RD439 - 2009 Report on Toxics Reduction in State Waters


Executive Summary:
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) submits an Annual Toxics Reduction in State Waters (TRISW) Report to the Governor and General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia on January 1st of each year in accordance with Virginia Code § 62.1-44.17:3.

The primary objective of the TRISW Report is to document the Commonwealth's progress toward reducing toxics in state waters and improving water quality. This commitment includes three principal types of activities: (l) the prevention of contamination of the Commonwealth's waters by toxics, (2) the continued monitoring of those waters for the presence of toxics, and (3) the implementation of remedial measures to reduce and/or eliminate toxics found in the Commonwealth's waters.

Prevention

Permitting: Compliance monitoring, the monitoring of in-pipe concentrations of permitted discharges, is one essential element of the prevention of toxics contamination of the Commonwealth's waters. During State Fiscal Year 2009 (SFY09), DEQ's Toxics Management Program (TMP) included 31 I reporting facilities with 592 outfalls that had active permit-defined toxics limits in their effluents, as recorded in DEQ's Comprehensive Environmental Data System (CEDS) database. Approximately 1.8% of 8,271 individual parameter records exceeded the permitted average concentration and 2.0% exceeded the maximum permitted concentrations; almost all were incidental elevations of total or dissolved metals in discharges from municipal wastewater treatment plants.

Pollution Prevention: The 2009 Pollution Prevention Annual Report is available on the DEQ web page at http://www.deq.virginia.gov/export/sites/default/p2/_documents/2009_Annual_Report.pdf. Among the highlights of Pollution Prevention successes affecting reduction of toxics in state waters in the past year are the following:

• At the end of 2009, there were over 450 facilities in the Virginia Environmental Excellence Program (VEEP), 23 of which received special recognition during 2009. Virginia still provides performance-based permit fee discounts from 2% to 20% for "going beyond compliance." In 2009 over $66,000 in fee discounts were distributed among more than 100 VEEP facility permits that implemented and carried out their Environmental Management System (EMS) Plans. A review of VEEP annual performance for 2009 reported a reduction of 4.8 tons in the use of hazardous materials and a decrease of 968 tons in the generation of hazardous wastes. The use of non-hazardous recycled materials increased by 14,032 tons.

• Total water use was reduced by 68.5 million gallons during the past year.

• Releases to the atmosphere were also significantly reduced. Emission of toxics, greenhouse gases (NOx and CO), were reduced by more than 2,000 tons.

• DEQ's Voluntary Mercury Reduction Initiatives also have been successful. The program for the recycling of automotive mercury switches removed 16,420 switches and recycled 36.12 pounds of mercury in 2008. Nearly 40 facilities have also pledged to annually recycle 53,000 energy efficient fluorescent light bulbs, which also contain small quantities of mercury. (Refer to DEQ's Mercury Reduction web page http://www.deq.virginia.gov/p2/mercury/homepage.html.)

• Virginia participates in the National Partnership for Environmental Priorities (NPEP). Through NPEP, Virginia, Region 3 of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other Middle Atlantic States have committed to reduce priority chemical use by 88,000 pounds per year. A single Virginia Beach facility reduced the use of lead in its products by 85,000 pounds between 2006 and 2008.

Toxics Release Inventory (TRI): The Toxics Release Inventory documents the total quantities of EPA-listed toxic compounds that are released annually to the water, the air and the land by permitted facilities within the Commonwealth. Individual facilities file reports on their releases and/or management of these compounds during the first quarter of the following calendar year and DEQ prepares the statewide TRI Report once all individual reports have been received. The March 2009 TRI Report is available on the DEQ web page at http://www.deq.virginia.gov/sara3. This Report summarizes data from calendar year 2007, during which 459 facilities filed 1741 individual reports. Statewide toxic releases to the water totaled approximately 18.4 million pounds or 29.1% of the total onsite releases to all media during 2007. This quantity represents a 5.64% decrease from the 19.5 million pounds released to the water in 2006. Nitrate compounds (17.63 million pounds) represented 98.8% of the top ten TRI chemicals released to water. Nitrates, however, are of much more concern for their effect as nutrients. Toxics criteria for dissolved nitrates in drinking water were not exceeded during SFY 2009.

Monitoring

Water Quality Monitoring (WQM) Programs: Ambient water quality monitoring consists of the measurement of physical and chemical characteristics within the Commonwealth's streams, rivers, lakes, reservoirs and estuaries. Ambient monitoring and assessment characterize ecological stressors and evaluate their potential impact on aquatic organisms and other wildlife, and on human health and recreational use of Virginia's waters.

Periodic updates and revisions of the agency's WQM strategy are an important part of the planning process for DEQ's Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment Program. By 2008, the monitoring program fully implemented two major changes in the 2007 WQM strategy that affected toxics monitoring and assessment; the adaptation of the monitoring program to the newly delineated sub-watersheds of the National Watershed Boundary Dataset (NWBD) and the realignment of the monitoring year to correspond with the calendar year rather than the state fiscal year. Between 2002 and 2009, more than 98 % of the Commonwealth's 1244 small watersheds were monitored. Minor interim revisions to the strategy planned for submission to EPA Region 3 in 2010 were among the subjects discussed at a statewide Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment meeting in February 2009.

2008 was the ninth year of DEQ's estuarine probabilistic monitoring (ProbMon) and 2009 comprised the ninth year of its freshwater ProbMon. Because of resource limitations, the sampling and analysis for organic contaminants in sediment was suspended at freshwater ProbMon sites in SFY07. Sediment chemistry (metals and organics) sampling and toxicity testing were continued at estuarine ProbMon sites during the 2008 field season (SFY09) with resources provided by a probabilistic survey-targeted supplement to the federal §I06 grant and Chesapeake Bay Program support.

In 2006 and 2008, Water Quality Integrated Assessment Reports, sediment chemistry, sediment toxicity and benthic taxonomic results from DEQ's Estuarine ProbMon Program were used for a toxics-related "Weight-of-Evidence" assessment of aquatic life use at I00 estuarine sites. These results, primarily from minor tidal tributaries, complement those from the Chesapeake Bay Program's benthic ProbMon program, which emphasizes the mainstems of major tidal tributaries and the Bay itself. More recent Estuarine ProbMon results from 2006, 2007 and 2008, an additional 150 sites, are being incorporated into the 2010 Integrated Report. An additional line of chemical evidence, based on the solubility of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) present in the sediment, has now been added to the weight of evidence assessment procedure.

Analytical results from the 2008 Fish Tissue and Sediment Monitoring Program sampling are now available at http://www.deq.virginia.gov/fishtissue. In all, a total of 701 individual or composite fish tissue samples were collected. Not all classes of contaminants were analyzed in all samples: 489 results were returned for tissue metals, 503 for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and 62 for pesticides. Only eight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) analyses were carried out on 2008 samples. Although sediment samples were collected in association with each of the sampling sites, they have been archived as frozen reference samples and will only be analyzed if fish tissue results indicate a serious local problem. The most recent data and planning updates on this program are available at http://www.deq.virginia.gov/fishtissue. The 2009 work plan for this program identified 81 tentative freshwater, brackish water and saltwater sampling sites.

The proposed sampling was completed during the summer of 2009, but all fish tissue and sediment samples have been frozen and archived until resources become available for their analysis. An additional five sites in the James River basin were sampled in early 2009 as part of a Kepone special study; the results from that study are already posted at the Fish Tissue web pages link provided above. Plans to sample fish tissue and sediment during the summer of 2010 are currently suspended, pending the availability of resources.

Extensive monitoring of toxics for more than three decades has revealed that the distribution and concentrations of contaminants vary greatly among sediment samples, whether they are nearby duplicates collected on the same day or sequential samples collected over various time spans. No definitive long-term trends have been detected to document consistent changes in toxics contamination. The probabilistic monitoring of toxics during the past eight years has demonstrated that statewide, concentrations of dissolved trace metals and organics in ambient waters are generally representative of global background levels, except near confirmed or suspected point sources. Periodic reports on the probabilistic results will provide a baseline for future comparisons. Recent developments of more efficient sampling designs, sampling technologies and analytical methods offer promise of more effective documentation of short-term changes and mid-term trends in the near future.

Assessment and Remediation

Assessment: The most recent Water Quality Integrated Report (2008) identified 2,448 miles of rivers, 111,384 acres of lakes, and 2,084 square miles of estuaries impaired by toxics. Of these, over 99% were listed for fish consumption advisories, primarily for PCBs (41.6% of toxics-impaired rivers, 64.9% of lakes, 99.0% of estuaries) or mercury (54.9% of rivers, 34.6% of lakes, <0.4% of estuaries). Because the number of segments united into each Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) varies with the hydrography and the extent of the impairment, the exact number and schedule of toxics-related TMDLs to be developed is not certain. DEQ's PCB Strategy establishes priorities for TMDL development and discusses various options for remediation. Analyses for the 2010 Integrated Report have already begun, and any new PCB-impaired segments will be integrated into the Strategy.

Remediation / Reduction: A number of toxics related TMDLs have been approved; two in 2002, three in 2004, and 16 in 2007, all for PCBs in the Shenandoah (5) or in other Virginia tributaries of the Potomac (16 - Appendix M). The Potomac tributary PCB TMDLs were incorporated into the interstate Potomac River PCB TMDL developed under the auspices of the Interstate Commission for the Potomac River Basin. This TMDL was submitted in November 2007 and was subsequently approved by EPA. Two benthic TMDLs were completed for toxics parameters in 2006, one (copper and zinc) in the New River Basin and one (PAHs and lead) in the Shenandoah. The Smith River has a consent decree benthic TMDL within which a stressor analysis is ongoing. An eco-toxicological study with contributions from Martinsville DuPont and EPA is contributing to that TMDL development process.

A TMDL for nitrates in drinking water was developed in 2000 for the Muddy Creek - Dry River watershed. The most recent six years of water quality monitoring results for this watershed indicate these waters are now in compliance with required nitrate standards and will no longer be classified as impaired.

Several additional toxics-related TMDLs are in development. Four TMDLs for PCBs in the Roanoke River are scheduled for completion in the fall of2009. In November 2008, EPA requested additional funding (total of $3.7 million) for the cleanup of a former West Virginia industrial site in the Bluestone River prior to completing TMDLs in the New River Basin. Seven Virginia Department of Health (VDH) fish advisory TMDLs for mercury are scheduled for 2010, three in the Shenandoah River and four in the North Fork Holston River. Benthic TMDLs for II PAH-impaired segments in the Tennessee/Big Sandy Basin and a single benthic TMDL in the Roanoke Basin will be developed by 2010. A source identification study for PCBs was initiated during 2009 for TMDL development on the upper tidal James River and the Elizabeth River. The agency's TMDL history, current status and development plans are available at http://www.deq.virginia.gov.

As TMDLs are completed, follow-up monitoring will be initiated to evaluate their effectiveness in reducing toxics contamination. The implementation of TMDLs is an effective method to achieve reductions of contaminants in a number of the state's watersheds.

Continued Commitment

DEQ is committed to toxics reduction through prevention of contamination, continued water quality monitoring and implementation of remedial measures. The Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (VPDES) and the Pollution Prevention (P2) Program are key programs necessary for the control and reduction of toxics releases. The Toxics Release Inventory is an additional program that monitors the release of toxics into aquatic environments. Close coordination between monitoring and assessment activities will identify new sources of contamination and measure the effectiveness of load allocations and other remedial measures implemented by the TMDL Program. DEQ anticipates reductions of toxics in state waters over time as a result of the continued employment of TMDL implementation.