NORWICH – Under new strict new rules from the Environmental Protection Agency, the City of Norwich is taking financial burdens head-on as the federal agency mandates the city – and hundreds of other municipalities near the east coast – remove significant amounts of phosphorous and nitrogen from water that flows into the Chesapeake Bay.

The initiative comes after a 2010 executive order from President Barack Obama to restore and protect Chesapeake Bay. Large-scale efforts to reduce pollutants in the bay have been ongoing for three decades, but according to the EPA, efforts showed insufficient progress and there’s been a greater push to limit amounts of phosphorous and nitrogen flowing into the bay for the last two years.

Following treatment at the city’s wastewater treatment plant, water is dumped into the Chenango River, where it flows south into the Susquehanna River near Binghamton, which then leads down into the Chesapeake Bay just south of the Pennsylvania border.

Department of Public Works Superintendent Carl Ivarson said higher costs begin with the purchase of chemicals needed to reduce the amounts of phosphorous in the water as it undergoes a treatment process at the plant. The city must reduce the amount of phosphorous from the current 2mg/Liter to .5mg/Liter as per EPA standards. Additional chemicals could set the city back an estimated $73,000 per year, Ivarson said, but that figure is contingent on the annual flow rate. Currently, chemicals to reduce lesser amounts of phosphorous cost the city $34,000 each year.