University of New Hampshire
IN-4: Innovation 4

The Town of Durham and the University of New Hampshire (UNH) are currently developing an Integrated Watershed Plan for the Oyster River Watershed and an integrated permit approach to comply with their NPDES wastewater and MS4 stormwater permit obligations instead of maintaining separate and distinct federal permits under a traditional permitting approach. This is in response to new stringent wastewater discharge permit requirements recently issued for communities with wastewater treatment facilities in the Great Bay Estuary region focused on reducing their nitrogen output to levels approaching the limits of best available technology. Meeting these requirements will likely involve substantial capital investments and increased operating costs. This new integrated permit approach will allow the Town of Durham and UNH to combine resources and develop a more balanced and sustainable strategy to achieve the desired nitrogen load reductions through a combination of sustainable Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF) upgrades and green nonpoint source controls. The premise of Durham and UNH’s approach is consistent with U.S. EPA’s recently published guidance on Integrated Municipal Stormwater and Wastewater Planning, which is intended to assist municipalities in developing more sustainable and green approaches to addressing the sometimes competing and overlapping stormwater and wastewater permitting requirements.