Nonpoint Pollution | Success Stories | Monitoring and Tracking

Monitoring and Tracking Success Stories

Note: Highlighted projects are not necessarily funded by the Coastal Nonpoint Program nor do they necessarily represent projects that have been approved by NOAA and EPA to remove remaining conditions on state programs.

PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS

Wisconsin CNP Funded Project Helps Door County Receive “Beach Buddy” Recognition from the Natural Resources Defense Council: In 2003, because of its lack of regular beach water quality testing and an incidence of illnesses at a state park beach, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), listed Door County, Wisconsin on its "Beach Bum" list for poor water quality and inadequate beach monitoring program. Just two years later, NRCD recognized Door County among the best beaches, naming the county on its 2005 “Beach Buddy” list.

The change in assessment is due largely to the county’s Beach Contamination Source Identification Project funded by the Wisconsin Coastal Nonpoint Program (WCNP) as well as their aggressive use of Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health (BEACH) Act funds for water quality testing, and a state-wide beach quality website. The WCNP supported the Door County Beach Contamination Source Identification Project to help the county identify and prevent sources of nonpoint source pollution affecting its swimming beaches. The project, one of two bacterial-source tracking efforts supported by the WCNP discussed in the February 2005 “CNP Success Stories/Updates”, has created a GIS-based map system to help identify potential beach contamination sources and determine where to collect water and sand samples. The project also includes genetic finger-printing, antibiotic resistance testing on bacteria, rain event and stormwater system sampling, bird waste surveys, and spatial distribution surveys of bacteria indicators at Door County beaches. An interim report is available from the Wisconsin Coastal Program website. While the study is still on-going, the monitoring team has already begun to work with local decision makers and the general public to educate them about the bacterial contamination problem and how the source tracking study will help solve the problem. This way, the decision makers will be ready to take action based on the studies’ recommendations are complete. The project was also featured in a September 2005 Wisconsin Great Lakes Chronicle article.

For more information about NRDC’s “Beach Buddy” and “Beach Bum” lists see: “Testing the Waters: A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches”.

Wisconsin Supports Bacterial Source Tracking: As they do for saltwater environments, funds granted through EPA's BEACH Act support beach monitoring programs along Wisconsin's beaches. Two Wisconsin counties, Door and Manitowoc, concerned about the high bacterial levels measured at their beaches and the impact beach closings were having on their tourism industry, wanted to get to the root of the contamination problem. However, BEACH Act funds are generally used for monitoring and public notification of potential contamination. Therefore, with help from Wisconsin Coastal Nonpoint Program funds and other contributions from county and municipal governments, the Door Chamber of Commerce and university research programs, the County Soil and Water Conservation Districts spearheaded team efforts to develop bacterial source tracking programs and propose recommendations for addressing the identified source(s) in each county. The interdisciplinary teams brought together relevant county and municipal health, planning, storm water, parks and rec and extension staff, Wisconsin DNR and SeaGrant representatives, and researchers from nearby universities to develop and implement source tracking strategies.

The counties are both employing several different sampling protocols including rain event sampling, DNA typing, antibiotic resistance testing, and avian waste surveys (recording the number of bird droppings along beach transects) to pin-point the source(s) of bacterial pollution for each beach. To compliment their sampling programs, they also mapped the location of storm water outfalls and areas serviced by OSDS using GIS. In Door County, the OSDS survey also catalogued which coastline sections the County Sanitarian Department has conducted sanitary surveys, noting when each section was surveyed, the percent of failing systems identified, and the location of failing systems and those that have been replaced. This year, the county plans to conduct additional sanitary surveys where existing data identified OSDS as a potential source of bacterial contamination. Another component of the study involved developing a database of animal waste genetic signatures from animals throughout each county. Each species (cows, birds, other wildlife, and humans) should have an identifiable signature. Therefore, genetic samples from bacteria collected at each beach could be linked back to the possible sources(s) (nearby farms, bird roosts, or septic tanks) contributing to the contamination through the database.

While the studies are still on-going and no definitive sources have been identified yet, the teams have already begun to work with the local decision makers and the general public to educate them about the bacterial contamination problem and how the source tracking study will help solve the problem. This way, the decision makers will be ready to take action based on the studies' recommendations.

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Maryland Launches BMP Tracking Website: Maryland has developed an on-line program to track restoration and nonpoint source pollution implementation efforts in each of the State's tributaries. The State uses the tracking system to assess their progress in implementing the NPS control measures throughout the state, including Maryland's Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Program and the Chesapeake Bay 2000 Agreement. The types of BMPs tracked include: (1) urban (e.g., the number of acres treated by storm water detention ponds; the number of denitrifying septic systems in place), (2) agricultural (e.g., the number of acres with soil conservation water quality or nutrient management plans in place), and (3) resource protection and improvements (e.g., the feet of shoreline erosion control projects undertaken; the feet of stream restoration carried out). In addition to the BMP Tracking Reports, the website also provides a link to the State's Watershed Restoration Action Strategies (WRAS) and supporting documents. Maryland funded the on-line tracking database through its CWA 319 program and used Coastal Nonpoint Funds to track habitat, wetlands and buffer restoration projects.

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Pennsylvania set to track Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Program (CNPP) progress with a new GIS application called NPS Tool: With funding through Pennsylvania's Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Program (CNPP), Pennsylvania State University's Environmental Resources Research Institute (ERRI) has developed a new, stand-alone ArcView application that will support results-based reporting requirements of the Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Program (CNPP). This application is based on another GIS-based stream characterization and assessment tool called AVStreams that ERRI previously developed for Pennsylvania's statewide Section 319 Nonpoint Source Management Program. AVStreams automates stream assessment techniques that previously depended on users' manually entering stream characterization data, such as stream bank conditions and erosion problems, onto paper survey forms. AVStreams allows users to access a variety of forms via pull-down menus, and to associate the compiled data with digital stream segments and user-specified locations.

ERRI re-formatted many of the generic data compilation, dialogue screens, data tracking, map-making, and report generation tools in AVStreams to allow for the collection, management and reporting of nonpoint source pollution management practices. Working with Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) staff, ERRI developed tools that facilitate the collection and reporting on a stream reach basis of such things as grazing projects, agricultural conservation plans, riparian buffers, erosion and sediment control projects, and storm water management facilities. Although much of this information is already compiled, it is generally not currently available on a watershed basis. Users will be able to: 1) spatially record the location of selected activities using digital topographic maps and scanned aerial photos as backdrops; 2) organize and summarize the data by various boundary types (e.g., counties, watersheds, regions); and 3) generate pre-formatted reports and maps.

This project complements the County Conservation Districts' technical assistance for the CNPP within Pennsylvania's eight-county CNPP management area. The Districts and Philadelphia Water Department are under contract with DEP Coastal Zone Management Program to report data about nonpoint source management practices and related activities. ERRI has provided training for the Districts and DEP staff, and is currently incorporating changes that the Districts have suggested. DEP's CNPP Coordinator expects to compile and summarize the District and PWD reports for comprehensive reporting to NOAA. The tool is expected to be ready for routine use early in 2004.

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