Memorandum of Understanding with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR)City of Dubuque
ITEM TITLE:
SUMMARY:
SUGGESTED DISPOSITION:
ATTACHMENTS:
Description
MOU with Iowa DNR-MVM Memo
Staff Memo
Memorandum of Understanding
Copyrighted
April 6, 2020
Action Items # 4.
Memorandum of Understanding with the Iowa Department
of Natural Resources (IDNR)
City Manager recommending approval of a Memorandum
of Understanding with the Iowa Department of Natural
Resources.
Suggested Disposition: Receive and File; Approve
Type
City Manager Memo
Staff Memo
Staff Memo
Masterpiece on the Mississippi
Dubuque
bitil
All-A.aia City
111111
2007.2012.2013
2017*2019
TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
SUBJECT: Memorandum of Understanding between the Iowa Department of Natural
Resources and the City of Dubuque
DATE: March 30, 2020
Water and Resource Recovery Center Manager William O'Brien recommends City
Council approval of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Iowa Department of
Natural Resources which provides regulatory certainty whereby, if the City chooses to
implement water quality improvement projects in the watershed, the City will receive
nutrient reduction credits which can be applied toward meeting the goals of the nutrient
reduction requirements in the City's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES) permit.
I concur with the recommendation and respectfully request Mayor and City Council
approval.
7--
Mic ael C. Van Milligen
WIT
MCVM:jh
Attachment
cc: Crenna Brumwell, City Attorney
Teri Goodmann, Assistant City Manager
Cori Burbach, Assistant City Manager
William J. O'Brien, Water & Resource Recovery Center Manager
Masterpiece on the Mississippi
TO: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
FROM: William J. O'Brien, W&RRC Manager
Dubuque
All -America Cipi
111111
2007+2012*2013
2017*2019
SUBJECT: Memorandum of Understanding between the Iowa Department of Natural
Resources and the City of Dubuque, Iowa
DATE: March 26, 2020
INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this memo is to request City Council approval of the
attached Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Iowa Department of
Natural Resources (IDNR) and the City of Dubuque, Iowa.
BACKGROUND: During the February 10, 2020 City Council Work Session, City Staff,
along with the IDNR, and the Sand County Foundation, provided an update to City
Council on Nutrient Trading activities conducted in the State of Iowa, and in the City of
Dubuque over the past several years. Many partners working together on Nutrient
Trading has resulted in the first MOU between the IDNR and a City, and now awaits
City Council approval.
The City of Dubuque Water & Resource Recovery Center operates under a National
Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit. This permit requires the City
to evaluate the feasibility and reasonableness of reducing the amounts of nitrogen and
phosphorus discharged into surface water. This evaluation must be submitted to IDNR
by January 1, 2022.
As part of the Nutrient Reduction Evaluation, the City may evaluate and propose to
implement practices within the watershed that may achieve greater reductions in
nitrogen or phosphorus than the preferred method(s) alone. Such evaluations are
particularly encouraged when no feasible or reasonable operational changes or
additional treatment technologies can be identified or when the schedule for installing
the selected technology exceeds ten years.
DISCUSSION: During the City Council Work Session, Mr. Bartlett Durand, of the Sand
County Foundation, indicated, citing a reference from the Chesapeake Bay, that in
general, watershed work is one tenth the cost of facility improvements. While I do not
dispute the cost of watershed work in the Chesapeake Bay, I strongly express the
topography and land use surrounding the Chesapeake Bay are significantly different
than that of the Dubuque area. The cost of watershed work is highly variable and should
not be looked at exclusively to reduce nutrient reduction expense.
In addition to nutrient reductions, watershed improvements can, depending on the
practice, provide flood control, erosion control, carbon storage, water storage, water
filtration, food, increased biodiversity, soil formation, and recreation. Given these
additional benefits, I recommend close examination of watershed improvements as we
work to meet the nutrient reduction requirements of the City's NPDES Permit.
The MOU establishes regulatory certainty allowing the City to make improvements in
the watershed, and receive credit for those improvements, including those already
made, toward meeting the nutrient reduction goals identified in the City's NPDES
Permit. Achieving affordable nutrient reduction requirements through watershed
improvements is highly dependent on project cost, applicable practices, and access to
land. The MOU provides an additional tool that allows the City to choose facility
improvements, watershed improvements, or a combination thereof, that provides the
best regulatory, environmental, and economic outcomes for the citizens of Dubuque.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: I respectfully request City Council review and approval of
the attached MOU between the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the City of
Dubuque, Iowa.
Cc: Crenna Brumwell, City Attorney
Teri Goodman, Assistant City Manger
Gus Psihoyos, City Engineer
Deron Muehring, Civil Engineer
Eric Schmechel, Urban Conservationist
Enc: MOU between the IDNR and the City of Dubuque, Iowa
2
Masterpiece on the Mississippi
CRENNA M. BRUMWELL, ES C
CITY ATTORNEY
MEMO
To: Kevin S. Firnstahl
City Clerk
DATE: April 8, 2020
RE: Memorandum of Understanding Between the Iowa Department of Natural
Resources and the City of Dubuque
Dubuque
***
All Aperitif City
nmawLwr; it�cxn;
2007*2012.2013
2017*2019
Attached for your file is one of two original Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
Between the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the City of Dubuque, which was
approved at the April 6, 2020 City Council meeting. The MOU establishes a framework
for the City to engage in watershed management within its HUC 8 and credit quantifiable
nutrient reductions in the watershed for the benefit of the City's nutrient reduction targets
through NPDES permitting.
We have mailed the second original to Adam Schnieders of the IDNR, as requested. We
will be maintaining a copy in our files.
Thank you.
Attachment
F:\Users\tsteckle\Brumwell\Memos\Firnstahl_OriginalMemoOfUnderstanding_040820.docx
OFFICE OF THE CITY ATTORNEY DUBUQUE, IOWA
SUITE 330, HARBOR VIEW PLACE, 300 MAIN STREET DUBUQUE, IA 52001-6944
TELEPHONE (563) 589-4381 / FAx (563) 583-1040 / EMAIL cbrumwel@cityofdubuque.org
MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING
BETWEEN
THE IOWA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES
AND
THE CITY OF DUBUQUE, IOWA
This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Iowa Department of Natural
Resources (DNR) and the City of Dubuque, Iowa (City) is effective on the6th day of
April , 2020.
1 Purpose. The purpose of this MOU is to establish a framework for the City
to engage in watershed management within its HUC 8 and credit quantifiable
nutrient reductions in that watershed for the benefit of the City's nutrient
reduction targets through NPDES permitting. The City may use this
framework to achieve compliance with current requirements arising from the
Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy (NRS) and potential future nutrient
requirements. In exchange for utilizing this framework, the City will receive
certainty regarding compliance with future nutrient reduction permit
requirements.
2. Background. Iowa developed a NRS to reduce excess nutrients in Iowa's surface
waters and tasked wastewater treatment plants with specific nutrient reduction
goals. The NRS supports the development of water quality credit trading between
two or more entities, commonly a point source which is mandated to achieve a
permit goal and one or more nonpoint sources who voluntarily collaborate with the
point source to reduce the amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus entering a water
body. Trading can provide a means to improve water quality, especially in cases
where the technology does not exist or is not affordable or feasible to allow a point
source discharger to comply with permit requirements or where the same or
greater pollutant reductions can be achieved more quickly or at lower cost through
implementing Best Management Practices (BMPs) or other nutrient reduction
efforts.'
In support of the NRS's goals and policy statements, the DNR in partnership with
the Iowa League of Cities established the Nutrient Reduction Exchange (NRE), a
tool for registration of practices implemented in a watershed that reduce Nitrogen
(N) and Phosphorus (P), registration of the modeled nutrient reductions of those
practices, and that are thus available for offsets or trading. This MOU is designed
to build on the NRS policy and goals, and the establishment of the NRE, to provide
point source facilities with a well-defined option of achieving regulatory compliance
1 The United States Environmental Protection Agency also supports water quality trading, offsets and
similar programs to achieve compliance with regulations, in particular using land management strategies
for implementing market -based programs within a watershed, as most recently stated in the EPA February
6, 2019 Memorandum titled "Updating the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Water Quality Trading
Policy to Promote Market -Based Mechanisms for Improving Water Quality."
and certainty through the implementation of watershed -based nutrient reduction
practices.
3. Goal. The goal of this MOU is to provide the City with regulatory certainty
regarding how it will be allowed to utilize nutrient load reductions in the
watershed within its NPDES permit, and how nutrient reducing practices can be
banked or used in the future.
4. General Areas of Agreement.
A. Use of Nutrient Reducing Practices as Offsets. Provided that the terms of
this agreement are followed, the City shall be able to utilize nutrient reducing
practices as offsets (Nutrient Reduction Offsets) towards its requirements for
nutrient reduction under an NPDES permit, in accordance with the terms of this
MOU. Nutrient reducing practices (aka BMPs) built or implemented as part of a
watershed plan will be considered as described below.
B. Monitoring and Modeling. The City may develop a monitoring strategy to
assess overall N and P concentrations in -stream and to document progress toward
nutrient reductions within the watershed. However, progress towards nutrient
reduction will be based on modeling using the Nutrient Tracking Tool (NTT)
provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Environmental Markets Division,
or as further set forth below.
C. Baselines. N and P baselines for point and nonpoint sources will be based
on pre -City -implemented BMPs. For nutrient reducing practices, baseline options
should be consistent with the existing established practices in Iowa, appropriate
for the sector, and may be further defined in terms of load, geographic scale,
minimum practices, and schedule of implementation and/or time needed to
facilitate improved environmental performance to achieve nutrient load reductions.
Agricultural NPS baselines will be established using pre-existing field activity data.
Pre-existing baseline data will be verified using the NRE guidelines and will be
stored within the NRE system as a part of the NTT model runs. Baseline conditions
must be established at the field level prior to the City -connected implementation of
any BMP on a given field.
D. Future Mandated Practices. In order to recognize investments made by
municipalities towards NRS reduction goals, and to reward leadership, if a BMP
funded under a watershed project subsequently becomes mandated by local, state
or federal law, the N, P, and Total Suspended Solids (TSS) reductions associated
with that BMP will continue to be credited to the municipality if allowed under the
new law, provided that the BMP continues to be viable, verified, and within the
useful life of the practice.
E. TSS. BMPs put in place to address P will also generally be effective in
reducing TSS. Where necessary and when correlated within a watershed, P-
2
reductions will be used as a surrogate for TSS. TSS reductions, in addition to N
and P reductions, can be considered, if applicable and consistent with state and
federal law.
5. Watershed Plan.
A. Outlining the City's Goals. In each NPDES permit application the City must
submit a watershed plan or a document explaining what the practices the City
plans to implement within the watershed and when those practices will be
implemented to utilize nutrient reducing practices in the future.
B. Plan Requirements. A watershed plan must include an analysis of the
following: (1) identification of appropriate watershed management within its HUC
8, (2) a discussion about how the City will attempt to achieve nutrient reduction
through BMPs and landowner engagement, (3) an estimation of Toad reductions
expected from implementation of new BMPs, (4) how the practices will be
maintained over the design life of the practice (5) an expected project schedule
during the permit term, and (6) a description of how the City will monitor and track
the effectiveness of its BMP implementation schedule.
C. Location. The City may select a watershed planning area or multiple areas
in the HUC 8 watershed within which it is located.
D. Practice Criteria. BMPs identified in a watershed plan shall be installed and
maintained according to Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) or Iowa
Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) technical standards.
Work shall be done in accordance with generally accepted engineering practices
and shall document the NTT -modeled estimates of pounds/tons reduced as
compared to nutrient and sediment loading conditions prior to the installation of the
BMP. Novel practices not included in NRCS or IDALS standards may be used, as
long as the nutrient reductions they produce can be modeled using the NTT, are
consistent with the NRS, and approved by DNR and Iowa State University (ISU)
technical reviewers.
6. Determining Final Plan Compliance, Interim Progress, and Usable Nutrient Load
Reductions.
A. Compliance Measurement. Interim progress, final compliance and usable
nutrient load reductions will be determined using the best available modeling tools.
Currently, BMPs will be modeled at the field scale using the NTT. Other models or
methods may be substituted as deemed appropriate, subject to agreement by the
parties to this MOU.
B. Offset and Practice Eligibility. Implemented BMPs shall be recorded on the
NRE. In general, the City shall provide experienced personnel to be trained in the
NTT, and to model the BMPs through the NTT (or other approved model), obtain
3
verification and approval from ISU or the DNR designee; and to confirm and
document practice construction completion and record NTT results into the RIBITS
system. The DNR shall accept the NTT -modeled load reductions of the BMPs
within RIBITS and issue a letter establishing the validity of the practices and these
may be used by the City as an offset in a one-to-one ratio to contribute to its NRS
goal, or may be used in other regulatory formats so long as the practice has been
maintained and is functioning as designed. Upon receipt of the verification and
approval of the model run by ISU (or the DNR designee), the DNR shall have sixty
(60) days to review, comment, and issue a letter establishing the validity of the
nutrient load reductions claimed or request modifications.
C. Interim Progress for NRS Goals. During the term of this MOU, the City shall
provide annual progress reports to the DNR detailing its progress in the watershed,
the BMPs implemented, verification of ongoing practices, and the nutrient load
reductions obtained. To the extent nutrient load reductions were committed as
offsets towards use in the City's NPDES permit requirements, the progress report
shall identify overall progress towards the 5-year goals for N and P reductions, as
well as what percentage of reductions come from technological improvements
versus work in the watershed. DNR also expects the report to sum the load
reductions (Le., pounds) in each year for each of the pollutants at issue (e.g., N
and P). This should not require additional calculations, instead merely summing
already quantified pounds of nutrient load reductions used as reported in the
state's NRE registry/tracking system.
D. Achieving Total NRS Goals. The City is committing to reaching the nutrient
reduction goals outlined within the NRS using a combination of technological
approaches and watershed offsets, if this is achievable under a feasibility and
reasonableness analysis under IAC 567-62.8(5), by 2032. If the City is relying
primarily on watershed -based nutrient reducing practices to achieve these goals,
progress must be shown consistent with commitments and timeframes detailed in
the watershed plan for each permit cycle towards achieving the total NRS nutrient
reduction goals.
E. Future Requirements. If the City implements a watershed plan in
accordance with this MOU, DNR agrees not to impose any additional nutrient
reduction requirements during the plan implementation term unless required to do
so by law.
F. Look Back Period. The City initiated its voluntary efforts in watershed work
in 2007. For purposes of nutrient reducing practices, the City may record modeled
nutrient reductions from BMPs implemented since May of 2013 in the NRE, as
outlined above. However, the City must be able to fully document the field
conditions prior to the City -initiated BMPs. These nutrient load reductions may be
applied to the nutrient reduction goals committed to by the City, and ongoing
practices may continue to be used for offsets.
4
7 Termination of Agreement. This agreement shall be in effect unless modified or
terminated by mutual agreement of the parties, or the DNR elects to terminate this
MOU to coincide with the expiration of the City's next NPDES permit by submitting
written notice to the City one -hundred eighty (180) days in advance of the current
permit's expiration.
CITY OF DUBUQUE, IOWA
IOWA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL
RESOURCES
By: By
Its: Manor Its:
5