 "All of the information, none of the smell. Virtually explore the Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility. Your nose will thank you!"
From September 26th to October 11th take a free virtual tour of the Jones Island Water Reclamation Facility, see how we clean wastewater, how Milorganite is made, and what you can do at your home to manage water where it falls as part of Historic Milwaukee’s Doors Open 2020. Join us to learn something new about the water you use every day! Some of the highlights include:
Even before publication of the TMDL in March 2018, DNR staff were working to begin drafting Wastewater Discharge permit limits consistent with the TMDL Waste Load Allocations (WLA's) for Phosphorus and TSS. As soon as the TMDL was approved, DNR staff began writing TMDL limits in permits, as permits expired and came up for renewal. Current status of the WPDES permits are:
- Started with 25 outfalls / 23 facilities
- 5 facilities discontinued discharge
- 20 outfalls / 18 facilities remain
- 7 facilities have TMDLs included
- 4 facilities with TMDL limits will be added in 2021
- 3 will be added in 2022
- 3 are likely to discontinue (retire) their discharge
Since publication of the September newsletter, final additions were made to the draft Fredonia Newburg Watershed Plan, the plan has undergone final review and found to satisfy the nine key elements for watershed restoration. DNR notified partners Sept 9th of the review results. Congratulations to all of the plan partners and thank you for your hard work in developing this plan.
The following nine key elements for watershed restoration plans have been formally approved and can guide implementation:
The following plan has undergone an initial review by DNR for the 9KE's with review comments returned to plan partners. DNR staff are working with respective partners to finalize the last remaining edits.
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Menomonee River Watershed Plan: The Menomonee River Watershed Plan has been reviewed by DNR. DNR staff are working with Milwaukee River Keeper to address feedback comments addressing future growth scenarios and long-term TMDL goals.
Sector Team Updates
10/13/2020
Hosted by DATCP and Discovery Farms - this webinar series, delivered in a podcast format, will cover a range of conservation topics that producer-led groups around the state are focusing on. Each webinar will include the farmer perspective and will have time for plenty of Q&A and discussion.
- Webinars are at 12:00 pm October 13
- No-till, 60 inch corn, and grazing covers
- To sign up for the webinar series, click here
- Any questions, please email Rachel Rushman
Will Advance County’s Lakes Clean-Up Efforts & Renewable Natural Gas Network While Benefiting Local Farmers
The $1.6 million project, which has been years in the making, is located in the Town of Springfield, and is receiving digested manure from GL Dairy Biogas LLC. The nutrient concentration system cleans manure through a series of ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis filters before discharging the remaining clean water into Pheasant Branch Creek. Nutrients, including phosphorus, are removed from the manure, concentrated, and stored for later use as a fertilizer for growing crops.
“By partnering with farmers and industry leaders, we are able to explore new technologies to manage manure while improving farmers’ bottom line and protecting our local water resources,” said Dane County Executive Joe Parisi. “In order to continue to make progress toward our water quality goals, we need to address these challenges head on as a community.” Read more
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AIS Snapshot Day
This year’s Snapshot Day event took place on August 15th. We had 21 volunteers in Washington and Waukesha counties participate and over 35 sites monitored!
The AIS team in both Washington and Waukesha counties would like to first give a HUGE thank you to all who participated!!! This monitoring is crucial to slowly and preventing the spread of invasive species through our counties.
RESULTS:
First and foremost, there was NO new STARRY STONEWORT detected at ANY of the monitoring sites!
We were able to verify a few sites with Purple Loosestrife, Banded Mystery Snails, and Rusty Crayfish. All of these sites have had these invasives for a while now, but we were able to get them confirmed, verified, and vouchered through this event!
You are invited to participate in the fourth Stakeholder group meeting for rulemaking efforts related to PFAS surface water quality criteria, groundwater standards, and drinking water standards. This meeting will be held virtually on October 9, 2020 beginning at 10:00 am, and can be accessed via Zoom at https://zoom.us/j/98835155245.
At this meeting, DNR will present plans for sampling PFAS compounds at regulated facilities that discharge to surface waters in order to provide data for the economic impact analysis required as part of the rulemaking process.
This meeting will also include a brief discussion on proposed plans to sample public drinking water system for PFAS in 2021, in advance of the promulgation of drinking water maximum contaminant levels in NR 809.
If you have questions, please contact Marcia Willhite at Marcia.Willhite@wisconsin.gov or Adam DeWeese at Adam.DeWeese@wisconsin.gov.
The Water Quality Bureau and the Bureau of Drinking Water and Groundwater are committed to working with our partners and stakeholders to ensure all options for effective regulation and control of these compounds to protect public health and the environment are considered during the rulemaking process.
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2020 Virtual Clean Rivers, Clean Lake Conference
Southeastern Wisconsin Watersheds Trust, Inc. (Sweet Water) is now accepting presentation proposals for the VIRTUAL 2020 Clean Rivers, Clean Lake Conference. The conference will span November 11, 12, and 13, for approximately 2.5 hours each day.
Couldn't make the Sept. 23rd Lake Country Clean Waters quarterly meeting? No worries, you can view the entire meeting online HERE!
Highlights of the September 23rd meeting include:
- An update by DNR Water Resources Management Specialist Amy Kretlow on Aquatic Invasive Species efforts completed over the summer.
- Tim Tyre from Carroll University will give a presentation on wave action and sediment suspension caused by different types of boats, using North Lake Management District as a case study. The program will feature dynamic aerial and underwater drone videography produced by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC), Carroll University and the North Lake Management District.
- The question and answer session.
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Thursday, November 5 (10:00-11:00 a.m.)
Register by noon on November 3 at https://conta.cc/3cx03yn
This presentation will go over the new WDNR technical standard of Proprietary Storm Water Filtration Devices (1010). These are commercially available flow-through devices to remove storm water pollutants. They are generally below ground chambers with replaceable granular media cartridges or membrane. The potential use and general sizing of these devices to meet ch. NR 151 post-construction performance standards for total suspended solids and total phosphorus will be discussed. 1 PDH will be offered. Presenter: Eric Rortvedt, DNR.
Storm water post-construction technical standard for DNR Technical Standard 1010 Proprietary Storm Water Filtration Devices is now available on the DNR website.
The DNR maintains, implements, and develops storm water construction and post-construction technical standards to assist with the compliance of Chapter NR 151, Wisconsin Administrative Code. The process established by the Wisconsin Standards Oversight Council (SOC) is the process the agency uses to develop or revise technical standards pursuant to Subchapter V of NR 151. The DNR is a member of SOC, along with several other federal and state agencies and conservation organizations, to ensure that technical standards used for soil and water conservation in Wisconsin are science-based and involve collaboration with other stakeholders.
The DNR Technical Standard 1010 Proprietary Storm Water Filtration Devices defines criteria and procedures to determine the reduction in total suspended solids and total phosphorus using proprietary filtration devices. Development of this standard included the review of existing research and procedures utilized by other state programs, input from government and industry experts, and a public review process. This standard was created by a team of varied stakeholders through the SOC Full Process. The following documents were created by the SOC team as part of DNR Technical Standard 1010: the Technical Standard, Technical Note, and Filter Efficiency Adjustment Spreadsheet.
DNR training on this standard will be announced on the SOC listserv. If you haven’t yet subscribed and would like to stay informed about updates to urban technical standards, please sign up.
Beginning October 1, 2020, all industrial storm water permit applications (Notices of Intent or NOI) must be submitted through the Department of Natural Resources’ online Water ePermitting System.
The online system is available on our water permit applications webpage.
- The storm water program currently has construction and industrial site permit applications (NOI), construction and industrial Notices of Termination (NOT) and municipal eReporting available.
- The ePermitting system does not require any special software and is completely web-based and available on all internet browsers.
- Online forms immediately notify staff once submitted, store the information electronically and make all submittals publicly available.
In light of COVID-19, please understand that most of our staff are teleworking and may have limited access to files, including any mailed NOIs or NOTs. Submitting NOIs or NOTs electronically will ensure timely service from our staff.
Access the step-by-step help document on the DNR’s webpage.
Please watch for more notifications about additional information and resources.
NOTE: This is in Minnesota and being shared for informational purposes, only. It does NOT apply to MS4 permits in Wisconsin
On Monday, October 5th, from 8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., the MPCA will be hosting an online chloride discussion. This is an opportunity to join other MS4 communities and MPCA staff to learn about the new MS4 permit requirements for chloride and find out what other MS4 communities have implemented to improve their winter maintenance operations. Learn more HERE
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October 20-22, 2020
Welcome to the first ever virtual WWOA Annual Conference. The WWOA Board of Directors is pleased to be offering this innovative program for 2020.
The Wastewater Program recognizes the hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic public health emergency and Governor Evers' Safer at Home mandate. As always, to the maximum extent possible, conditions and requirements of WPDES permits should still be adhered to, but first and foremost a facility should focus on operations (to maintain effluent quality) and other crisis management actions.
All deviations from "normal" operations should be fully documented and communicated to DNR. As a facility's situation changes, please communicate any changes with your DNR compliance staff by email. If there are delays or missed samples, please provide a comment on the Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR) form explaining whether missed requirements were due to COVID-19 issues and be clear if the issues were the result of staffing issues at the facility or laboratory challenges. Additional information can be found on the DNR's compliance assistance related to the COVID-19 pandemic. As always, please reach out to your Wastewater staff contacts if you have any questions or requests for assistance.
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