Member Pipeline - Fax Alerts SpecialEdition - January 6, 2004
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January 6, 2004
EPA To Extend Comment Deadline on Blending Policy
The Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies (AMSA) has learned that a notice formally extending the comment period on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA or the Agency) November 7 proposed blending policy will be signed today or tomorrow. The notice will extend by 30 days the comment period that was to close this Friday, January 9, 2004. EPA hopes to publish the notice in the Federal Register by Friday. In the meantime, AMSA urges its members to continue their efforts to prepare and submit comments supporting the proposed policy on behalf of their respective agencies. AMSA’s comments on the policy will be available January 7 on the Association’s website at: http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/reg_outreach.cfm or by contacting Chris Hornback at chornback@amsa-cleanwater.org or 202/833-9106. Public agency members who blend, or want to protect their ability to blend in the future, should feel free to use AMSA’s comments in whole or in part. The comments will be available in Microsoft Word so that you can “cut and paste” as you see fit. Feel free to simply put your agency’s letterhead to AMSA’s comments.Unless AMSA members demonstrate unequivocally that overall the blending policy is an environmental step forward for their communities, they will be faced with a situation where the guidance does not get finalized — an outcome that could be used to show that the Agency de facto opposes blending. This interpretation could lead to a crackdown on blending by states and EPA Regions which could cost publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) nationwide approximately $200 billion. Debate over the policy is now primarily political and without clear and vocal support from the POTW community, the policy will have little chance of being finalized this year.
Both the quantity and quality of AMSA and POTW comments will play a critical role in making sure EPA finalizes the blending policy. AMSA believes that members should voice their support in their comments for the policy’s clarification that blending is not a prohibited bypass and can be authorized in a Clean Water Act permit if the six key “principles” are followed. AMSA received a number of substantive comments from its members, the vast majority of which supported the need for a final blending policy, with a wide variety of views on the policy’s six principles. Rather than attempting to reach consensus on every issue contained in the policy, many of which were very site-specific, AMSA focused its comments on several critical issues that were consistently raised by members.
AMSA has always maintained that the practice of blending is not a bypass under 40 CFR 122.41(m) and that the only conditions that POTWs must meet are those stipulated in a permit. AMSA acknowledges that the six principles outlined in EPA’s proposed policy may impose additional requirements for some POTWs, but strongly believes that this policy is the only realistic chance that the POTW community has to preserve the practice of blending. AMSA urges members who have specific concerns with the some of the principles to voice those concerns within a clearly enunciated overall support of the guidance.
AMSA encourages its members to develop a strong cover letter outlining the importance of blending for their operations, their agency’s overall support for the policy, and the estimated cost of a blending prohibition for their agency, if available. AMSA suggests that any technical comments or concerns with the policy be included as an attachment and invites members to use or incorporate by reference the AMSA comments. Again, AMSA’s comments will be available January 7 at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/reg_outreach.cfm or by contacting Chris Hornback at chornback@amsa-cleanwater.org or 202/833-9106.