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January 17, 2001
Does Your POTW Blend Wet Weather Flows?
Since the advent of the Clean Water Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has authorized numerous municipal wastewater treatment systems to meet their secondary treatment standards by blending partially-treated, disinfected wet weather flows with fully treated effluent prior to discharge. This practice has enabled POTWs to meet secondary treatment standards, maximize flow to the treatment plant, and, at the same time, protect sensitive biological treatment systems from being destroyed or washed out by excessive wet weather flows. AMSA understands that several EPA Regions and the Office of Enforcement & Compliance Assurance are now attempting to reverse the Agency’s position on blending by reinterpreting the bypass regulations to prohibit this practice.AMSA’s position is that "blending" (also referred to as "recombination", "slipstreaming", and "internal bypassing") is a long-standing practice that has been permitted and funded federally. AMSA would like to demonstrate that this reinterpretation is contrary to EPA’s long history of authorizing such practices.
Please help us by filling out this short survey. In order to demonstrate the impact of this reinterpretation on POTWs nationwide, AMSA is conducting this mini-survey to gauge the impact on our members. This survey is blind. Survey data will be shared with EPA, but no identifying information will be given to the Agency. Please complete the survey form and return it to AMSA c/o Greg Schaner at 202/833-4657 by Friday, January 26.
Please contact Greg Schaner at 202/296-9836 or by email at gschaner@amsa-cleanwater.org if you have any questions.
ATTACHMENT
- AMSA BLENDING SURVEY (PDF ~ 14KB)
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