Member Pipeline - Regulatory - Alert (RA 00-2)
To:
Members & Affiliates, Wet Weather Committee
From:
National Office
Date:
January 18, 2000
Subject:
Outline of Draft EPA Guidance — Implementation of the Water Quality-Based Provisions of the CSO Control Policy
Reference:
RA 00-2
On January 7, 2000, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a detailed outline of the Agency's guidance entitled Implementation of the Water Quality-Based Provisions of the CSO Control Policy. A copy of the outline and an EPA fact sheet are attached. The guidance is being developed in response to a Congressional request, accompanying EPA's FY 1999 Appropriations (House Report 105-769), for the Agency to provide technical assistance to States and EPA Regions in conducting water quality standards reviews for combined sewer overflow (CSO) receiving waters. EPA expects to issue the draft guidance for public review and comment by April 2000. AMSA plans to conduct a full review through the Wet Weather Issues and Water Quality Committees, and to submit comments to the Agency in response to the draft guidance.
The guidance addresses the integration of procedures for revising water quality standards within the long-term control plan process, as well as the various options for readjusting designated uses in CSO receiving waters. Although the focus of the guidance is limited to CSO discharges, the document is expected to have important linkages to other wet weather releases, including stormwater systems and sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs). The outline suggests that the process for revising water quality standards will involve close coordination between the implementation of the local long-term control plans and the identification of applicable standards.
In addition to the outline of the draft guidance, EPA has made available two additional documents — Summary of Participant Comments at the EPA-WEF Experts Workshop on Implementing the WQ-Based Provisions in the CSO Control Policy (EPA-823-R-99-016) and Summary of the Listening Sessions — Observations & Recommendations for Guidance and Technical Assistance to Facilitate Water Quality and Designated Use Reviews for Waters Impacted by Combined Sewer Overflows (EPA-823-R-99-017). These documents provide the perspectives of individuals with whom EPA consulted to identify impediments to implementing the water quality-based provisions of the CSO Control Policy and the actions the Agency should take to overcome the impediments.
All of these documents will be available on the Internet in the Member Pipeline section of the AMSA web page, http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org, under RA 00-2. EPA is also making the documents available on the Internet at www.epa.gov/ost/cso.
For additional information, contact Marjorie Pitts at 202/260-1304 or by e-mail at pitts.marjorie@epa.gov, or Tim Dwyer at 202/260-6064 or by e-mail at dwyer.tim@epa.gov or Greg Schaner, AMSA's Manager of Government Affairs at 202/296-9836 or by e-mail at gschaner@amsa-cleanwater.org.
Attachments:
EPA Fact Sheet — Implementation of the Water Quality-Based Provisions in the CSO Contro Policy: Outline of Draft EPA Guidance Outline of Draft EPA Guidance (PDF, 51K) For this downloadable file, you must have the Acrobat Reader. If you don't have the Acrobat Reader, click on the icon below to download a copy. After you download and install a copy, return to this page and click on the link above for the downloadable file.
