Recently I shared a presentation titled “Potential Impacts of Kentucky’s Nutrient Strategy” at the Environmental Permitting and Reporting Conference. In general, nutrients come from two sources: point and non-point discharges. Point source discharges are easy to identify and usually have a KPDES permit. Right or wrong, it is these facilities that will sources will bear the majority of the compliance and enforcement action in the immediate future.
Non-point sources, such as urban runoff, are also important contributors to nutrient loading. Urban waters take on large amounts of pollution from a variety of sources, including industrial discharges, mobile sources (cars and trucks), residential and commercial wastewater, trash, and polluted stormwater runoff. The EPA is providing $2.1 million in small urban water federal grants to communities around the country to help them access, improve and benefit from their urban water. The EPA has stated that the funded grants will advance the restoration of urban waters by improving water quality. In addition, I think another important goal of these grants is to develop a baseline assessment of urban watersheds around the country. Many of the grants include money for stormwater monitoring and the data generated will be important to understanding the extent of the nutrient problem. With the increasing regulatory focus on point source dischargers and the money spent to address non-point sources, it is clear that the issue of nutrients is not going away any time soon.