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EPA to Release 'Blending' Policy Soon, Head of Wastewater Office Tells Seminar
The Environmental Protection Agency intends to finalize its policy on blending partially and fully treated wastewater in the next 30 to 40 days, the agency's chief wastewater official told a seminar Oct. 20.
The final policy "looks very much like the proposal," James
Hanlon, director of EPA's Office of Wastewater Management, said. Hanlon was
speaking at a seminar, Clean Water Act: Law and Regulation, during a discussion
on policies governing wet weather conditions.
The seminar was sponsored by the Environmental Law Institute and the American
Bar Association's Section on Environment, Energy, and Resources.
EPA's proposed "peak weather flows" policy, issued in December 2005, would allow
blending of fully treated and partially treated wastewater at sewage treatment
plants when it rains heavily, but it would require public notification within 24
hours of the blending event.
The proposed policy also would require that a treatment plant conduct an
analysis demonstrating that blending was the only feasible option during periods
of heavy rains (243 DEN A-6, 12/20/05 ).
Blending takes place at treatment plants during heavy rain because the volume of
water exceeds a plant's biological treatment capacity. In such cases, a portion
of wastewater is rerouted after primary treatment (when solids are removed),
around the secondary biological treatment system (where pathogens are killed and
pollutants are removed), and then mixed with treated wastewater and discharged
into lakes and streams.
Analysis at Core of Proposal
The core of the agency's proposed policy is the analysis a utility must conduct
to justify its need to blend. The analysis must be done using guidance EPA has
issued previously for combined sewer overflows, one that addresses a system's
ability to finance improvements to handle wet weather events. Combine sewer
overflows (CSOs) occur at systems that carry both wastewater and stormwater in
the same pipes.
EPA received about 150 comments on its proposed policy. Hanlon said roughly 70
to 80 of those contained substantive comments.
At least one wastewater utility in January commented that EPA's combined sewer
overflow financial guidance is so restrictive "that few if any utilities would
pass the financial analysis" test and never be able to blend (20 DEN A-7,
1/31/06 ).
Hanlon did not disclose how the final policy addressed some of the concerns
raised during the comment period, but he said the "elements of utility analysis
are technically sound in the proposal."
The proposal is based on joint guidance for sanitary sewer systems developed
after five months of negotiations between the National Association of Clean
Water Agencies, which represents wastewater treatment plants, and the Natural
Resources Defense Council.
Not Avoiding Treatment
Alexandra Dunn, NACWA's general counsel, spoke after Hanlon on the same panel.
Dunn said wastewater utilities only blend fully and partially treated sewage
because the treatment plants do not have the capacity to treat wastewater flows
when it rains heavily. "Blending is about managing flow, not about avoiding
treatment," Dunn said.
Joining Dunn and Hanlon on the panel was Nancy Stoner, director of NRDC's clean
water project. Stoner said blending has resulted in releases of polluted
wastewater into lakes and rivers with less treatment than required under the
Clean Water Act.
She said the proposed policy allows blending when there is no "feasible
alternative left." That provision, she said, is a safeguard to protect public
health.
In addition to the blending policy, Dunn said EPA needs to revive the sanitary
sewer overflow policy that it shelved in 2001.
That policy would have addressed overflows in the collection systems before the
wastewater reaches the treatment plants. Those overflows can occur as a result
of heavy storms, poor maintenance and operation of a sewer system, tampering,
and blockages, among other things.
Dunn emphasized the need for a national policy to prevent a patchwork of state
regulations from evolving on sanitary sewer overflows. Already, she said,
California, Texas, Ohio, and Wisconsin all are looking at developing their own
policies for dealing with sanitary sewers overflows.
"We need national consistency."
CSO Policy Debated
The panel also discussed the agency's long overdue combined sewer overflow
policy. Hanlon said the agency planned to update its comprehensive 1994 CSO
policy after it had completed a blending policy, which it believed to be a "less
demanding task."
"As you know, the peak weather policy became a challenge," Hanlon added.
Still, Hanlon said, progress continues to be made in ensuring that communities
with combined sewers adopt long-term control plans required by the agency's 1994
policy.
For instance, Hanlon said, the agency has approved 39 percent of the long-term
control plans from communities with combined sewers, many of which are more than
100 years old.
Stoner dismissed Hanlon's characterization of progress, saying 54 percent of
communities in the Great Lakes region have not even begun to develop plans. "I
think it's pretty abysmal," Stoner said. "We were supposed to have these plans
in place by 1997."
By Amena H. Saiyid