Episode 72 | Constructed Wetlands for Water Quality: Wetlands, NARPS, and Advocacy

This is the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction podcast episode 72, Constructed Wetlands for Water Quality: Wetlands, NARPs and Advocacy. Today we'll talk with Mila Marshall of the Sierra Club's Illinois chapter. She'll highlight the group's work to reduce nutrient pollution in Illinois through education, advocacy and the promotion of constructed wetlands. Hello, Mila.

Thanks for being with us. Where are you from actually?

So, Todd, I'm actually from the city of Chicago, born and raised, but I do work across the state in my role at Sierra Club Illinois Chapter, and thank you so much for having me here.

Oh, it it's fantastic to have you on hand with us. What do you do? What does the Sierra Club do in Chicago?

So Sierra Club is a national organization, and I actually work for the chapter. And so my role is as a clean water advocate, but we have various campaigns, ranging from energy to transportation. My, chapter peers work on everything from advocacy to lobbying. We are both c three and c four. We work with a diversity of stakeholders, whether those individuals are homeowners, residents, voters, maybe they are other nonprofit organizations, even unions, industries such as those farmers that are in agriculture as well as other businesses across the food supply chain, environmental justice, elected officials, people that are seeking office.

And so our organization champions promoting environmental awareness, literacy, and policies that protect air, land, and water while also supporting the economy. So I'm really proud of the work that we do collectively. And as the lead of the Clean Water team, Todd, I focus on everything related to water. Surface water, groundwater, wastewater treatment facilities, and even drinking water. So we have various programmatic priorities such as nutrients, and that's kind of why I'm here today.

Do you know how active is the Sierra Club in Washington DC as a lobby organization today, and maybe as a ranking of some sort among environmental groups. Do you have an idea?

If I were to say, I think we are quite influential in DC as a network because every state has its own chapter. And so we do have quite a bit of energy and presence in DC. As far as ranking, I don't know if I could do that. I do know, you know, we have The Nature Conservancy, The Audubon Society, and some of the other big greens, for example. All of us don't have over I mean, we have overlapping priorities and initiatives.

Some are you know, have global awareness. Others kind of focus here stateside. So I don't know if I could rank us, but I will say, even though we are an organization of chapters, I am fond of all of all of the chapters in the Great Lakes, geography.

How do you support nutrient loss reduction?

So first, when I think about answering that question, there is me as the clean water team, and then there is our work with the coalition of, folks that are doing the nutrient loss implementation plan. And so Sierra Club was at the beginning of the development of this approach to reduce nutrients within Illinois waterways in 2015. And so I have inherited that work from my predecessor, Cindy Screwcrude, and am moving it forward. And so in 2015, this, reduction strategy was implemented to reduce both phosphorus and nitrates, by 45%. And the milestone marker, the goal that we were seeking ten years ago was reduce nitrates by 15% and reduce phosphorus by 25%.

And this was a way of how how do we organize with wastewater treatment facilities as well as promote practices on farmers' fields to accomplish these goals. And so the Clean Water team has taken the approach of working with NARPs, which stands for Nutrient Assessment Reduction Plans. And this is specifically with wastewater treatment facilities. In that, we identified that wetlands were a tool that could be used for wastewater treatment facilities to accomplish their reductions while also addressing, some issues on farmers' fields. And so that's kind of what I've been working on, most recently reviewing Clean Water Act permits, both relating to slaughterhouses, sewage treatment plants, and other sources of nutrient pollution.

And also, in my role, my team supports legislation for funding the work on reducing nutrient pollution, both from agriculture and working with the Nutrient Reduction Education Council.

What else can you tell me about, the intersection of NARPs and wetlands?

So, nutrient assessment and reduction plans, we call them NARPs for short, are plans that were developed and are being developed by municipalities and other operators of major sewage treatment plants. A major sewage treatment plant is one that dis discharges over a million gallons a day, into surface waters. And they are operating in watersheds that, are either impaired by nutrient pollution or have the potential for being impaired by nutrient pollution. Wetlands can reduce nutrients, and the continuing loss of wetlands is a huge problem. We know that wetlands can take nitrogen and phosphorus out of water polluted by nutrients before it even reaches rivers, lakes, or streams.

How is the Sierra Club supporting these efforts?

So working in this space, we are first here, you know, talking about how it is that wetlands can be a tool for nutrient reduction, which, is catching on. We're also working closely with wastewater treatment facilities to help them understand the opportunities that exist with constructed wetlands, and wetland mitigation banking and continuing to get the word out on NARPs. NARPs are managed by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, and so all of those plans that facilities, wastewater treatment facilities, publish are available and accessible to the public. And so we, as the Clean Water team, support educating the public. So we have done a series of workshops and seminars, letting people know, starting from the beginning of the Clean Water Act.

Right? Because many of these things don't make sense if people don't understand, like, why are we trying to reduce nutrients and what is the significance of a water body being impaired? Where do you find this information? Water literacy is extremely important when advocating for the resource and even understanding the science. And what we do know is that most people are unfamiliar with the laws that govern our surface water and groundwater, the agencies that have the jurisdiction to enforce and or, provide permits for pollution, and they are unfamiliar with the public comment or process to speak up against particular policies or interventions by polluters or permit holders.

And that's kind of where we've been focusing, Educating our volunteers, marketing those educational opportunities to get people familiar with the with the nutrient loss reduction strategy plan, helping them understand how to engage in some of these higher level conversations, that talk about discharges and water quality standards. We are really, really looking forward to building inroads with farmers to understand their tensions and be better stewards of information flowing from the conservation space over into agriculture. We would love to see more of these wetland projects come into existence, especially with the, SACET versus EPA ruling. But that only happens if we talk to each other and listen to each other. So that's really my priority, now is learning, you know, the farming community, way wetlands are promoted, the opportunities that exist for farmers and seeing if we can help watersheds become a little bit healthier, promote nutrient reduction, as well as promote installation of wetlands for nutrient mitigation.

Because wetlands are the most efficient way to remove nutrients from the water supply before it goes downstream, how is it that you talk about it to rural and urban audiences in that particular context, and putting them into place? And and there are other things that producers, landowners can do, but a wetland in the right space

Mhmm.

Really does remove more than all the others, I believe, combined.

Oh, I just wanna hit again in the right space. It's really critical to place these wetlands where they are going to be the most productive and efficient at removing nutrients, which is why understanding the watersheds and the availability of the space is important. And thank you for the question of how how do we communicate this. You know, city folks are very different from rural Illinois in terms of priorities, how people live, and even the amount of nutrients that are entering into the system from our everyday lives. We are not extremely agricultural here in Chicago.

47% of the state's population lives in one of our 102 counties. And so Cook County is a bit different when thinking about nutrients because our focus is going to be on discharge from wastewater treatment facilities, and that's MWRD, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. So a lot of my job with city and Cook County Stakeholders is helping them build an appreciation for the water cycle, understanding how our rivers and streams are connected, and learning about how it is the movement of those nutrients impacts other communities downstream. And so much of it is natural history, Todd. Right?

In the state of Illinois, natural history is not required or mandated for our students to learn. And so often, it's helping people understand how our water moves around and what it's carrying with it and how how it harms our economy and how it harms the people downstream. So I focus more on the engineering of wastewater treatment, and the flow of our recovered waste. In Central Illinois, it is helping people understand, the opportunities for being good stewards and promoting, conversations between farmers and wastewater treatment facilities. What is the most challenging part is if if you think about it, wastewater treatment facilities aren't really good with speaking to the public.

Right? If they are talking to the press, something bad has happened. And so there's also a disconnect in terms of public relations, outreach, and who wastewater treatment facilities speak to, and oftentimes that is not going to be farmers. And so these two different groups of stakeholders, we see an opportunity to bring people together. We do like to focus on listening more than anything because while we're promoting a, conservation intervention and a solution, if we don't understand why this won't work or under what circumstances this is unfavorable, then we are promoting something without the, without the full knowledge of how farmers feel that this sort of intervention is going to help or harm them.

So we do a lot of listening in order to learn how to translate and communicate what NARPs and the nutrient loss reduction strategy implementation plan can accomplish for the system as a whole.

You are a PhD ecologist by education.

I am.

I'm wondering, because you list ecology and the intersection between the environment and the economy as your focus. Mhmm. What is the intersection between wetlands and the economy?

So from where I see it, wastewater treatment facilities are looking for ways to reduce their phosphorus dis charges the with the least amount of capital. Wetlands are an opportunity to work with farmers that allows for the land to be monetized and those wetlands wetland credits to be purchased, adding revenue to, a farmer's budget. That's different from being able to say, okay. This is gonna take $30,000,000, and we're gonna have to build new infrastructure that may take, you know, ten, twenty years to even get the plans and the permits, and raise the money to, to build a new plant or whatever. I love the idea of working with farmers and the wetlands being a way that they can monetize their land and also solve a problem with it.

One of my favorite workshops that we hosted to help people wrap their minds around how Illinois water or how nutrient pollution could cause harm is a event that we titled the river with the blues. And so, of course, we were talking about our beautiful Mississippi River, but we paired the conversation with a soundtrack with Mississippi blues music. And so people came in and they were able to hear blues music, and then we would talk a little bit about nutrient pollution. And we played off the, played off the words of the river with the blues because it is pretty sad that, a a enormous amount of nutrients are leaving Illinois and causing harm to our businesses and industries downstream, and even the Gulf Of Mexico. Right?

And so we use that to help people understand that it isn't just our responsibility to keep our water clean here, but we do want to put a face to this harm. And so we invited, shrimpers and people who have seen a decline in their business or the increased cost associated with having to move around or move further away from where it is that they normally fish and operate to get those, to get shrimps and clams and mussels and all of those things, so that people really could acknowledge. It's not just the farmers that are hurt with having low quality water or our industries that are hurt from having low quality water, but even downstream that we are causing harm. But we could also be a part of the solution, when we redirect our focus and work collectively while understanding all of these new solutions are going to cost money. And that's another place that the Sierra Club Clean Water team is really interested in, is understanding what financial tools, are available both for wastewater treatment facilities as well as farmers, what types of policy tools need to be created to generate money or capital that these types of interventions such as constructed wetlands can even be piloted with the purpose of nutrient credits.

So it's for me, the quality of our water is directly connected to the health of our economy. And I would love to see both farmers and dischargers, at wastewater treatment facilities find a way forward, for, you know, clean water for all.

What advice might you have for a farmer, a landowner, a citizen who simply has listened to this conversation and thought to themselves, hey. I'd like to learn more about the Sierra Club, or maybe I want to get involved in the Sierra Club. How do they do it?

You can find us online at www.SierraClub.org. Again, we are the Illinois chapter, and you can follow us on our social media. We do have our working in local watersheds call. It's open to the public, absolutely free. You can learn what we are doing across the state, not just with nutrients, but all things related to water, including our monitoring and sampling program with our water sentinels.

If perhaps you are interested in learning more about Illinois nutrient loss reduction strategy, then you can pop over to epa.illinois.gov, or you can just Google Illinois NLRS. And there are really great resources for the public written in very plain English. I would suggest looking at the 2023 biennial report, just so that you can understand the work that has happened, the success stories from farmers and wastewater treatment facilities, what we've accomplished. And in the event that you are interested in learning how to connect with your local elected official or wastewater treatment facilities on nutrient related issues, you are more than welcome to reach out directly to me to learn our resources to help you get up to speed, strengthen your vocabulary, familiarize yourself with the pieces of legislation and or ordinances around water and nutrients in your county or in your area. And you can email me at Mila, m I l a dot marshall at Sierra Club dot org.

Thank you very much, Mila.

Thank you, Todd.

Mila Marshall is with the Sierra Club and based in Chicago, joined us here on this episode 72 of the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction podcast. Our program was produced with the help of Nicole Habberback and Rachel Curry. I'm University of Illinois Extension's Todd Gleeson.