RD416 - 2012 Report on Toxics Reduction in State Waters


Executive Summary:
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) submits the annual Toxics Reduction in State Waters (TRISW) Report to the Governor and General Assembly of the Commonwealth 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 consequently improving water quality. This commitment includes three principal types of activities: (1) 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 contamination by toxics of the Commonwealth’s waters. During State Fiscal Year 2012 (SFY12), DEQ’s Toxics Management Program (TMP) included 277 reporting facilities with 570 outfalls that had active permit-defined toxics limits in their effluents, as recorded in DEQ’s Comprehensive Environmental Data System (CEDS) database. Approximately 2.23% of 4,080 individual parameter records exceeded the permitted average concentration and 1.75% of 6,067 exceeded their maximum permitted concentrations; almost all were incidental elevations of total metals (copper, zinc) in discharges from municipal wastewater treatment plants.

Pollution Prevention: The 2012 Pollution Prevention Annual Report should be available on the DEQ Website at http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/PollutionPrevention.aspx on January 1, 2013. Among the highlights of Pollution Prevention successes affecting reduction of toxics in state waters in the past year are the following:

• Virginia still provides performance-based permit fee discounts (from 2 to 20%) for “going beyond compliance.” In 2012, over $138,000 in fee discounts were distributed among Virginia Environmental Excellence Program (VEEP) facilities that implemented and carried out their Environmental Management System (EMS) plans.

•·A review of VEEP annual performance for 2012 reported a 30% reduction in the use of hazardous materials and a decrease of 99% in hazardous waste disposal during the past two years.

•·Total water use was reduced 5% during the past two years, and the reduction of energy consumption continues to be a priority.

•·DEQ’s Voluntary Mercury Reduction Initiatives also have been continued successfully. More than 30 facilities participating in the “Virginia Switch Out” Project for the recycling of automotive mercury switches have pledged to remove 1,500 switches, the equivalent of almost five pounds of mercury. To date nearly 67,000 switches have been collected, equating to more than 150 pounds of mercury. Nearly 40 facilities have also pledged to annually recycle over 55,000 energy efficient fluorescent light bulbs, which also contain small quantities of mercury. (Refer to DEQ’s Mercury Reduction WebPages - http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/PollutionPrevention/MercuryReduction.aspx.)

Environmental Education: In the past, DEQ’s Office of Environmental Education (OEE) has contributed to toxics reduction in various ways. On July 1st 2012 various components of OEE were transferred from DEQ to the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), including: the Virginia Naturally Program (website, newsletter, partners map), Environmental Educators Leadership Program, Regional Environmental Education Team coordination, and the Annual Environmental Education Conference. Virginia Naturally Partner Grants during 2012 totaled $11,083.00, awarded for 18 projects associated with 17 different organizations. Summaries of 2012 activities within these components of environmental education can be found at http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/virginia_naturally/index.shtml.

In SFY 2012 twenty-one additional educators enrolled in the Environmental Educators Leadership Program (EELP), with seventeen receiving recognition of their accomplishments in Water, Coastal, and Forestry education.

Project WET (Water Education for Teachers) - http://www.deq.virginia.gov/ConnectWithDEQ/EnvironmentalInformation/ProjectWet.aspx - has remained at DEQ. WET is an international organization whose mission is to reach children, parents, teachers and community members of the world with water education. In the past year 255 formal and non-formal educators have been trained in WET through a series of 6-hour workshops. These educators have learned about the state of Virginia waters, have gained a better understanding of Virginia watersheds, examined the impacts that humans have on our waters, and studied best management practices. Each of these educators received the Curriculum and Activity Guide 2.0, a full-color 592 page book with 64 multi-disciplinary water-related activities, to use as they educate Virginia’s children.

The Watershed Educators Institute (WEI), unique to DEQ, was established three years ago with a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). It consists of a series of ten one and two day workshops on a variety of water quality and watershed topics, and currently has 42 formal and non-formal educators enrolled. A participant who receives 30 hours of training is formally recognized as a watershed educator leader in Virginia. In SFY 2012 thirty-four educators received recognition while over 70 participated in one or more workshops.

Toxics Release Inventory (TRI): The Toxics Release Inventory documents the total quantities of EPA listed toxic compounds that are released annually to waters, air and the land by permitted facilities within the Commonwealth. Changes in the quantities of toxics released are indicative of the effectiveness of pollution prevention programs, but are not an adequate or representative measure of environmental impact or impairment.

The TRI Report is available on the DEQ Website at: http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/Air/AirQualityPlanningEmissions/SARATitleIII.aspx . It summarizes data from calendar year 2010, during which 423 Virginia facilities filed 1,491 individual reports on the release, transfer, or management of TRI chemicals or chemical categories. Statewide toxic releases to the water totaled approximately 18.02 million pounds or 39% of the total onsite releases to all media during 2010. This quantity represents a 2.7% decrease compared to what was released to the water in 2009. Nitrate compounds (17.38 million pounds) represented 96.47% of all TRI chemicals released to water. Nitrates, however, are of much more concern for their effects as nutrients rather than as toxics. Toxics criteria for dissolved nitrates in drinking water were not exceeded during SFY 2012.

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 characterizes ecological stressors and evaluates 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 necessary as part of the continual planning process within DEQ’s Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment (WQMA) Program. By 2008, the monitoring program had fully implemented two major changes in the 2007 WQMA 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 2012, more than 98% of the Commonwealth’s 1247 small watersheds were monitored.

Summer (Jun-Sep) of 2012 was the twelfth year of DEQ’s Estuarine Probabilistic Monitoring (ProbMon) Program and the spring and fall of 2012 comprised the twelfth year of its Freshwater ProbMon Program. Because of resource limitations, the sampling and analysis for sediment organic contaminants 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 2011 field season (SFY12) with resources provided by a probabilistic survey-targeted supplement to the federal §106 grant and DEQ general funds.

In the 2012 305(b)/303(d) Water Quality Integrated Assessment Reports (2012 Integrated Report), sediment chemistry, sediment toxicity and benthic taxonomic results from DEQ’s Estuarine Probabilistic Monitoring Program were used for a toxics-related “Weight-of-Evidence” assessment of aquatic life use at 300 estuarine sites samples over the most recent six years (2005 – 2010). These results, primarily from minor tidal tributaries, complement those from the Chesapeake Bay Program’s benthic probabilistic monitoring program, which emphasizes the Bay mainstem and extensive mainstem areas of major tidal tributaries. More recent ProbMon results from a 2010 survey at 50 near-shore oceanic sites were also incorporated into the 2012 Integrated Report. An additional line of chemical evidence, based on the solubility of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) present in the sediment, was added to the weight of evidence assessment procedure in 2006 (analysis of 2005 data). The analytical data from the 2011 Estuarine ProbMon Program (SFY2012) are included in the tables and folders of this TRISW Report.

DEQ’s Fish Tissue and Sediment Monitoring Program was revived in the summer of 2012 after having been suspended since 2009 because of limited resources ( http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/Water/WaterQualityInformationTMDLs/WaterQualityMonitoring/FishTissueMonitoring.aspx). Fish tissue and/or sediment samples were collected from 38 sites, primarily in the New River and James River basins (with special emphasis on the Elizabeth River). The sites were selected to gather supplemental analytical chemical data for the development and/or implementation of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for segments of water bodies which have been included in previous 305(b) Report /303(d) Impaired Water Listing due to contamination of fish by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). All samples have been frozen and are being maintained at DEQ awaiting certification of the analytical labs contracted for sample analyses. Results from the analyses are expected in 2013, in time for inclusion in the 2014 305(b)/303(d) Water Quality Integrated Report.

Assessment and Remediation

Assessment: The 2012 Integrated Report identified 13,145 miles of impaired streams and rivers, 94,041acres of impaired lakes, and 2,128 square miles of impaired estuaries. Of those impaired by toxics, over 99% were listed for fish consumption advisories, primarily for PCBs (6% of impaired river miles, 66% of impaired lake acres, and 91% of impaired estuaries) or mercury (11% of river miles, 49% of lake acres, and less than 1% of estuaries). These figures will be updated with the completion of the 2014 Integrated Report. 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 and implemented is not certain. DEQ’s PCB Strategy (2005) established priorities for TMDL development and discusses various options for remediation. Analyses for the 2014 Integrated Report will begin in 2013, and any new PCB-impaired segments will be integrated into the Strategy.

Remediation / Reduction: In April 2011 a TMDL for mercury in the North Fork Holston River was approved by EPA. Three additional toxics-related TMDLs have been phased for completion in 2013; (1) Levisa Fork and Garden Creek of the Big Sandy basin – PCBs, bacteria, sediment, (2) Smith River watershed – potential PAHs (phased benthic), and (3) Powell River of the Tennessee basin - TDS, TSS, potential PAHs (phased benthic).

PCB TMDL development initiated for the upper tidal James River and the Elizabeth River in 2009 has continued with periodic sampling for PCB model calibration. Public meetings were held in December (2010) and January (2011). Completion of this extensive TMDL is scheduled for 2014. The agency’s TMDL history, current status and development plans are available at http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/Water/WaterQualityInformationTMDLs/TMDL.aspx.

As these TMDLs are completed and scheduled for implementation, and others are added, follow-up monitoring will be initiated to evaluate their effectiveness in reducing toxics contamination. The effective implementation of these TMDLs should result in measurable reductions of contaminants in a number of the state’s watersheds within a few years.

A number of water bodies and/or segments previously listed for various toxics were recently removed from the 303(d) list (2012 Integrated Report). They are listed in “Appendix K.2 – Delisted Toxics-Impaired Segments 2012 IR.”

Continued Commitment

DEQ continues its commitment to toxics reduction by the prevention of contamination, continued water quality monitoring, and the implementation of remedial measures. The Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, the Pollution Prevention Program, and the Environmental Education Program join with other agencies, programs and stakeholders to promote public awareness, as well as to control and reduce toxics releases. The Toxics Release Inventory and various water programs constantly monitor and document the release to, and the presence and movement of toxics in, aquatic environments. Close coordination between monitoring and assessment activities will identify new sources of contamination as they occur and document the effectiveness of load allocations and other remedial measures developed and implemented by the TMDL Program. The agency anticipates significant reductions of toxics in the state’s waters as a result of continued TMDL implementation.