Latest / The Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Podcast / Episode 43 | Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy 2021 Biennial Report Update
Transcript
- Episode 43 | Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy 2021 Biennial Report Update 00:00:04:29 - 00:00:38:24 Todd Gleason This is the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy podcast, episode 43 the biannual report update on University of Illinois Extension's Todd Gleason. Coming up, we'll walk you through the biennial report, which was just released. Trevor Sample of Illinois EPA will tell us a little bit about the nutrient loss reduction strategy in the state and where we are with this biennial report, and he'll also take up the point source issues and the kinds of things that have taken place in the state to reduce nutrient loss from those areas. 00:00:38:27 - 00:01:06:23 Todd Gleason And then we'll discuss a bit more about the stormwater runoff as well. Eliana Brown from University of Illinois Extension will take that up for us. And Megan Dwyer from the Illinois Corn Growers Association will talk about the ag sector as a whole, as it's related to nutrient loss. And then Joe Rothermel will join us, a Champaign County farmer, to tell us how he's been involved in the in laws and what landowners and farmers can do about nutrient loss in the state. 00:01:06:26 - 00:01:13:27 Todd Gleason We'll begin with Trevor Sample from Illinois EPA, and I asked him to tell us a little bit about himself to start with. 00:01:14:00 - 00:01:30:04 Trevor Sample My name is Trevor Sample. I've been with the Illinois EPA for 20 years, and I served as the agency coordinator for the nutrient loss reduction strategy. That means I coordinate the implementation of the strategy and work closely with the Illinois Department of Agriculture and University of Illinois extension staff, who also work on this issue. 00:01:30:10 - 00:01:35:18 Todd Gleason Can you give a brief background of the Illinois nutrient loss reduction strategy? 00:01:35:21 - 00:01:59:17 Trevor Sample Sure. So the strategy development was led by Illinois EPA and the Illinois Department of Agriculture. Multi-sector Multi-stakeholder Policy Work Group was formed to oversee the development. The strategy was released in 2015. It sets a long term target of reducing total phosphorus and total nitrogen leave in the state by 45%. 00:01:59:20 - 00:02:24:26 Trevor Sample We also have an interim target of 15% reduction in nitrate and 25% reduction in total phosphorus. The strategy addresses nutrient loss from three main sectors agriculture point sources or wastewater treatment plants, and urban stormwater. And the policy work group continues to be engaged in the implementation of the strategy. And we also have nine additional subcommittees and subgroups that address specific issues. 00:02:24:29 - 00:02:29:14 Todd Gleason The other states have a nutrient loss strategy and how does Illinois differ? 00:02:29:21 - 00:02:45:02 Trevor Sample Well, there are 12 states that make up the Hypoxia Task Force, and every state has the same long term goal of reducing nutrient loads by 45%. Some states have different interim goals. Each state is in a different place in terms of developing or implementing their strategies. 00:02:45:05 - 00:03:06:13 Trevor Sample Most states focused on non-point source and reductions from agriculture, while others address different sectors like point sources and urban stormwater, like we do in Illinois. Each state structure for implementing their strategies is a little different. Some take a statewide approach, while others focus on individual watersheds. But all of the states have been working together on, on this issue. 00:03:06:15 - 00:03:09:12 Trevor Sample Through the hypoxia task Force for a couple of decades. 00:03:09:12 - 00:03:24:28 Todd Gleason Now, every two years, a big annual report is released that looks at where the state is in progress towards its goals in the Illinois nutrient loss strategy. Are there some highlights from the 2021 version? 00:03:25:00 - 00:03:28:24 Trevor Sample You know, I think the biggest takeaway is the level of involvement still exists. 00:03:28:24 - 00:03:49:25 Trevor Sample Six years after the release of the report by all of our partners in all three sectors. We held our nutrient strategy conference, last week, and we had over 160 participants online. So that tells me that people are still very much engaged in this effort. When we report on the metrics in the report, we follow a logic model. 00:03:49:27 - 00:04:16:06 Trevor Sample That report on metrics such as resources, which major money invested in the people working on nutrient loss outreach measures. Measuring the number of meetings and conferences and field days and the number of attendees. We also look at land and facility measures that track implementation of practices across all three sectors. And the final component is water, which is where we calculate the nutrient loads lost on a five year running average from the state. 00:04:16:09 - 00:04:44:17 Trevor Sample Some highlights of these from the 2021 by New Report include. From 2019 to 2020, the AG sector reported 27 million and investments related to nutrient loss efforts. This does not include state and federal cost share programs, this is mostly funding from our, partner stakeholders. During the same period, the point source sector reported over 200 million invested in implementing nutrient reduction equipment to wastewater treatment facilities to reduce total phosphorus. 00:04:44:22 - 00:05:09:06 Trevor Sample So there's been some real investments in the state the last couple of years in terms of outreach to the ag sector, reported over 1000 events, reaching over 72,000 attendees from 2019 to 2020. This includes navigating social distancing mandates during 2020, so many organizations moved online platforms to continue outreach efforts to farmers and others in the ag industry. 00:05:09:08 - 00:05:47:19 Trevor Sample On nutrient loss, looking at land and facility majors for agriculture, for instance. In 2019, there was reported 1.4 million acres of cover crops planted, representing 135% increase from our 2011 baseline period. We also saw 11.2 million acres of crop. Land was reported to have reduced their phosphorus rates since 2011. On the ports point source side, we now have 77 major municipal wastewater treatment facilities, that have phosphorus limits in their MPDS permits that are administered by the Illinois EPA. 00:05:47:22 - 00:06:18:28 Trevor Sample And in 2020, we calculated a 16% reduction in total phosphorus loads from all point sources. Talking a little bit about urban stormwater. There was $9 million invested in green infrastructure projects to reduce the runoff from urban stormwater. Looking at the water loads, however, we have seen the nutrient loads increase from 2015 to 2019. We saw a 25% increase in flow, primarily driven by large precipitation events in 2019. 00:06:19:01 - 00:06:44:29 Trevor Sample And this resulted in 13% increase in nitrate loads and a 35% increase in phosphorus loads. So despite all of the efforts that we report in the implementation of implementation, in this report, the loads are actually increasing. We think most of that is due to increase in precipitation. Some watersheds had different levels of increases, while others showed some decreases in nitrate or phosphorus. 00:06:45:01 - 00:07:07:10 Trevor Sample So we have some studies ongoing right now trying to determine why we are seeing some of these large differences in loads in certain watersheds. We think we can continue to see increased precipitation, driven by climate change, which just makes meeting our nutrient loss goals even more challenging. We know the conservation practices that we recommended in the strategy work. 00:07:07:12 - 00:07:28:14 Trevor Sample The Nutrient Research and Education Council has been investing in research, researching the effectiveness of these practices for almost ten years now. And so it's just a matter of increasing the pace and scale of adoption of these practices on the agriculture side. For agriculture, that means implementing practices on close to 22 million acres of cropland every year. 00:07:28:16 - 00:07:43:02 Trevor Sample Especially for some of the infield practices like nutrient management, reduce tillage and cover crops. And that's going to require significant investments in financial and technical assistance to farmers and landowners, to help us meet our nutrient loss reduction goals. 00:07:43:05 - 00:07:49:21 Todd Gleason Can I have you come back to the point source issues? Those were defined as the wastewater treatment plants. 00:07:49:23 - 00:07:54:10 Todd Gleason What are they being asked to do as it relates to nutrient loss? 00:07:54:13 - 00:08:14:16 Trevor Sample Well, there are several. Our agency, administers what are called National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits and these permits limit the amount of pollutants and the type in the amount of pollutants that can be discharged from sewage treatment plants. We also can put limits in the permits, that reduce the amount of nutrients. 00:08:14:16 - 00:08:46:17 Trevor Sample Primarily we're focusing on total phosphorus. So there's a lot of facilities. In fact, I just mentioned earlier that there were 77 facilities at the end of 2020 that had to meet, total phosphorus permit limits, 1mg/l concentration in their discharge. We're all asking also asking all the major, municipal facilities, and we defined a major facility is one that discharges, 1 million gallons or more of discharge a day. 00:08:46:19 - 00:09:33:06 Trevor Sample To do, optimization and feasibility studies for meeting, certain concentrations of phosphorus, optimization settings, look at, how they can optimize their existing equipment to reduce phosphorus levels, and then feasibility studies on the feasibility of installing new equipment, that would reduce phosphorus levels. There's also a concept called, nutrient assessment reduction plans, or we call these NARPs, and certain facilities that they meet certain criteria to waters that they discharge to have to develop these watershed plans that look at not only point sources, but only that also include non-point source reductions that can be, implemented at the watershed scale. 00:09:33:08 - 00:09:48:03 Trevor Sample So this is another study, another way for these facilities to determine what their phosphorus targets need to be, for the watershed and how they can, meet those targets to reductions through a combination of point source reductions and non-point source reduction. 00:09:48:05 - 00:09:57:28 Todd Gleason Trevor Sample is with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. He helped us to define the Illinois nutrient loss reduction strategy and talked about point source pollution. 00:09:57:28 - 00:10:15:08 Todd Gleason Eliana Brown is with University of Illinois Extension, and she's here to discuss stormwater as it's related to nutrient losses. Thank you. Eliana, for taking the time. Can you tell me a bit about yourself and your involvement with the Illinois nutrient loss reduction strategy? 00:10:15:11 - 00:10:22:11 Eliana Brown I'm Eliana Brown. I'm a water quality specialist with Illinois Extension and Illinois Indiana Sea Grant. 00:10:22:13 - 00:10:34:14 Eliana Brown I also have responsibility for the campus Red Oak rain garden and coordinate the rain scaping training program statewide for Illinois extension that we've imported from Purdue Extension. 00:10:34:19 - 00:10:45:14 Todd Gleason Tell me a little bit about some of the important highlights that you covered during the biennial report. As it relates to the storm water section and what exactly might that be? 00:10:45:16 - 00:11:17:02 Eliana Brown Stormwater. Urban stormwater is, one of our sources of nutrients in the state. In addition to agriculture and point sources, we also have, small amount of nutrients leaving our state from urban stormwater. Those, that stormwater can cause some important local water quality impacts. And so Illinois chose to include it as part of our strategy efforts. 00:11:17:04 - 00:11:48:05 Eliana Brown Some of the important highlights from the, the, the 2021 report for stormwater is, the number of applicants for the Illinois EPA's Green Infrastructure Grant opportunities Program is indicating a keen interest in stormwater projects. They received a good number of applications from all over the state. We do have stormwater partners as part of the, nutrient loss reduction strategy. 00:11:48:05 - 00:12:34:08 Eliana Brown Working groups and our partners, reported that they held numerous outreach and educational events in 2019 and 2020, and especially in 2020. This is even despite the pandemic obstacles. Those partners found new way to reach a wide audience by shifting online, hosting webinars and finding expanded audiences. Lastly, an analysis of stormwater programs from around the state showed that 61% of municipalities offered stormwater technical assistance and that a majority of those programs have implemented street sweeping said about 78%, and leaf collection around 64%. 00:12:34:10 - 00:12:38:11 Eliana Brown Which are all, good practices for water quality. 00:12:38:17 - 00:12:48:06 Todd Gleason Can you talk about some of the green infrastructure practices that have been implemented to improve stormwater runoff and water quality as a result of the nutrient loss reduction strategy in the state? 00:12:48:08 - 00:13:02:26 Eliana Brown Yeah. There are a number of landscape techniques that can improve water quality, reducing nutrients. If you manage a lawn, Illinois Indiana Sea Great Lake program offers several ways to manage turfgrass in a sustainable way. 00:13:02:28 - 00:13:28:23 Eliana Brown Another thing to consider is leaf management. There's a there was a USGS multi-year study that showed that the number one cause of phosphorus from urban areas is autumn leaves left in the street. And sometimes it's common for people to put leaves out in the road as a practice. But a better practice is to utilize leaves by mulching them into the lawn, putting them on garden beds, or adding them to the compost pile or bagging them up. 00:13:28:25 - 00:13:58:13 Eliana Brown All of the green infrastructure practices help by reducing the amount of stormwater runoff, so that helps by preventing the opportunity for those lost nutrients to be picked up by stormwater runoff. And some practices, like rain gardens, have even more benefit as they reduce phosphorus. A typical rain garden can reduce phosphorus by around 10 pounds per year by some estimates. 00:13:58:15 - 00:14:00:10 Todd Gleason And what is a rain garden? 00:14:00:12 - 00:14:38:01 Eliana Brown A rain garden is a cultivated landscape area, where some of the soil has been removed so that it can capture that stormwater runoff that can, for example, be shed off of a home's roof or a parking lot. So the the rain garden captures that runoff and allows it to infiltrate into the ground where it's utilized by the plants in the garden instead of, rushing really quickly into the storm sewers and out to lakes and rivers. 00:14:38:06 - 00:14:45:09 Todd Gleason Do you have any advice for homeowners and business owners who might be interested in adopting some green infrastructure practices? 00:14:45:12 - 00:15:10:02 Eliana Brown If you are new to this, a really good starter green infrastructure practice as a rain barrel, then if you if you want to do more, I recommend getting some training. So, I highly recommend taking Extension's Rain Scaping program so you can look for opportunities to do that from your local extension office in spring of 2022. 00:15:10:04 - 00:15:23:11 Eliana Brown I'd also recommend that you check with your municipality for funding opportunities. Some local governments offer rebates or cost share program that can help cover some of the cost of green infrastructure practices. 00:15:23:18 - 00:15:32:07 Todd Gleason Eliana Brown is with the University of Illinois Extension, and she walked us through some of the stormwater issues related to nutrient loss in the state of Illinois. 00:15:32:10 - 00:15:45:10 Todd Gleason Megan Dwyer now joins us. She is with the Illinois Corn Growers Association. And we'll talk about the things that are in the agricultural sector. Thank you, Megan, for being with us. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? 00:15:45:13 - 00:16:01:02 Megan Dwyer I'm Megan Dwyer. I'm the nutrient loss reduction manager for the Illinois Corn Growers Association. So I work on both policy as well as kind of farm gate programs, that help farmers, implement practices that address the issues of the nutrient loss reduction strategy. 00:16:01:07 - 00:16:09:18 Todd Gleason What are some of the important highlights from the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy 2021 Biennial Report in the AG sector? 00:16:09:20 - 00:16:19:26 Megan Dwyer Yeah, there was a lot of good information in there. I think a few of the things that are worth noting, starting at the kind of overview high level is looking at, you know, the rainfall and flow. 00:16:19:26 - 00:16:41:05 Megan Dwyer You know, we know we're seeing more intense and frequent rainfall events. And that report, you know, confirms that that shows that flow was up 25%, in, over the baseline, for the average between 2015 and 2019. So again, we know that we're getting more rainfall and we need to know how to handle that once that's here. 00:16:41:08 - 00:17:08:27 Megan Dwyer You know, things looking at what was able to be accomplished in public private funds, over $13 million, in those public private funds, not counting any state or federal dollars, were spent in 2020. Which is just really a really positive story to show how groups are coming together, to try and address some of the issues and challenges that we face and, and thinking outside of the box and how we can address that and, and make things happen. 00:17:09:00 - 00:17:29:06 Megan Dwyer And then I think it's worth noting that even with the pandemic and what was happening, what was going on across the country and the world, you know, over 72,000 people attended workshops, field days and webinars, which, you know, looking for resources, looking for information and things and, and challenging the way they think and looking for new things to try. 00:17:29:10 - 00:17:43:02 Todd Gleason So the projects supported by the partner organizations, they're pretty important to the success of the Illinois Nutrient loss reduction strategy. Could you provide maybe a bit of an overview of some of the ag projects supported by the partners? 00:17:43:08 - 00:17:52:26 Megan Dwyer Yeah. So for the nutrient loss reduction strategy, the non-point source or the ag section, you know, we’ve still got challenges in front of us and we still have barriers that we need to overcome. 00:17:52:26 - 00:18:15:10 Megan Dwyer So we feel like things around the non-operating landowners, variable costs, equipment costs and just kind of the risk and education associated with some of these practices. So the public, private partnerships and partnership projects are all really crucial to try and overcome those barriers. And I think it boiled down to three things research, outreach and on farm adoption. 00:18:15:12 - 00:18:41:01 Megan Dwyer So, you know, we've got a lot of research going on in both the nitrogen and phosphorus quality watersheds. University of Illinois Extension, NREC, Illinois, and some of the groups, you know, working in research, Farm Bureau, obviously, outreach. Anytime we can get farmers together to be thinking about these things, whether it's an in-person field day or a webinar, the Illinois Sustainable Ag Partnership did an awesome series on carbon markets. 00:18:41:03 - 00:18:59:07 Megan Dwyer So looking at kind of how some of these practices can pay, you know, Illinois Corn does a water testing campaign where we mail out nitrate water testing strips and then obviously on farm, we need to make sure these practices aren't just being talked about in autumn. They need to be happening, where where the rubber meets the road. 00:18:59:14 - 00:19:29:01 Megan Dwyer And so things like the fall cover for Spring Savings program, which is, $5 an acre, crop insurance, premium reduction, and precision conservation management, looking really at the economics of conservation practices. And then so many of the various cover crop programs that exist, from the partners, whether that's first time cover, crop cover, crop coupons, just different partnerships to help cost share and, and help, farmers overcome that financial burden for implementing these things are just so important. 00:19:29:01 - 00:19:44:17 Megan Dwyer And and again, it's taking all of the groups working together and, and finding funds outside of state and federal costs or dollars that are so limited, to help ensure that the practices are being implemented. And, and we're working toward meeting the goals of the nutrient loss reduction strategy. 00:19:44:19 - 00:20:00:19 Todd Gleason So finally, how do you suppose that farmers, and maybe more importantly, landowners, work to adopt some of these conservation practices or becoming part of a project or a partner with somebody within a project? 00:20:00:21 - 00:20:30:14 Megan Dwyer Yeah. That's great. And that's definitely one of the challenges and barriers we see in Illinois is how do we get practices implemented on rented land. And so we really think that it starts with empowering the tenant. And, you know, empowering the farmer to have those conversations and give them the tools and resources, they feel comfortable going to their landowner to say, hey, I think this makes a lot of sense for not only the environmental impact, but the risk mitigation and overall soil health and long term financial benefits to them. 00:20:30:17 - 00:20:54:29 Megan Dwyer So things like, Illinois Corn has worked with, University of Illinois farm doc team to create lease addendum. So there are three lease addendums that exist, that can help you provide the framework to your current lease agreement. You know, Illinois soy, the Nature Conservancy, Illinois corn have worked together on, a conservation conversation campaign, again helping provide some of those resources. 00:20:55:01 - 00:21:06:26 Megan Dwyer And again, it's really comes down to making sure that the farmer feels comfortable and confident having those conversations that they have a solid case when they're going to that landowner to show them what this means, for them as well. 00:21:07:00 - 00:21:16:08 Todd Gleason Megan Dwyer is with the Illinois Corn Growers Association and outlined the AG sector as it relates to the nutrient loss reduction strategy in the state of Illinois. 00:21:16:14 - 00:21:28:04 Todd Gleason Joe Rothermel is here. He's a Champaign County farmer and has been actively involved in the NLRS. I asked him to give me a little bit about himself and his connection to the strategy. 00:21:28:06 - 00:21:39:20 Joe Rothermel My name is Joe Rothermel and I'm a farmer in, southern Champaign County, fifth generation farmer, and also, chairman for the Champaign County Soil and Water Conservation District. 00:21:39:25 - 00:21:43:08 Todd Gleason So is that your connection to the nutrient loss reduction strategy? 00:21:43:09 - 00:21:50:20 Joe Rothermel Yeah, I would say I'm connected in two ways. One, as a farmer. And one, as a, district board member. 00:21:50:22 - 00:21:56:18 Todd Gleason Why do you think farmers should care about water quality findings in the 2021 Biennial Report? 00:21:56:21 - 00:22:01:24 Joe Rothermel Well, it doesn't look like the needle's moving in the right direction. 00:22:01:27 - 00:22:12:00 Joe Rothermel The report shows increased water flows, so I'm really not sure what to think of the findings, but, I would say it shows some, some concern. 00:22:12:02 - 00:22:20:06 Todd Gleason What actions do you think are necessary, if at all, for farmers and landowners to take to reach our water quality goals in the state? 00:22:20:09 - 00:22:33:04 Joe Rothermel Well, I'd say the best thing for farmers would be and and or land owners, would be to, read through the report trying to understand what the what the strategy is and what they can do to have an impact on it. 00:22:33:07 - 00:22:38:20 Todd Gleason And do you have advice for farmers who are interested in conservation practices supported by the in laws? 00:22:38:22 - 00:22:58:08 Joe Rothermel Yes, I would say contact, your local NRCs office or the Soil and Water Conservation District, or, attend a field day. There are some of those, coming up or, talk to a farmer who's already, practicing some of these, some of these things that help reduce nutrient loss. 00:22:58:13 - 00:23:22:29 Todd Gleason Joe Rothermel is a farmer in Champaign County, Illinois. He and Megan Dwyer of the Illinois Corn Growers Association, along with Eliana Brown from Illinois Extension and Trevor Sample of Illinois EPA, helped us to outline the just released 2021 biennial report on the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction strategy. You've been listening to episode 43 of the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Podcast. 00:23:22:29 - 00:23:34:08 Todd Gleason The program was produced in conjunction with the Illinois Extension Watershed Outreach Associates. Jennifer Jones and Rachel Curry. University of Illinois Extension's Todd Gleason.