City of Dover recently issued the following announcement on August 18.
The cities of Dover, Portsmouth and Rochester and the towns of Rollinsford, Milton and Newington – all members of the Municipal Alliance for Adaptive Management – recently submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) its first joint adaptive management plan (AMP) to monitor and set scientific benchmarks to judge Great Bay water quality improvements.
The submittal of the joint AMP is a voluntary part of being covered by the EPA’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Great Bay Total Nitrogen General Permit (GBTN) for Wastewater Treatment Facilities in New Hampshire that became effective Feb. 1, 2021.
The AMP, which can be read here, outlines a comprehensive method to explore and understand the stressors impacting the health of the Great Bay Estuary. It provides a practical approach to refining and advancing scientifically sound watershed-level water quality protection programs. In addition to focusing on total nitrogen levels, the AMP emphasizes exploring critical information about other potential pollutants and the changing nature of eelgrass, salt marshes, shellfish habitats and fish in the estuary.
“The creation of this adaptive management plan has truly been a collaborative effort by the municipalities, project partners, and stakeholders focused on improving the health of the Great Bay Estuary,” said Gretchen Young, Environmental Projects Manager for the City of Dover. “This plan sets us on a clear path toward establishing scientific benchmarks and allows us to continue to improve and protect water quality based on sound science and the right public policy.”
The AMP also describes and details the structural and non-structural nonpoint source best management practices that municipalities plan to implement to meet the terms and conditions of the GBTN and advance total nitrogen controls. The AMP will be updated at least annually through the GBTN five-year permit term. Separate from the adaptive management plan, the GBTN establishes total nitrogen effluent limitations and monitoring and reporting requirements for 13 eligible wastewater treatment plants in New Hampshire, including Dover’s.
Earlier this year, the cities of Dover, Portsmouth and Rochester established the Municipal Alliance for Adaptive Management to collaborate, share costs and not duplicate efforts in Great Bay monitoring. The Municipal Alliance is open to all communities in the Great Bay watershed. In addition to Milton, Newington and Rollinsford, the Town of Exeter has also joined the Municipal Alliance, which submitted its own AMP to the EPA.
For more information, contact Community Services at 516-6450.
Original source can be found here.
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