In November of 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the Great Bay Total Nitrogen General Permit (General Permit) to regulate the nitrogen discharges from 12 New Hampshire communities that operate wastewater treatment facilities that outlet directly or indirectly to the Great Bay Estuary. The General Permit allows regulated communities to opt-in to an adaptive management approach to nitrogen reduction to help communities, regulators and stakeholders better understand the water quality challenges of the Estuary through data gathering and analysis, implement and document non-point nitrogen reduction efforts, and chart a course to improved water quality.
To effectuate the collaboration envisioned by the adaptive management approach under the General Permit, Dover, Portsmouth and Rochester adopted an Intermunicipal Agreement (IMA) in 2021 creating the Municipal Alliance for Adaptive Management (MAAM). Additional MAAM members include Newington, Milton, Exeter, Rollinsford and Epping. Most recently, the South Berwick Maine Sewer District and the Berwick Maine Sewer District elected to join MAAM in response to wastewater permit updates in Maine. To effectuate the continuation of MAAM, an Amendment to Renew and Update the Intermunicipal Agreement for Development of an Adaptive Water Quality Management Plan for Great Bay Estuary is being adopted by the existing members.
The MAAM meetings have proved to be a useful forum for the sharing of information amongst all the parties. The MAAM collaboration over the last five years has resulted in over $1.8 million investment in data gathering and analysis and secured $1,000,000 in Congressionally directed funds for water quality research