Watershed Investments NC

Update on a previous post. Now that the legislature has adjourned, it’s safe to say that the ill-conceived fertilizer related elements of SB 1136 have rightfully been tanked.  The bill was referred to a conference committee and the language was removed that limited local government’s from enacting water quality protection ordinances that address fertilizer misuse.  This is good news to communities that are trying to protect and clean their local waters through ordinances promoting responsible usage of fertilizers.

There are minor and major infractions that impact wetlands.  And then there is what happened with Hoffman Forest.  Following up on an earlier post, as recent as 2012, management of the forest by NC State involved ditching, bedding, and draining of wetlands within the forest.  When occurring on waters subject to federal oversight, a permit is required for such activities.  In this case, none had been issued.

As reported by the NC Coastal Federation, the Corps inquiry into the matter was initiated by the Federation after it reviewed the prospectus of the pending buyer that stated  “more than 5,500 acres of forest had been cleared and could be converted to agricultural uses.”

In a letter to the EPA, the Corps has ruled that, indeed, activities undertaken to drain waters from approximately 6,500 acres of wetlands “exceeds that allowed under” the Clean Water Act.

The gravity of this infraction isn’t exactly clear.  NCSU claims they were following management practices approved by the state in their work.  These practices, however, don’t exempt them from the permitting process.

The Corps punted the responsibility for punitive actions to the EPA citing that it is their jurisdiction.  So, EPA has to now weigh in on what’s needed to remedy the situation.

The Corp’s findings, however, are a victory for wetlands and the functions they provide.  If sold, the land targeted in the prospectus would have be prime land for wetlands conversion.  As it stands now, potential buyers of the forest are on notice that environmental protection of its environmentally sensitive lands will demand greater priority.

Rose Acres may be a misnomer for the State’s largest egg producing facility. While this uber-industrial egg-laying facility’s footprint may take up acres, the ventilation fans blowing ammonia from the egg-laying houses would certainly not make this facility or any place downwind, smell rosey.

Industrial in its scale, Rose Acre farm was originally planned to house 4 million chickens at any time.  The farm got a water quality permit from the State to operate in 2004 with conditions that allowed the State to monitor water quality impacts from its operation.   Those conditions rubbed the company the wrong way, apparently, as it has been fighting the State’s monitoring conditions since 2010, as reported in the News and Observer.

At issue is whether air pollution from animal operations are subject to water quality regulations.  Recent studies have been done showing that there is an impact to water quality from these facilities even if there is no direct waste discharge.  Pollution such as ammonia gets ventilated from the large egg laying buildings is airborne and gets deposited on the downwind landscape where, after rains, it then drains into waterways.

Rose Acre argues that since there is no direct discharge to water, there’s no need for a permit.

The issue is being sorted out legally with the local Riverkeeper seeking to intervene on behalf of the state due to concerns over the state’s commitment to environmental protection.  Finding the path to do right by the environment should be the common ground sought by all sides of this issue.

In previous posts, we touched on the monitoring status of Jordan Lake mostly because that Lake seem to get most of the news headlines. It’s important, however, not to forget that the State’s most ambitious nutrient reduction strategy is quietly in the process of implementation.  Falls Lake, with reductions of 40% in nitrogen and 77% in phosphorus, surpasses other nutrient reduction strategies in the State by far and implementation of the strategy began in 2011.

With 2013 being a wet year, pollution from fertilizers, farms, and households was elevated and the state’s 2013 monitoring report shows that pollution to Falls Lake continues to impair the Lake.  Pollution in the upper lake exceeds that in the lower with impairments for chlorophyll, Ph, and turbidity.  Two monitoring sites in upper Falls had chlorophyll levels that exceeded the State standard in 45% of samples and 42% for Turbidity.

Some positive news is that implementation of the strategy has begun. Unlike the Jordan Lake strategy, the Falls Lake one has been happening without interference from the legislature.  Recently, the Town of Hillsborough completed upgrades for its waste water treatment plant aimed to stem the flow of nitrogen to the Lake.  Additional actions to clamp down on nutrient flows to Falls Lake will continue to occur as the implementation of the pollution reduction strategy progresses.

One bill moving around NC legislative halls looks to keep the regulation of fertilizer out of the hands of local jurisdictions with Senate Bill 734 which seeks the following:

“No county, city, or other political subdivision of the State shall adopt or continue in effect any ordinance, rule, regulation, or resolution regulating the use, sale, distribution, storage, transportation, disposal, formulation, labeling, registration, manufacture, or application of fertilizer in any area subject to regulation by the [Agricultural] Board”.

Many governments have looked at limit phosphorus in fertilizers as a low-cost solution to improving water quality.  Why?  Because most soils in the area have sufficient levels of phosphorus to sustain healthy lawns, it’s not necessary for most lawns to add additional phosphorus to already saturated soils.  Runoff of excess phosphorus is one of the key contributors to eutrophication in our state’s waters.

Indeed, as of two years ago 11 states had passed laws to restrict the application of phosphorus in fertilizers.  Some of these states have used labeling and signage to help make it known to the consumer why the fertilizer requirements have been put into place.

Giving municipalities low-cost tools they can use to reduce pollution in our environment seems like a straight forward solution.  S.B. 734 keeps that from happening and should be abandoned.

The sale by NC State of Hoffman Forest has rubbed plenty of folks the wrong way.  The proposed sale of its 79,000 acres for $150M to an Illinois agri-company looks to change the primary management of the land from forestry to something else.  While this is troubling news itself, it’s not my intent here to get into the politics behind the pros and cons of the sale.  What came up recently, however, is with the recent management of the forest and its impact on wetlands.

Historically, Hoffman Forest was a Pocosin Swamp.  Pocosin’s have been described as swamps on a hill.  They have organic soils overlaying sand and are found throughout the eastern part of NC.  Water is slow to move in them which impedes their agriculture and forestry usage but creates unique habitats for rare plants like Venus Fly Traps, Pitcher Plants, and Atlantic White Cedar.  Now if these swamps are drained, the organic soils can make for productive farming.

Much of Hoffman’s swamps have been drained to improve growing conditions for commercial pine production.  A look at the Forest on Google Maps shows a landscape where ditches are cut into the swamps to drain water and dry out the land.  Modifying hydrology is nothing new in Eastern NC, but since the mid 1990’s, the Federal Government has required permits for that activity on waters of the US and compensatory mitigation for impacts on wetlands subject to federal wetlands protection.

There is question whether this requirement was being followed by NCSU.  Were the more recently drained wetlands considered waters of the U.S. and subject to federal oversight? The Army Corps is looking into it but the investigation may slow the rush to sell these lands as the legal liability needs to get sorted out.  Here’s a link to the audio story.

http://publicradioeast.org/post/drained-wetlands-hoffman-forest

NC DENR is seeking permission from the Army Corps of Engineers to deploy SolarBee circulation units in Jordan Lake this spring.  As reported by the N&O, the technology has little record of its performance in a lake the size of Jordan.  A check of the Medora website, the manufacturer of the Solar Bee (SB), touts the promise of the technology but I wanted to dig a little to find more substance of its performance.  Here’s some of what I found.

First, the SB will be attempting to treat the symptons of excess nutrient flow to the reservoir.  That is, the technology circulates the water and impedes the growth of algae that is fed by excessive levels of nutrients. (I documented that pollution in a previous post.)  It’s not a new concept as aeration and circulation have been tried in other environments such as the Chesapeake Bay.

One promising SB application Medora cites on its website is at Lake Palmade in California.  There, a 220 acre lake with 7 circulators helped reduce the use of the algaecide copper sulfate by 85%.  At two other similarly sized lakes, cyanobacteria levels (i.e. harmful algae) were significantly reduced.

At 14,000 acres, Jordan Lake is much bigger than the typical SB application.  One similar-sized lake with the technology is Lake Houston a nearly 12,000 acre water body where in April 2006 circulators were used to address high chlorophyll levels around a drinking water intake on the Lake.  In monitoring post deployment (April 2006–September 2008), mean summer chlorophyll levels were 34 μg/L and were measured as high as 61 μg/L – conditions still considered eutrophic. (http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2011/5121/pdf/sir2011-5121.pdf)

Since the entirety of Jordan does not have nutrient related water quality impairments, SB would not be needed throughout the entire lake.  Currently, the state is seeking to put 36 machines in the upper, most polluted portion of the lake.  One of the many questions with SB would be whether they would reduce turbidity, one of the constituents for which Jordan Lake is impaired.  Another brought up by Dr. Bill Wilson in this past weekend’s N&O article is the risk of increasing mercury concentrations in fish due to algae suppression without reducing polluted runoff to the Lake.

A Balanced approach is Needed

Dr. Ken Hudnell, Medora’s science advisor, promotes that in-lake measures like SB should be used in combination with “the most effective and cost-efficient practices of watershed management” (Hudnell 2013).  While the technology may be worthy of testing, it hasn’t proven that it, by itself, would be the solution to ridding Jordan Lake of its impairments.  It is certain that nutrient reduction measures help improve lake water quality.  Given the uncertainty associated with the technology, Jordan would benefit most by maintaining the current measures to curb pollution (i.e., sewage treatment plant upgrades, streamside forest protections, enhanced stormwater treatment for new development).

Hudnell, HK. 2013. An alternative approach to regaining designated uses of clean water act section 303(d) impaired waters. Florida Water Resources Journal., 65: 20–26.

Even with NC Division of Water Resource’s burdensome workload (e.g., Coal Ash crisis, added legislative mandates, and budget cuts) the Division managed to put out its 2013 annual Jordan Reservoir monitoring report.  Like previous years, 2013 water quality did not look good.

It was a wet year so plenty of nutrients got washed into the lake from upstream sources.  That was not good news for the Reservoir.  Chlorophyll levels were high.  Chlorophyll is used by the State as a measure of the health of the Lake.  Too much of it can lead to harmful and undesirable outcomes such as fish kills and expensive water treatment.   Here are some results from the report:

• The upper portion of Jordan was the most polluted.  Its Chlorophyll a levels exceeded the state standard in in as much of 65% of samples;
• All sites north of Hwy 64 were in violation of the State’s Chlorophyll standard;
• Two of three monitoring sites in the lower Jordan ‘Haw’ Arm of the Lake also violated Chlorophyll levels; and
• Standards were violated for low oxygen, high PH, and turbidity.

  

The above data were more than enough justification to keep the lake on the State’s 2014 list of impaired waters.

The State has been sidestepping full implementation of an existing clean-up plan for the lake.  This past legislative session saw a 3-year delay added to many elements of that plan.  In lieu plan implementation, the legislature added funding for an experimental low-cost technology – water aerators, that DENR is currently trying to get permitted for deployment.  As water quality data shows, however, the devices will have their work cut out for them if Jordan is to be removed from the State’s impaired waters list.

Though it’s not NC news, the factors influencing our neighbors to the South often mirror those influencing our waters and are worth tracking. Here’s an update on an earlier post dealing with Gulf of Mexico dead zone modeling.

The Gulf of Mexico has a long history of low oxygen that’s tied to discharge of nutrient supercharged waters from the Mississippi River.  This runoff supports the growth of algae which, in excess, can result in diminished oxygen levels as it dies off and creates a dead zone harmful to aquatic life.

Scientists trying to better understand the factors contributing to the low-oxygen dead zone have been modeling what’s going on.  Modeling they conducted earlier this year predicted that the Gulf would see a record dead zone largely fed by farm runoff and heavy spring rains.

The good news is that, looking back, the dead zone that occurred was less than predicted by NOAA.  The bad news is that the dead zone was still twice as large as the previous year.  An article in Mother Earth provides a thorough summary of the data and details the sources of the excessive nutrients making their way to the Gulf – mostly polluted farm runoff.    The map below shows the actual 2013 dead zone from this past summer.

UNC’s Hans Paerl had a recent interview on NPR’s Science Friday about nutrients, climate change, and toxic algal blooms.  While he comments on work in China, it has relevance here in NC and I wanted to pass along.  You can get a link to the story at:

http://www.sciencefriday.com/segment/10/25/2013/climate-change-aids-toxic-slime-s-advance.html

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Climate Change Aids Toxic Slime’s Advance

Sewage and fertilizer runoff into China’s Lake Taihu have fed a nasty bloom: an annual explosion of frothy cyanobacteria, which release neurotoxins into the lake. Hans Paerl, a marine and environmental scientist who studies Lake Taihu, says the warmer temperatures brought by climate change only contribute to the slime’s advance.