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Technical Memorandum: Recommendations to adapt Ambient Monitoring and Contingency Thresholds to monitor potential ecological risks to Massachusetts Bay resulting from the Deer Island Discharge
Citation:
Hagy, Jim, Tim Gleason, A. Oczkowski, A. Tatters, AND Y. Wan. Technical Memorandum: Recommendations to adapt Ambient Monitoring and Contingency Thresholds to monitor potential ecological risks to Massachusetts Bay resulting from the Deer Island Discharge. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-22/064, 2022.
Impact/Purpose:
To assist US EPA Region 1 in addressing questions and concerns related to reissuance of the administratively continued NPDES discharge permit for MWRA’s Deer Island water treatment facility, EPA Region 1 requested that a review team from EPA’s Office of Research and Development evaluate what if any changes the review team would recommend to the ambient monitoring plan and contingency plan required under the Deer Island discharge permit to better monitor environmental responses or impacts potentially related to the discharge. This report will be released to EPA Region 1 who may use it at their discretion to inform decisions related to the NPDES permit renewal. EPA region 1 could make the report a component of the publicly acassible record of their decision(s).
Description:
To assist US EPA Region 1 in addressing questions and concerns related to reissuance of the administratively continued NPDES discharge permit for MWRA’s Deer Island water treatment facility, EPA Region 1 requested that a review team from EPA’s Office of Research and Development evaluate the data and analyses included in recent MWRA water column monitoring reports. The charge to the team was to evaluate how these data and analyses address the potential for the discharge to cause environmental effects that could harm North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) or other threatened and endangered species that utilize habitats in Massachusetts Bay. This is addressed in a document entitled “Technical Memorandum: Review of MWRA Water Quality Monitoring Results to Address Potential for Harmful Effects of the Deer Island Discharge on Threatened and Endangered Species in Massachusetts Bay” US EPA Region 1 separately requested that the review team consider what if any changes the review team would recommend to the ambient monitoring plan and contingency plan required under the Deer Island discharge permit to better monitor environmental responses or impacts potentially related to the discharge. The review team made the 5 key observations and recommendations related to the ambient monitoring plan and continency plan. These review team chose not to recommend specific survey designs or schedules, as this undertaking would require information and resources not available to us. Rather, the recommendations are state as broad strategies that MWRA could adopt into its own well-functioning review process to achieve target monitoring objectives.