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Wyoming

Project Summary Information Page

PROJECT TITLE AND LOCATION: Watershed-based NPDES Permitting for the Powder River Basin, Wyoming
NAME OF APPLICANT STATE AGENCY: Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality
NAME OF PROJECT CONTACT:
Dan Hengel, Project Manager; Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality; Herschler Building, 4th Floor West; 122 West 25th Street; Cheyenne, WY 82002; Phone: (307) 777-7543; Fax: (307) 777-5973; Email: dhenge@state.wy.us
ADDRESS:
PHONE: FAX: EMAIL:
TAX STATUS: State of Wyoming TAX ID#: DUNS#:
APPLICABLE UNDER RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND RECOVERY ACT: No
IS PROJECT FUNDED BY ANOTHER FEDERAL PROGRAM: No
IS FEDERAL REGULATORY FLEXIBILITY REQUIRED TO IMPLEMENT PROJECT: No
STATEMENT OF SUPPORT FROM THE DIRECTOR: The Director of the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, XXX, has reviewed and supports the concepts, goals, and objectives in this proposal.

PRE-PROPOSAL PROJECT NARRATIVE

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, Water Quality Division (WDEQ/WQD) has been issuing individual National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for discharges into the Powder River Basin (PRB) in northeastern Wyoming for a variety of industrial and municipal point sources. The industrial point sources range from coal mining to oil and gas treaters to coal bed methane development. The potential impacts to water quality in an area the size of the PRB, approximately 9000 square miles in Wyoming alone, from industrial point source discharges is significant and the WDEQ/WQD, with stakeholder involvement, has identified a need to streamline and strengthen the NPDES permitting process for the PRB. WDEQ/WQD proposes to implement a watershed-based NPDES permitting approach for the PRB within Wyoming. The primary goals of implementing a watershed-based NPDES permitting strategy are the consideration of cumulative impacts to water quality over an entire watershed and developing an efficient permitting methodology. Secondary goals include developing a template for watershed-based NPDES permitting that will be transferable to other watersheds in Wyoming and potentially to other states with similar permitting issues and watersheds. Ultimately, implementation of a watershed-based NPDES permitting process for northeast Wyoming should streamline the NPDES permit application sequence and strengthen the NPDES regulatory mechanism to achieve compliance with established water quality standards.

The overall goal of implementing a watershed-based NPDES permitting strategy is the consideration of cumulative impacts, not just from an individual point source contribution, of NPDES permitted activities to water quality in an entire watershed. Specific goals of this proposal are:

  1. Provide baseline water quality assessment for the entire PRB to establish end goals such as flow, concentrations, and loads for the project area;
  2. Identify water quality parameters with the greatest sensitivity (first to exhibit a detectable response to effluent discharges) to allow for efficient assessments of inputs;
  3. Compile data on the identified sensitive water quality parameters;
  4. Format data for use in the Arc Hydro GIS platform;
  5. Quantify existing and potential future industrial development in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming;
  6. Utilizing Goals 1-5, develop a NPDES watershed-based permitting framework for the Powder River Basin - including a conceptual outline for allocation of available capacity (i.e. general vs. individual permits), synchronized permitting, and assimilative capacity for point source discharges into the Powder River Basin.
The watershed-based permitting project is designed to achieve and demonstrate results in the short-term (1 year) and then transfer the project methodology to other watersheds and other States. An example of a potential benefit from the implementation of a watershed-based permitting approach for the PRB would involve the coalbed methane (CBM) industry. WDEQ/WQD anticipates a dramatic increase in NPDES permit applications for CBM effluent discharges in the next decade. A watershed-based permitting approach, relative to CBM development, may allow for an overall reduction in CBM constituent loading to the Powder River through a trading program at the sub-watershed level (e.g. higher quality CBM effluent discharged at a higher rate into LX Bar Creek to compensate for lower quality CBM effluent discharged at a lower rate into Pumpkin Creek).

Success of the watershed-based NPDES permitting approach may be measured by improvements in overall water quality in the PRB, increased compliance by permitted dischargers to permit requirements, decreased handling time for permit applications by WDEQ/WQD, and a decrease in appeals to public notices of proposed NPDES permits.

The components of a conceptual watershed-based permitting process include:

MILESTONES

Month 1 and 2 - after approval from U.S. EPA for grant disbursement, WDEQ/WQD will release Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for the contractual work. WDEQ/WQD staff will commence identifying stakeholders, describing water quality conditions and standards, and water quality goals.

Month 3 - award of contracts. WDEQ/WQD staff will conduct public meetings (2) for stakeholders and continue work from Month 1. In addition, bid reviews will be conducted. WDEQ/WQD staff complete assessment of water quality conditions and standards, and set water quality goals.

Month 4,5,6 - contractors submit QA plans for input data and strive to compile existing data. WDEQ/WQD staff prepare Arc Hydro platform for input data.

Month 7,8 - WDEQ/WQD staff and contractual staff assimilate input data into Arc Hydro and conduct preliminary modeling. Conduct assessment of water quality impairments.

Month 9 - WDEQ/WQD assess pollutant sources and loads based on compilation of existing data and water quality conditions. Results from the model will be used to assess allocation of assimilative capacity.

Month 10 - WDEQ/WQD staff will assess assimilative capacity with reference to water quality goals. Assessment of potential additional NPDES permitting for discharges into the watershed will be conducted.

Month 11 - if appropriate, additional NPDES permits will be issued for discharges into the watershed.

Month 12 - Prepare final report, evaluate available monitoring data to determine impacts (short-term changes) on the watershed.

Target Priority Environmental Issues:

The current, and for the foreseeable future, top priority environmental issue for the WDEQ/WQD is CBM development in the PRB. An estimated additional 50,000 - 80,000 CBM wells are projected to be drilled in the PRB by the year 2010. A watershed-based NPDES permitting approach for the PRB would assess cumulative impacts from identified stressors and provide measurably better results than the existing program.

Likely Improvement in Results from Project Implementation:

The implementation of a watershed-based NPDES permitting process for northeast Wyoming would streamline the NPDES permit application sequence and strengthen the WDEQ/WQD regulatory mechanism to achieve compliance with established water quality standards. The watershed-based permitting approach would improve WDEQ/WQD administrative efficiency (less time to review permit applications) and potentially reduce permit applicants costs (potentially fewer permit applications).

The watershed-based approach differs from the current permitting method by looking at a cumulative assessment of the potential impacts to water quality in the basin. The watershed-based approach builds on lessens learned from the overwhelming number of NPDES permit applications received by WDEQ/WQD when the CBM play started in the late 1990s. The quantifiable improvements from implementing a watershed-based permitting approach would be improved water quality for the PRB. The measurable improvements in administrative efficiency would be quicker turn-around time from receipt of permit application to submission for public notice and a reduction in operational costs since fewer personnel hours would be required per permit application. The quantifiable reductions in costs for the permit applicants would be fewer required permits per watershed resulting in a reduction in expenses for permit application development.

Measuring Improvement and Accountability:

The watershed-base permitting approach is designed to achieve and demonstrate results in the short-term (1 year) and then transfer the project methodology to implement a watershed-based NPDES permitting process for other watersheds withing Wyoming. The project will involve stakeholder identification and public meetings to allow a collaborative atmosphere to drive the project. To successfully design and implement a watershed-based approach to NPDES permitting, all affected stakeholders must be involved in the process from the beginning. To achieve this goal, WDEQ/WQD will facilitate and supervise an outside source to identify, contact, and encourage to participate all of the identified stakeholders in the Powder River Basin

The overall goal of implementing a watershed-based NPDES permitting strategy is the consideration of cumulative impacts, not just from an individual point source contribution, of NPDES permitted activities to water quality in an entire watershed. Specific goals of this proposal are:

  1. Provide baseline water quality assessment for the entire PRB to establish end goals such as flow, concentrations, and loads for the project area;
  2. Identify water quality parameters with the greatest sensitivity (first to exhibit a detectable response to effluent discharges) to allow for efficient assessments of inputs;
  3. Compile data on the identified sensitive water quality parameters;
  4. Format data for use in the Arc Hydro GIS platform;
  5. Quantify existing and potential future industrial development in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming;
  6. Utilizing Goals 1-5, develop a NPDES watershed-based permitting framework for the Powder River Basin - including a conceptual outline for allocation of available capacity (i.e. general vs. individual permits), synchronized permitting, and assimilative capacity for industrial point source discharges into the Powder River Basin.

The baseline measurements, essentially the existing NPDES permitting methodology, are in place to compare with the development and implementation of a watershed-based approach to NPDES permitting in the PRB. The one-year timeline demonstrates a commitment of staff and support from WDEQ/WQD to implement a watershed-based permitting process. The expected long-term results obtained from a watershed-based permitting approach are improved water quality, increased compliance from the permitted industry, and improved administrative efficiency and reduction in NPDES program costs.

Transferring Innovation:

WDEQ/WQD proposes to document the outcome of the watershed-based permitting approach in reports, presentations, and transferable computer models. The potential for widespread application of a watershed-based NPDES permitting process is great, for within Wyoming, for states in Region 8, and for other states with a need for a cumulative assessment of NPDES discharges into large watersheds. By embarking on a watershed-based approach to NPDES permitting demonstrates WDEQ/WQD’s culture of forward thinking innovative problem-solving on environmental matters. WDEQ/WQD is committed to sharing and transferring the lessons learned from the watershed-based permitting process to other states or interested entities. WDEQ/WQD currently networks with counterparts in adjacent state agencies on a variety of water quality issues. Those relationships will continue in the future and will allow WDEQ/WQD opportunities to transfer the watershed-based NPDES permitting concepts to interested agencies, industries, and special interest groups.

OUTPUTS

The desired output is a transferable watershed-based permitting model with the flexibility to account for unique watershed characteristics in other areas, such as the Cheyenne or Green River Basins in Wyoming. Additionally, the watershed-based permitting model would be transferable to other states in the Region (i.e. Montana and South Dakota).

BUDGET:

<Budgetary Information Withheld by U.S. EPA>


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