All News Releases By Date

EPA UNVEILS PACKAGE TO TACKLE POLLUTION PROBLEMS IN MANCHESTER, N.H.

Release Date: 03/16/1999
Contact Information: Peyton Fleming, EPA Press Office (617-918-1008)

BOSTON - New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the City of Manchester, N.H. and the N.H. Department of Environmental Services (DES) today announced an innovative agreement that includes numerous and significant efforts to clean up the Merrimack River, the purchase of several-hundred acres of globally-rare wetlands and substantial investments in the prevention of childhood asthma and lead poisoning in Manchester.

The agreement, the first of its kind in the country, is a direct outgrowth of negotiations between the City of Manchester, EPA's New England Office and the State of New Hampshire to address the city's long-standing combined sewer overflow (CSO) problem, which results in millions of gallons of sewage and stormwater being discharged into the Merrimack River each year.

The agreement includes a 10-year, $52.4 million plan to remove the majority of the sewer overflows into the river, as well as a half-dozen environmental and public health projects in Manchester, including a $1 million urban ponds restoration initiative, a $2 million program to preserve valuable wildlife habitat and wetland areas and a $500,000 program to tackle childhood lead poisoning and asthma. Additionally, the City has agreed to invest $2 million to address stormwater management and erosion control problems along the river and its tributaries.

"This agreement, together with the transfer of properties between the city and UNH, will address many needs in Manchester and the surrounding region," said Governor Shaheen. "The environmental initiatives outlined in this agreement will further the state's efforts to clean up the Merrimack River and its watershed, which is one of the state's most important assets."

"We're delivering greater environmental benefits at less cost to Manchester ratepayers," said EPA's New England Administrator John P. DeVillars, who with Mayor Raymond J. Wieczorak and NH-DES Commissioner Robert Varney spearheaded the negotiations over the past year. "The Vice President and EPA Administrator Browner handed us a playbook that called for cleaner, cheaper and smarter environmental protection. This initiative is a game winner on every count."

"We're very pleased that after years of long negotiations, we have finally made a breakthrough regarding CSOs," added Mayor Wieczorak. "It required a major effort on the part of EPA, DES and city employees, specifically Frank Thomas and Tom Siegle."

Manchester is among more than 100 communities in New England - and more than 1,000 across the country - that are required to address sewer/stormwater overflows under the federal Clean Water Act. The overflows, which typically occur during and after rainstorms, are discharged through outfalls known as combined sewer overflows.

Like many cities and towns, Manchester has been struggling the past few years to come up with a cost-effective strategy for addressing the discharges. Manchester has 26 CSO outfalls, which empty into the Merrimack River and its tributaries. The overflows occur about 50 times a year and are the primary reason why the Merrimack River frequently violates water quality standards for bacteria.

Today's agreement resolves a long-standing dispute between the EPA and the City over the appropriate level of CSO controls. The agreement, which was embodied in a legally-binding order finalized last week, addresses the city's concerns about cost by both identifying alternative environmental improvement projects and phasing in decisions about CSO control projects. The agreement requires $52.4 million in CSO projects over the next 10 years, which will eliminate 124 million gallons of sewage/stormwater discharges each year. EPA and Manchester will negotiate the scope of further CSO work after the first phase is completed and extensive monitoring is done in the river.

In exchange for this two-phase approach, Manchester has agreed to invest $5.6 million on other high-value environmental and public health projects, including stormwater management, erosion control, restoration of urban ponds, environmental education and wetlands protection. Manchester also will implement projects focusing on the health of the city's children, including a $500,000 program to reduce childhood asthma and lead poisoning.

The city-funded projects, to be implemented over the next five years, include the following:

• A $2 million program to purchase and preserve wetlands and wetland buffer areas in Manchester. The program will focus primarily on preserving large tracts in the Manchester Cedar Swamp, an ecologically rich, rare combination of Atlantic white cedar swamps, black gum swamps and giant rhododendron. The habitat is part of a larger tract that the University of New Hampshire is planning to sell to the city. The city plans to use a portion of the parcel for commercial development.

"With this collaboration, we've succeeded in preserving and protecting an ecologically critical Atlantic White Cedar Swamp, which contains three of the rarest wetlands in the state," said Henry Tepper, director of the Nature Conservancy's New Hampshire Chapter, praising the land preservation piece of the agreement.

• A $3 million initiative to reduce nonpoint source pollution into the river and its tributaries. The initiative includes: $1 million to clean up and restore urban ponds and wetland areas in Manchester; $1 million to develop a stormwater master plan that, among other things, will focus on identifyinand removing illicit sewer connections; and $1 million for an erosion control project that will focus on stabilizing up to two miles of shoreline along the river, reducing erosion by up to 250 to 500 tons a year.
• A $500,000 initiative to implement programs to prevent childhood lead poisoning and asthma in Manchester. Among other components, the initiative will include screening of children for lead poisoning, lead hazard reduction training and education, and an asthma reduction program. This money will complement $135,000 the EPA recently awarded to Manchester under its Children's Health Champion Initiative. (Despite having only 10 percent of the state's population, Manchester had 30 percent of the state's childhood lead poisoning cases in 1995. In 1996, nearly 8 percent of the city's school children were diagnosed with asthma.)
• Develop and implement an environmental education program for seventh-grade students in Manchester that will focus on such key locations as Amoskeag Falls, Lake Massabesic and the Atlantic White Cedar Swamp. The $100,000 initiative will be a cooperative effort involving the City, the State of New Hampshire, New Hampshire Audubon and the Merrimack River Watershed Council.

"This agreement represents an outstanding effort to improve water quality in the lower Merrimack River in a fair and cost effective manner," said Jane A. Difley, president of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. "The Forest Society is particularly pleased that the agreement includes support for land conservation and environmental education in our state's largest city - a legacy that will be appreciated by all future generations. We commend Manchester city officials and the EPA for their flexibility and commitment to mutual goals in achieving this historic agreement."

"This agreement recognizes that education is an integral part of environmental protection," added Richard Moore, president of the Audubon Society of New Hampshire. "There is a great opportunity here to involve local students in a real local issue. As they learn about storm drains, for example, they'll also visit properties protected by the agreement. They will learn how decisions are made in our complex society and that will make them better decision-makers themselves."

"The Nature Conservancy is very pleased with this agreement," added Tepper, director of the Nature Conservancy's New Hampshire Chapter. "The EPA and the N.H. Department of Environmental Services are on the cutting edge of new approaches to environmental mitigation, which can accomodate both critical land conservation of globally-endangered ecosystems and economic development."