The New York City (NYC) Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) prepared this Long Term Control Plan (LTCP) for the Bronx River pursuant to a CSO Order on Consent (Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Case No. CO2-20110512-25), dated March 8, 2012 (2012 CSO Order on Consent). The 2012 CSO Order on Consent modified a 2005 CSO Order on Consent (DEC Case No. CO2-20000107-8). Under the 2012 CSO Order on Consent, the DEP is required to submit 11 waterbody-specific LTCPs to the DEC by December 2017. The Bronx River LTCP is the fifth of those LTCPs.
As described in the LTCP Goal Statement in the 2012 CSO Order on Consent, the goal of each LTCP is to identify, with public input, appropriate CSO controls necessary to achieve waterbody-specific water quality standards (WQS) consistent with the Federal CSO Control Policy and related guidance. In addition, the Goal Statement provides: “Where existing water quality standards do not meet the Section 101(a)(2) goals of the Clean Water Act, or where the proposed alternative set forth in the LTCP will not achieve existing water quality standards or the Section 101(a)(2) goals, the LTCP will include a Use Attainability Analysis examining whether applicable waterbody classifications, criteria, or standards should be adjusted by the State.” DEP conducted water quality assessments where the data is represented by percent attainment with pathogen targets and associated recovery times. Consistent with guidance from DEC, 95 percent attainment of applicable water quality criteria constitutes compliance with the existing WQS or the Section 101(a)(2) goals conditioned on verification through post-construction compliance monitoring (PCM).
