing that controlling both nitrogen and phosphorus is important to successfully combating nutrient pollution in all waters. As always, states, territories and authorized tribes have the flexibility to address nutrient pollution using a subset of or alternatives to these parameters if they are shown to be scientifically defensible and protective of designated uses. Where a state, territory or authorized tribe shows that one causal variable (nitrogen or phosphorus) is the limiting nutrient, it should develop criteria for at least that nutrient. However, if the non-limiting nutrient is likely contributing to a downstream impairment, numeric criteria for that nutrient should be considered as well.
By accelerating the establishment of numeric nutrient standards, state governments and local communities can set goals, establish controls, agree on risk management approaches, measure performance, demonstrate progress, and learn from each other. In a time of scarce resources and competing priorities, we cannot afford delayed or ineffective responses to this major source of environmental degradation. As any environmental professional understands, we can't effectively manage what we can't measure. Numeric environmental baselines help us to measure success, gauge effectiveness, and evaluate alternative approaches.
Current Status
Over the last nine years, EPA has taken a number of steps to provide leadership and articulate its goal of working in partnership with states, territories and authorized tribes to establish quantitative endpoints to minimize excess nutrient loadings in our Nation's waters. EPA issued a National Strategy for Development of Regional Nutrient Criteria in June 1998, and followed with a November 2001 national action plan for the development and establishment of numeric nutrient criteria. EPA published technical guidance for developing criteria for lakes and reservoirs in May 2000, rivers and streams in June 2000, and estuaries and coastal waters in October 2001. EPA also published recommended nutrient criteria for most streams and lakes in 2001. This combined strategy of EPA, state, territorial, and tribal partnership supported by technical assistance was intended to jump-start progress on a difficult and challenging problem.
We have made progress, but we need to move more quickly and more comprehensively in order to meet the growing challenges from increasing population, expanding and more intensive agricultural activities, and spreading urbanization. A number of states and territories have already moved ahead to establish numeric standards for priority waterbodies. Others are in the process of collecting data and preparing to develop them. Still others are in the earlier stages of planning and deciding which standards development approach will work best for them. A complete overview of the current status (May 2007) is available.
Next Steps
EPA remains committed to supporting states' and authorized tribes' efforts to adopt numeric water quality standards for nutrient pollution that are protective of designated uses. As outlined in more detail in the numeric nutrient standards strategy, EPA will:
- Provide direct assistance to states close to adopting numeric criteria. For these states, EPA will provide implementation guidance addressing technical and policy issues that states raise, and technical information to support states' rulemaking for standards.
- Build capacity for states that are not as close to adopting numeric criteria. For these states, EPA will provide sampling/monitoring, training, data/statistical analysis, and modeling assistance for developing criteria numbers.
- Build a science-based foundation for developing new criteria in estuaries wetlands and large rivers. EPA will complete its suite of nutrient criteria manuals for nutrient criteria, and continues to work to meet the goals of the federal and state Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force.
- Clearly and effectively communicate data and information on nutrient pollution. EPA will integrate nutrient messages in water quality standards communications products and outreach.
Conclusion
We can take steps now that will make a difference in addressing the challenges of growing nutrient pollution. The first step is to have numeric nutrient criteria in place to enable action. EPA is committing itself to support development of numeric nutrient criteria, and to use EPA's tools and metrics to help states, territories, and authorized tribes adopt numeric nutrient standards more quickly. EPA will also continue to do research, develop new tools, and collaborate strengthen to partnerships for consensus solutions.
EPA will work with states and territories to review their nutrient criteria plans developed over five years ago to ensure they reflect current expectations, realistic goals, and clear interim milestones. Working together, we should ask ourselves what is needed to meet these milestones and then take appropriate action.
We should also continue to advance performance measurement and public accountability. EPA recognizes the importance of keeping the public informed of our joint progress. EPA will periodically publish a report of the status of our joint efforts, including the actions EPA has completed and the progress that states have made in adopting numeric nutrient water quality standards. EPA will also continue to track progress regarding nutrient pollution reduction, such as quarterly reporting of the number of TMDLs completed in nutrient impaired waters in the Mississippi River Basin.
This document supplements the Development and Adoption of Nutrient Criteria into Water Quality Standards (PDF) (21 pp., 246 K, About PDF) memo signed on November 14, 2001.