2022 EPA Nutrient Reduction Memorandum
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water plans to accelerate progress in controlling nutrient pollution in our nation's waters by scaling up existing, foundational approaches and more broadly deploying new data assessments, tools, financing approaches, and implementation strategies. The EPA plans to integrate the objectives of both the Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act in a One Water approach to find durable solutions to the challenges and costs associated with reducing nutrient pollution. At the same time, the EPA foresees incorporating promising innovations, creative partnerships, and unprecedented opportunities to invest in clean and safe water in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to accelerate progress in reducing nutrient pollution.
As outlined in the EPA’s 2022 Memorandum, the Agency plans to accelerate progress in controlling nutrient pollution in our nation's waters using five governing principles: (1) advance equity and environmental justice, (2) build and foster partnerships, (3) follow the science and invest in data-driven solutions, (4) support innovation, and (5) scale successful initiatives. These principles lead to three main strategies and associated actionable items that will continue to drive nutrient reductions.
- Strategy 1: Deepen Collaborative Partnerships with Agriculture
- Strategy 2: Redouble EPA’s Efforts to Support States, Tribes, and Territories to Achieve Nutrient Pollution Reductions from All Sources
- Strategy 3: Utilize EPA’s Clean Water Act Authorities to Drive Progress, Innovation, and Collaboration
Strategy 1: Deepen Collaborative Partnerships with Agriculture
- Actively collaborating with USDA leadership to build and maintain connections and momentum to help targeting funds whenever feasible to the locations and practices that will generate the most significant reductions in nutrient loads.
- Expanding engagements with agricultural stakeholders and highlighting their innovation and successes in reducing nutrient loads to waterbodies.
- Deepening on-the-ground collaboration with USDA, states, territories, tribes, and stakeholders in key geographic areas to leverage EPA’s current activities and identify additional opportunities to help reduce nutrient pollution.
Strategy 2: Redouble EPA’s Efforts to Support States, Tribes, and Territories to Achieve Nutrient Pollution Reductions from All Sources
- Strongly encouraging states to use a One Water approach to deliver a range of water quality benefits including protection of sources of drinking water.
- Championing innovative financing and using the flexibility of the Clean Water Act regulatory framework to spur development of more effective technologies, drive market-based approaches, including water quality trading, third-party credit aggregation and banking, and stronger agriculture-water sector partnerships.
- Prioritizing strategies to support small, rural, and disadvantaged communities.
Strategy 3: Utilize EPA’s Clean Water Act Authorities to Drive Progress, Innovation, and Collaboration
- Urging more robust adoption of numeric nutrient criteria, particularly the newly published stressor-response based numeric criteria recommendations to address nutrient pollution in lakes and reservoirs, into Water Quality Standards.
- More fully using the CWA assessment and listing process support identifying nutrient-related impairments and assisting states in the development of robust and ready-for-implementation TMDLs and other restoration plans to reduce nutrient pollution.
- Further reducing nutrient loads from point sources by providing strong support of innovative permitting approaches that can drive deeper, sustained nutrient reductions.