Lancaster became one of the first sewage treatment plants in the Susquehanna River Watershed to have new limits for nitrogen and phosphorus placed on its discharge to help Pennsylvania meet its commitments under the Chesapeake Bay 2000 Agreement and to implement the Bay Tributary Strategy.

The Department of Environmental Protection recently issued a letter to all 190 significant wastewater treatment plants in the watershed specifying monitoring requirements for nitrogen and phosphorus in their discharges as another part of the strategy.

“Lancaster City showed great foresight in pursuing and obtaining over $1 million in federal and state grants and loans to install nutrient reduction technology before DEP and the federal Environmental Protection Agency said it must do so,” said Matt Ehrhart, Chesapeake Bay Foundation Pennsylvania Executive Director, “The city and its taxpayers will not only be able to perform the upgrades in a more cost effective fashion, they may even be able to benefit by selling credits for nutrient reduction to other municipalities that have not yet installed the technology, but are facing new restrictions on nutrient discharges.”

Point sources, like wastewater plants, contribute about 11 percent of the nitrogen and about 18 percent of the phosphorous going to the Bay from Pennsylvania.

89 percent of the nitrogen and 82 percent of the phosphorus comes from nonpoint sources of pollution—septic tanks, agriculture and forest runoff, urban stormwater and development activities. Also newly identified as a major nonpoint source contributor of sediments and nutrients is stream channel erosion.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has also endorsed initiatives to fund agricultural conservation practices on farms to deal with the nonpoint source problems.

“We will continue to work with DEP and the regulated community to secure additional funding and the timely implementation of these limits and wastewater treatment plant upgrades,” Ehrhart said. “CBF will also continue working with the agricultural community to secure funding for the installation of best management practices, resulting in additional, substantial pollution reduction to clean up our local waters and the Chesapeake Bay.”

NewsClip: $5 Million Upgrade Proposed for Towanda Plant

8/19/2005