York River Tributary Strategy Revision Work Group
Meeting Summary
Feb. 4, 2002
The second work group meeting was held in conjunction with the York Watershed Forum
meeting at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland. The work group chair Hugo Valverde
started the meeting. Comments and/or revisions to the minutes from the last meeting were
requested from the group after Hugo gave those in attendance a chance to review the
minutes distributed by Brian Noyes. The group provided no comments, additions or
revisions.
Hugo then asked Darryl Glover to provide an update on several issues as follows:
Environmental Endpoints:
Glover discussed delays due to issues associated with Chlorophyll a and that the use of
indicator species is being considered as an alternative mechanism to determine how to set
the appropriate levels of Chlorophyll a. There will be two more rounds of public
comment on the environmental endpoints. The next second round is projected for early
April 2002. Final adoption of the endpoints by EPA is expected in early 2003.
Lower Trib. Status:
Draft load caps are to be developed early summer 2002 once the environmental endpoints
are released for the second round of public comments. Preliminary work on the Tributary
Strategy revision process can begin once draft load caps have been developed by the Bay
Program. The due date for the revised tributary strategies has been delayed . They are
presently due by September 2003.
Pamunkey River Status:
The entire York, including the tidal Mattaponi and Pamunkey Rivers face substantial
water clarity problems, primarily due to sediment. Phosphorus loads in the York are
related to the sediment load. The Pamunkey also shows a degrading trend for increasing
nitrogen loads from groundwater. Dissolved oxygen is the current criteria used to list
impairment in the tidal portions of the York, Pamunkey and Mattaponi. Water Clarity and
Chlorophyll a will be the two additional criteria used to evaluate water quality in tidal
waters and may result in more waters being considered impaired.
Use Attainability Analysis (UAA):
The UAA is a study that will evaluate the proposed tidal water quality standards using
physical, technical, social, and economic factors to determine if they are attainable
without significant and widespread impacts. A UAA must be submitted to the EPA,
including an economic impact analysis, with the environmental endpoints in order for
EPA to approve a revision of existing water quality standards. The proposed criteria for
the “deep water” and “deep channel” designated uses would allow lower dissolved
oxygen levels, during the warm months of the year, than current water quality standards
allow. However, these lesser uses will not apply to the York, which is not deep enough
to qualify.
York Progress Report:
Load reductions from the 1985 Baseline, using the latest Chesapeake Bay Water Quality
Model (Version 4.3) are as follows:
Controllable Nitrogen = 16%
Total Nitrogen = 12.7%
Controllable Phosphorus = 19%
Total Phosphorus = 18.5%
Controllable Sediment = 27%
Total Sediment = 18.2%
All future reductions will be calculated only using total loads from a year 2000 baseline.
Anticipated Goals for the York:
High sediment reduction goals
Nutrient reductions will be higher than those in the current version of the strategy.
After the above items were presented there was a discussion from several members of the
work group with questions concerning measurable results and a critical need to inform
and engage local government officials as opposed to staff. The VA DCR York
Watershed Office has a new part-time position hired (Hoyt Wheeland) to do this outreach
in the York and Lower Coastal basins. Dr. Wheeland is a member of the Public
Participation Workgroup of the York Watershed Forum. Glover will provide a draft
revision schedule for the York and Lower Coastal Tributary Strategy for review at the
next work group meeting scheduled for April 3, 2002.
Please refer to the attached schedule distributed by Darryl Glover (The Relationship
Between Chesapeake Bay Program Projections and A Proposed York Tributary Strategy
Revision Schedule).