Each city and/or municipal wastewater treatment plant in the country should have already received a letter from the EPA notifying them about this voluntary study with instructions on how they can participate. 

The purpose of the study is to obtain nationwide data on nutrient removal to help set more realistic and achievable nutrient reductions, help Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs) understand the range of opportunities to optimize nutrient removals based on data from their peers, and encourage improved POTW nutrient removal performance with less expense.

Iowa DNR participated in developing this study over the last two years and was able to help steer this study into something that the Iowa DNR thinks will be truly beneficial. 

This is a multi-phase effort, and the first phase of the study is a screener questionnaire. The goal of this questionnaire is to identify and characterize the full population of POTWs in the country that discharge to a water of the United States. The information will be used to help establish a baseline of nutrient performance at the national level for all POTWs.

The Iowa DNR is encouraging systems to complete the questionnaire, as its success will benefit POTWs in our state, nationwide, and all stakeholders involved in managing nutrients at the watershed level. You can find the survey at https://www.epa.gov/eg/potw-nutrient-survey

To help encourage participation, the Iowa DNR is offering CEUs to operators who participate in the study. An Iowa wastewater operator who completes the survey and submits a copy of the EPA competition certificate will receive 3 hours of CEUs. The EPA completion certificates should be emailed to Laurie Sharp for processing at laurie.sharp@dnr.iowa.gov. The Iowa DNR is hoping to have as many of Iowa's facilities represented as possible.

The EPA is hoping to get responses by Nov. 26 (the Tuesday before Thanksgiving).

If you have any questions, contact Adam Schnieders, Acting Water Quality Bureau Chief & Water Quality Resource Coordinator with the Iowa DNR, at 515-238-055 or by email at adam.schnieders@dnr.iowa.gov.

Here is a helpful link from EPA about the effort: https://www.epa.gov/eg/national-study-nutrient-removal-and-secondary-technologies