Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - NACWA in the News
Enviros, Utilities Propose Alternative to EPA 'Blending' Guidance
Tasha Eichenseher, E&ENews PM reporter
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The wastewater-treatment industry and environmentalists released guidance today
that would pick up where U.S. EPA left off with its controversial "blending"
policy and clarify treatment standards during storms.
The proposal by the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) and the
Natural Resources Defense Council would prohibit discharges of partially treated
sewage under the Clean Water Act's so-called bypass rule unless there is no
feasible alternative.
The groups worked together to outline alternatives to bypassing certain
wastewater treatment steps and discharging partially treated sewage, including
increasing wastewater plants' storage and treatment capacity and reducing
sources of wet weather flows to the plants.
In May, EPA decided it would not finalize its own guidance that would have
allowed the blending of partially and fully treated wastewater as a means of
dealing with overflow associated with wet weather at aging treatment plants.
Sewage treatment plant operators were left guessing about appropriate measures
to take during storms when their plants could not handle the flow of sewage and
water. The new guidelines, delivered to EPA today, would eliminate some of this
uncertainty, said Alexandra Dunn, general counsel for the NACWA.
In addition, by limiting the types of permissible bypasses, environmental groups
get the environment and public health protections they say were absent from
EPA's original proposal, said Nancy Stoner, director of NRDC's Clean Water
Project.
EPA's guidance would have codified wastewater blending under certain conditions
as long as discharges met all Clean Water Act standards.
Benjamin Grumbles, assistant administrator of water at EPA, said he encouraged
the two groups to work together on the guidance and is "encouraged by the
result." The proposed guidance represents "constructive progress toward
practical middle ground," Grumbles said. The agency will review the proposal, he
said.
Click here to download a copy of the proposed guidance.