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Implementation Plan for Sewage Facilities Planning Pennsylvanias Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy
Implementation Plan for Sewage Facilities Planning


The strategy outlined in this guidance document is intended to supplement existing
requirements. Nothing in the strategy shall affect regulatory requirements. The information
herein is not an adjudication or a regulation. There is no intent on the part of the Department
to give the strategy described in this document that weight or deference. This document
establishes the framework, within which the Department will exercise its administrative
discretion in the future. The Department reserves the discretion to deviate from this strategy
if circumstances warrant.

Introduction

Maryland amended its water quality standards on August 29, 2005, as part of a multi-
jurisdictional effort to address impairment of the Chesapeake Bay from nutrients and sediment.
In accordance with the federal Clean Water Act and Pennsylvania regulations, Marylands
changes result in the need for nutrient reductions in Pennsylvania to comply with the new
standards.

More than 85% of Pennsylvanias nutrient loads, specifically nitrogen as the limiting nutrient for
the brackish and saline waters of the Bay, originate from non-point sources. This leaves less
than 15% of the nutrient loads originating from point sources. Pennsylvanias past nutrient
reduction strategies acknowledged this, and focused on reducing the nitrogen loads from non-
point sources. With the new water quality standards in effect in Maryland, Pennsylvania is
taking a comprehensive approach to nutrient reductions.

DEP has developed a plan to meet these requirements. First, in anticipation of the new water
quality standards, DEP issued its Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy (CBTS) in December 2004.
This Strategy includes specific initiatives to address reductions from point sources and non-point
sources. The Strategy does not prescribe mandatory requirements, but rather describes how the
legal obligations can be met through a combination of actions, including changes to NPDES
permits. The CBTS continues to be a framework for addressing these issues.

On December 30, 2006, the Department published an amended strategy for allocating the point
source cap loads, in conjunction with its Nutrient and Sediment Trading Policy. This amended
strategy was developed with extensive input from the public during 2006 and amends relevant
portions of the 2004 CBTS.

Since population growth is the single most important factor resulting in increased nutrient
discharges to the Chesapeake Bay, point sources play an important role in any plan to achieve
and maintain nutrient cap loads. Increased population results in increased discharge rates at
sewage treatment plants and increases in the number of septic systems discharging nutrients to
the ground water. Septic systems are considered non-point sources and will not be further
discussed in this document, other than to identify abandonment and replacement through
connection to point sources as a method of generating offsets.
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1 Pennsylvanias Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy
Implementation Plan for Sewage Facilities Planning

Basic Principles Encompassed in the Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy

The necessary nutrient reductions for achieving the new water quality standards for the
Chesapeake Bay were established by EPA for total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP)
from all source categories (point and non-point). As a result, EPA determined a cap load for
each jurisdiction (state) and watershed. These cap loads were accepted by the individual
jurisdictions in 2003. Pennsylvanias cap load, for all sources, is the mass load limitation that
Pennsylvania must maintain to meet the new water quality standards adopted by Maryland to
address impairment of the Bay. Meeting these cap loads not only protects the downstream water
quality standards, it also helps restore the designated uses in the Bay. The aggregate cap load for
each nutrient (Phosphorus and Nitrogen) remains constant into 2010 and beyond for future
protection of the Bay and its designated uses.

Pennsylvanias CBTS allocates a portion of this overall cap load to the point sources within the
Bay watershed. As outlined in the amended CBTS, point sources comprised approximately 14
percent of the total nitrogen (TN) load and about 22 percent of the total phosphorus (TP) load
delivered to the Bay during 2002. Consequently, point sources are being asked to provide 14
percent and 22 percent of the required reductions in TN and TP, respectively. These reductions
result in the overall point source cap loads.

The CBTS also provides a method for allocating a specific cap load from the overall point
source cap load to each existing point source discharger in Pennsylvanias portion of the
Chesapeake Bay. To preserve the cap load approach using the calculation methodology in the
point source allocation strategy, any new sources or expansions of existing sources must not add
any net TN or TP load to the overall cap load.

Since the point source cap loads do not include an allocation for new point sources, which
includes new discharges or expansions of existing discharges, maintaining the zero net
increase to the cap load will be accomplished using such methods as land application of effluent,
recycle and reuse, acquiring offsets for loads from replacement, reduction or retirement of
existing sources, or the purchasing of credits elsewhere (trading).

Definitions

For the purposes of this implementation plan the following terms have the meaning as stated
herein:

Credit The unit of compliance that corresponds with a pound of reduction of nutrient or
sediment as recognized by the Department, which when registered by the Department may be
used in a trade.

Design Flow --- The design annual average daily flow on August 29, 2005, that a treatment
facility is intended to treat during the final year of its proposed useful life. Any plant with final
Act 537 approval or approval of a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) under Chapter 94 before
August 29, 2005 (effective date of Maryland water quality regulations) is considered to have a
design flow based upon the annual average daily flow approved with the plan.
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2 Pennsylvanias Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy
Implementation Plan for Sewage Facilities Planning


Non-significant point source --- A point source with a design flow of less than 0.4 Million
Gallons per Day (MGD).

Offset --- Verb - The act of reducing the aggregate production of nutrients from an action or
activity by use of a complimentary action, activity or technology on that site or directly related to
the activity. Noun - The load in pounds of nitrogen or phosphorus created by an action, activity
or technology that is available to apply against the proposed load to be generated. Offsets are not
the same as credits as they cannot be bought, sold or transferred between owners, projects, or
properties.

Point source --- For the purposes of this guidance, any discernible, confined and discrete
conveyance, including, but not limited to, any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete
fissure, container, rolling stock, landfill leachate collection system, or vessel or other floating
craft, from which pollutants are or may be discharged. Examples of point sources are wastewater
treatment plants.

Significant industrial waste point source An industrial waste point source discharging at least
75 pounds per day of Total Nitrogen or 25 pounds per day of Total Phosphorus (computed as an
average daily load over the entire year).

Significant sewage point source --- A sewage point source with a design flow of 0.4 MGD or
greater.

TN --- Total nitrogen defined as the sum of the Total Khejldahl Nitrogen (TKN), nitrate-
nitrogen (NO3-N) and nitrite-nitrogen (NO2-N).

TP --- Total Phosphorus.
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3 Pennsylvanias Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy
Implementation Plan for Sewage Facilities Planning

Sewage Facilities Planning

Background

Portions of Pennsylvanias aggregate cap loads for TN and TP will be allocated to individual
point sources in NPDES permits. These facility specific cap loads are individual allocations of
the larger water quality-based waste load allocation for point sources necessary to meet water
quality standards in Maryland. The Chesapeake Bay Point Source Strategy contains no "reserve"
TN or TP loads for new point source discharges or for existing discharges that propose to expand
beyond their existing load limits, as described above. Therefore, new loads must be addressed
by options such as land application of effluent, recycle and reuse,