In this Oct. 29, 2019 photo, University of New Hampshire scientists monitor the health of seagrass in the Great Bay in Durham, N.H. On Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2020, federal officials announced a plan to reduce pollution in Great Bay, which calls for a dozen communities ringing the bay to reduce the amounts of nitrogen going into one of the largest estuaries in the Northeast.
Officials from several New Hampshire communities around one of the largest estuaries in the Northeast are expressing concerns about the cost and effectiveness of a federal plan to reduce nitrogen in the watershed.
In the draft Clean Water Permit for the Great Bay in New Hampshire, the Environmental Protection Agency would allow 12 communities to keep nitrogen levels from their wastewater treatments at current levels.
In exchange, the communities have agreed to follow a 23-year state plan that calls for a 45% reduction in nitrogen from other sources like storm water runoff.
