69th SWCS International Annual Conference July 27-30, 2014 Lombard, IL

1. IMPLEMENTING STATE
NUTRIENT STRATEGIES
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Website: www.epa.gov/msbasin
Soil & Water Conservation Society
Tuesday, June 29, 2014
3:30pm – 5:00pm
Presented by:
Joe Piotrowski – US EPA
Kimberlyn Velasquez – US EPA
Rebecca Power – University of WI Extension
Chad Watts – CTIC

2.  N & P pollution is becoming one of America’s costliest and most challenging
environmental problems
 Over the last 50 years, the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus entering our
waters has escalated dramatically.
N&P Pollution: Scope of the Problem

3.  USGS Nutrients in the Nation’s Streams and Groundwater September 2010
report found that:
 50% of U.S. streams have medium to high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus
 78% of assessed coastal waters exhibit eutrophication
 Nitrate drinking water violations have doubled in eight years
N&P Pollution: Scope of the Problem
 N&P pollution can hurt the tourism
industry, decimate people’s property
values, and cause illnesses
 The Gulf is critical to the national
economy and provides some of the
nation’s most valuable fisheries.
 Estimated dead zone costs per
year to seafood & tourism
industries: $82 Million (NOAA)

4. Today’s Session
 Intro on Hypoxia and the
Hypoxia Task Force (HTF)
 Getting Results Through Nutrient
Strategies and Priority
Watersheds
 Land Grant University
Partnership
 Examples of activities for
increasing nutrient efficiency
 Questions
 Closing & Takeaways
Source: NASA

5. Excess Nutrient Delivery to the Gulf
Source: Robertson and Saad, 2013
Total Nitrogen Total Phosphorus

6. The World’s 2nd Largest Dead Zone
5,800 square miles

7. Source: N. Rabalais
Have We Made Progress?

8. • US Army Corps of Engineers
• US Environmental Protection Agency
• US Department of Agriculture
• US Geological Survey
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration
• National Tribal Water Council
5 Federal Agencies and Tribes:
12 State Agencies:
• Arkansas
• Missouri
• Iowa
• Tennessee
• Minnesota
• Indiana
• Ohio
• Louisiana
• Illinois
• Mississippi
• Kentucky
• Wisconsin
Each state is represented by either:
Agriculture agency , Environment (pollution control) agency, or
Natural Resources agency
The Hypoxia Task Force
Mississippi River Basin
HTF States

9. HTF Focus: State Nutrient Strategies
• Prioritize watersheds based on
N&P
• Set watershed load reduction
goals
• Control Ag. runoff
• Control point source pollution
• Implement accountability and
verification measures
• Submit progress reports
• Develop work plan and schedule
for numeric nutrient criteria
development
1. Indiana
2. Iowa
3. Louisiana
4. Minnesota
5. Mississippi
6. Ohio
7. Tennessee
8. Wisconsin
9. Kentucky
Recommended Strategy
Framework
9 States Have Complete or Draft
Strategies

10. State Identified Priority Watersheds

11. HTF Federal Nutrient Strategy
• Monitoring and modeling to help
demonstrate progress
• Research on the impacts and
relationship between nutrients and
hypoxia
• Targeting of conservation practices
and economic analysis of their benefits
• Development of technical tools to help
planners and conservationists make
informed decisions
• Expanding outreach and partnerships
with organizations sharing similar goals
and interests
Federal Efforts to Support States

12. EPA Tools Available to You
 Community Outreach
Toolkit
 How's My Waterway
 Discharge Monitoring
Report Pollutant Loading
Tool
 Nitrogen and Phosphorus
Pollution Data Access Tool
 Water Quality Data
Portal

13. This is Where
the HTF
Wants Your
Help

14. University of Wisconsin Extension
Rebecca Power

15. CTIC
Chad Watts

16. Expanding Partnerships to Implement State
Nutrient Reduction Strategies
 Increase understanding of issues
 Partner with states in priority watersheds
 Identify opportunities for progress
We Need Your Help!

17. Questions For Us To Consider
 Does the state priority watershed approach resonate
with you as a rallying point for federal, state, and
other stakeholder efforts?
 What are you already doing, if anything, to
collaborate on the development of state nutrient
strategies?
 What could the HTF as a whole do to better engage
you as a partner - either formally or informally?

18. Questions for You
 What are you doing to collaborate on a larger watershed
scale - nutrient management research or implementation?
 What could we on the Hypoxia Task Force do to strengthen
your organization's connection with your state's HTF member
agency, related to state nutrient strategy development? Are
there any barriers that need to be addressed?
 How can your organization help with state nutrient strategy
implementation? Research, monitoring, outreach, education,
etc.

19. Today’s Takeaways…
 Together, The 12 HTF States and 5 federal Agencies
have a plan that we think will work
 We have begun to enlist partners, starting with the Land
Grant Universities
 We want to, no NEED TO,
enlist more partners to help in
many different disciplines if
we hope to accelerate
conservation efforts that need
to occur.

20. Today’s Takeaways…
Some of the Help we can Use
University staff can help by:
• Getting the word out on economically feasible tools, techniques, BMPs and nutrient reduction
techniques
• Providing nutrient BMP information to Crop Advisors
• Assisting local stakeholders with implementing promising BMPs in priority watersheds (e.g. cover
crops, bioreactors)
Corporations can help by:
• Supporting the development of local stakeholder groups where they don’t yet exist
• Financial and technical with implementing a watershed plan where one does exist
NGOs can help by:
• Considering whether in the future you believe it makes sense to align with an approach that has
significant state and federal backing
• Adopting high priority watersheds & developing watershed plans that reduce nutrients
Everyone can help by:
• Connecting with your HTF state agency(s) & researching your state nutrient strategy
• Staying on top of HTF activities and progress (e.g., Alton meeting)

21. THANK YOU!
WE LOOK FORWARD TO WORKING WITH YOU
Website: www.epa.gov/msbasin
For More Information Contact:
USEPA, Hypoxia Task Force Team
Joe Piotrowski – Piotrowski.Joe@epa.gov
Kimberlyn Velasquez – Velasquez.Kimberlyn@epa.gov
Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC)
Chad Watts – Watts@ctic.org
University of Wisconsin-Extension
Rebecca Power – Rlpower@wisc.edu