Return to Legislative AlertCombined Sewer Overflows
AMSA CWA Position -
To ensure consistent implementation of the National CSO Policy, AMSA recommends that the policy be codified into law, and that implementation efforts and activities acknowledge the need for flexibility and recognize the importance of site-specific variables.National CSO Policy implement efforts should ensure that:
- The nine minimum controls expeditiously implemented and recognized by regulatory officials to meet technology-based requirements of the Clean Water Act.
- Long-term CSO control plan development is performed in conjunction with state water quality standards reviews.
- CSO controls are reasonable and cost-effective.
Sanitary Sewer Overflows
AMSA CWA Position -
Any policy or regulation regarding SSOs should retain flexibility to ensure that site-specific solutions and local investments will result in tangible water quality benefits. AMSA believes that the goal of a national SSO policy should be achieved through program guidance and permits, not enforcement actions.AMSA recommends that:
- EPA reconvene its SSO Federal Advisory Committee to finalize an SSO strategy
- EPA issue a comprehensive national SSO policy framework to provide regulatory officials, wastewater managers, and city officials with practical requirements for sewer system performance and a roadmap for future planning efforts.
Subsequently, national permit regulations must be developed which:
- prohibit all avoidable dry weather overflows;
- establish requirements to meet technology-based and water quality-based requirements of the Clean Water Act;
- provide liability relief for unavoidable SSOs;
- allow for flexibility in remediation options, including those options which provide for less that secondary treatment of wet weather flows;
- establish a program to regulate satellite collection systems; and
- allow SSOs to be managed in an integrated manner with other urban wet weather flows.
Stormwater Management
AMSA CWA Position -
AMSA believes that Congress should direct EPA to conduct a careful evaluation of the stormwater program to ensure that investments in urban stormwater controls result in an improved environment.AMSA supports one comprehensive stormwater program that:
- Eliminates the current population distinctions among regulated municipal entities;
- Is enforceable through a permit program;
- Clearly limits municipal permitting requirements to the implementation of best management practices;
- Clarifies that numeric effluent limitations are not appropriate for municipal stormwater permits;
- Ensures flexible implementation allowing for watershed-based approaches; and
- Meets appropriate cost/benefit criteria prior to implementation.
Nonpoint Source Controls
AMSA CWA Position -
All water quality impairments should be addressed on the watershed level. Shifting from waterbody management and point source control to watershed management and stakeholder involvement encourages and promotes comprehensive review of all contributions to the watershed and provides an equitable planning framework. Some fundamental changes to the national clean water program are needed.AMSA recommends that:
- Congress to encourage watershed planning by providing funding for project planning and implementation;
- State authority to control nonpoint sources of pollution;
- State requirements to address both point and nonpoint sources of pollution proportionally;
- State coordination with local government agencies and other stakeholders to develop comprehensive nonpoint source control plans;
- EPA discretion to withhold grants from states that do not adopt approvable nonpoint source programs or do not implement them; and
- Support for the development of legislation, rules, and guidelines that will eliminate barriers to pollutant trading when all stakeholders are "at the table".
Water Quality Standards
AMSA CWA Position -
Current water quality standards used to measure the success of wet weather programs do not adequately address the unique episodic nature of wet weather events. Refinements in both designated uses and water quality criteria are needed to provide a more accurate and effective basis for evaluating the effects of wet weather discharges - combined sewer overflows (CSOs), sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs), and urban and industrial stormwater - and in directing control efforts.Specifically, AMSA recommends that:
- States must review and make appropriate revisions to water quality standards in conjunction with the development of long-term wet weather programs;
- EPA should provide a public forum through its Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) on the water quality standards regulation on how designated used refinements could be applicable in wet weather National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits;
- EPA must acknowledge the challenges presented by applying national water quality criteria to wet weather conditions and move forward to both revise the chemical aquatic life water quality criteria and encourage development of site-specific criteria that incorporate wet weather considerations; and
- Revisions to frequency and duration criteria should not require a use attainability analysis
Funding
AMSA CWA Position -
Continued water quality improvement can only be assured with the support of the federal government through grants and low interest loans.AMSA recommends that:
- Annual congressional appropriation of $2 billion to the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) to support point and nonpoint source pollution control efforts;
- Flexibility in disbursement of SRF funding to promote nontraditional approaches to meet water quality goals on a watershed basis;
- Streamlining of SRF regulations and procedures; and
- Implementation of a federal grant program to address the most pressing water quality problems now.
Total Maximum Daily Loads
AMSA CWA Position -
The EPA's current total maximum daily load (TMDL) guidance does not provide for an equitable distribution of responsibility among sources of water quality impairment.Specifically, AMSA recommends that:
- Proportionate share responsibilities be adopted in the allocation of pollutant loading reductions.
- States be required to establish enforceable requirements for control of all nonpoint sources of pollution within impaired 303(d) watersheds.
- Minimum data requirements for the listing of impaired waterbodies and the development of TMDLs be established. Recognizing that current data may not be adequate, EPA should implement a phased TMDL process to allow for the development of quality data needed to support regulation.
- Flexibility to incorporate watershed approaches be retained. Prohibitions on new discharges during TMDL development should be flexible to allow new or increased discharges where adjustments in source controls will result in equal or net environmental improvements.
Biomonitoring AMSA CWA Position -
Eliminating Clean Water Act (CWA) liability for biomonitoring test failures would provide a positive incentive for whole effluent toxicity (WET) test use as an environmental monitoring, assessment and management tool. For this reason, AMSA recommends that the CWA be amended to remove liability for WET test failures. In place of test failure liability, failure to follow a compliance program and schedule to locate and reduce toxicity would serve as the basis for determining compliance with WET requirements included in National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits.