Fox-Wolf River, Wisconsin
The State of the Watershed: An
Expensive Pollution Problem The Fox-Wolf River Basin of Northeast Wisconsin
encompasses a 6,400 square mile drainage area that represents the largest
drainage basin to Lake Michigan and the third largest to the Great Lakes. Its
waters rank high among the region's most important assets. They have provided
transportation, power, drinking water, recreation, and aesthetic value to both
residents and visitors for centuries. But the Fox-Wolf basin has also suffered
more than a century of degradation at the hands of those who have used its
waters.
Although technology-based effluent
limits and pretreatment standards have cut point source pollution dramatically,
the basin faces ongoing challenges. Excessive levels of nutrients and suspended
solids still reach Green Bay on a daily basis. They continue to compromise
aquatic health. And research shows that the problem is increasing, not
decreasing.
Since many of these nutrients and
suspended solids come from non-point sources of pollution, we cannot expect to
achieve any water quality goals unless those sources are reduced dramatically.
The reality, however, is that non-point source dischargers, particularly the
agricultural community, seldom have the financial resources to put in place the
best management practices for preventing pollution. At the same time, local
point sources are reluctant to spend millions for wastewater treatment system
upgrades that won't make the water much better.
Watershed-Based Trading: A
Cost-Effective Water Quality Policy In this context, watershed-based trading
presents the prospect of a win-win situation for point sources, non-point
sources and the watershed itself. At its core, the trading concept is simple: A
point source can pay a non-point source to install best management practices
that reduce pollutant loads to the watershed. Water quality improves, and the
point source avoids having to install more costly pollution controls at its own
facility.
Trading offers a way to leverage
limited resources to attain water quality goals more cost-effectively than
traditional regulatory methods allow. And the concept is flexible enough to
encourage Clean Water Act compliance on a watershed basis while incorporating
emerging technologies and pollution prevention techniques.
Fox-Wolf Basin 2000: A Concept that
Meshes With Our Mission Organization began in 1992 as Northeast Wisconsin
Waters for Tomorrow (NEWWT), a group of scientists and economists seeking
cost-effective ways to achieve and sustain high quality waters for the Fox-Wolf
basin. Using a model of the river system and data on the costs of various
approaches to reducing phosphorous and sediment loads, we issued a landmark
report on options for meeting water quality goals.
That report showed that significant
reductions in non-point source pollution are critical to improving water
quality. And we looked at how these reductions can be achieved
cost-effectively. We transformed ourselves into Fox-Wolf Basin 2000 in 1994, a
broadly supported, independent, non-profit organization dedicated to taking
actions that will bring about the water quality improvements our research has
identified. Fox-Wolf Basin 2000 recognizes watershed-based trading as a
promising approach for advancing our longstanding commitment to cost-effective water
resource management. One of our current strategic objectives is to gather,
analyze and apply the information necessary to assess and launch a trading
program. In the process, we will seek to pinpoint problems and opportunities
that will
- help improve the state of the trading art for prospective traders in other regions and states.
- offer insights to inform the
development of any future trading guidelines.
Advancing Toward a Pilot Trade From our experience and
research into watershed-based trading, we see two interwoven themes as
essential to the fabric of success in this venture: building partnerships and
maintaining regular, significant communication among potential partners and
other stakeholders in the trading process.
Fox-Wolf Basin 2000 has identified
at least three areas that currently appear to have the potential for a pilot
trade. As a result, we have begun building stakeholder partnerships by working
actively with Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources "basin teams"
- groups that combine the expertise of the DNR with the talents and experience
of numerous non-DNR partners. These non-DNR partners will include, especially,
those whose lives and livelihoods are most closely intertwined with the
watershed. We don't believe any innovation in water resource management is
achievable without the direction of those who live closest to the resource.
Developing a TMDL An initial focus
of our efforts with stakeholders will be developing one or more Total Maximum
Daily Loads (TMDLs) to provide basic information to support the trading pilot.
A TMDL will determine how much of a targeted pollutant, such as phosphorous or
sediment, that point sources and non-point sources can discharge into a particular
waterbody or watershed. During this process, for each TMDL it develops, the
stakeholder team will help: · identify any pollutant causing significant stress
to the watershed, · estimate how much the waterbody can assimilate, · gauge how
much of that pollutant all the sources in the watershed currently contribute, ·
set a total allowable pollution load (TMDL), and · apportion that allowable
total among the pollutant sources in a feasible way that protects water
quality.
Modeling Fox-Wolf Basin 2000, from
its beginning, has built a reputation for excellence in modeling. We recognize
it as a key tool to use in understanding existing pollutant loads, developing a
TMDL and gauging the impact of alternative strategies for cost-effective
pollutant load reduction. With that in mind, we hope to act as brokers in
identifying possible trading scenarios and estimating the pollutant reductions
that a trade would make possible.
Working closely with the basin
teams, potential trading partners and other stakeholders, Fox-Wolf Basin 2000
plans to couple existing data with watershed inventories currently underway to:
- set up and run the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model, · link it with lake response modeling that DNR is now conducting in one of our potential pilot areas, · expand the SWAT model's capabilities by using orthophotography and Geographic Information System (GIS) inputs, · test the SWAT-GIS interface that the model's authors are currently developing,
- submit our enhanced SWAT
modeling technique for review and approval to support TMDL implementation and
watershed-based trading proposals.
Monitoring One of our prime tasks
will be to gather existing water quality data in a watershed or subwatershed
that becomes a strong candidate for a proposed pilot trade. We will use it to
develop a baseline that will then enable us to measure changes in water
resource conditions. In concert with our modeling, we want to use the
monitoring data to verify estimated improvements and make sure that real gains
in water quality are occurring. As part of our trading proposal, we will
advocate for consistent monitoring and modeling over the life of any local
trade.
Partners and Resources This project
is being funded by grants from state agencies, private foundations, and a
publicly owned treatment works. We are also devoting full-time staff resources
to the project and working closely with federal, state, regional, county and
municipal agencies, environmental organizations, consultants, representatives
from agriculture and industry and the regulated community as well as residents
and property owners who live and work in the watershed.
Project Contact: Linda Stoll, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance email:foxwolf@FWWA.org
Resource: Analysis of
Phosphorus Control Costs and Effectiveness for Point and Nonpoint Sources in
the Fox-Wolf Basin (1999). Joseph Kramer, Resource Strategies, Inc.
