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February 14, 1997
AMSA Weighs in on Continuation of ANPRM Process
Recent weeks have seen the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) ongoing process to revise water quality standards regulation via advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) become increasingly controversial. The proposed revision process, intended to advance the watershed process, provide added flexibility, bring new scientific approaches to the program, make needed regulatory clarifications and incremental improvements to the program, has been strongly supported by AMSA.
Despite participation in the early stages of the process, both the Association of State & Interstate Water Pollution Control Administrators (ASIWPCA) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) have written to EPA recently in an attempt to derail it. NRDC's January 17 letter goes so far as to ask EPA to discontinue the process entirely. "The ANPRM is chock-full of many things that we absolutely cannot live with, because they would weaken an already weak and overly flexible system," their letter states.
AMSA this week weighed in on the issue in a February 12 letter to Perciasepe saying "AMSA members consider a comprehensive review of the ANPRM as an essential mechanism for EPA to extract broad stakeholder input on water quality issues in critical need of reform." The Association believes this process will ultimately provide EPA with a platform to prioritize and justify changes that will refine and strengthen the program and calls upon its member agencies to express similar concerns to Perciasepe without delay. Members will soon receive Regulatory Alert 97-4, providing copies of all three letters, and urging such action.
EPA Withdraws Proposed Radiation Site Cleanup Rule
EPA announced this week that they will withdraw their proposed radiation site cleanup rule from OMB. The rule was one part of an overall regulatory approach that EPA, NRC and the Department of Energy (DOE) were developing to address the risk from radioactively contaminated materials. AMSA was concerned with the radionuclide limit and that the risk analysis used to develop the rule may exceed the limit of 15 millirems for which the Agency was proposing as a "safe" level for radiation contaminated sites. AMSA was also concerned that the Office of Water would apply the radionuclide limits to EPA's biosolids management program, further damaging the public perception of biosolids.
Legislative Strategy Session Planned
AMSA's Board and committee leadership will meet in Washington, DC on March 6-7, 1997 for the Association's first Legislative Strategy Session of the new year and new 105th Congress. In addition to a in-depth discussion of AMSA's legislative positions and priorities, we also plan to invite representatives from Capitol Hill, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and a number of national associations and interests groups, to join us for portions of our discussions. AMSA welcomes the participation of any interested member agency representatives. Should you wish to attend the Strategy Session, please call Christy Kettell at the National Office (202/833-3692) no later than February 28th.