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January 23, 1997
TMDL Program Revisions to be Proposed November 1998EPA will propose revisions to its Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) program regulations and accompanying guidance in November 1998 and will finalize these revisions in October 1999, says Geoff Grubbs, director of EPA's Assessment & Watershed Protection Division at the Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds. Grubbs attended this week's meeting of EPA's TMDL Federal Advisory Committee in Salt Lake City, Utah. This was the fourth in a series of five Committee meetings being held to assist EPA in reinventing the TMDL program.
Cheryl Creson of California’s Sacramento Regional County represents AMSA on the TMDL Committee. Twenty other representatives from states, municipalities, environmental groups, academia, industry, agriculture, and forestry interests make up the TMDL advisory group that is drafting a report which it hopes to finalize and submit to EPA in May 1998.
Consensus was reached this week on several outstanding issues that had been left unresolved in its latest January 15 draft committee report, such as two-year listing/delisting cycles, federal land management agency roles and responsibilities, provisions for "equivalent" TMDLs, and a seven-step hierarchy approach to TMDL development. However, the Committee disagreed on other issues, such as developing candidate lists for waters needing more data, and whether waters expected to meet water quality standards through point source controls should be listed.
New Source Prohibitions Need Attention
One notable issue raised in the Committee's current report, and which was discussed during the meeting, was EPA and state's rarely used regulations concerning new source prohibitions for impaired waters. EPA is concerned that it may be vulnerable to litigation on this issue and wants the issue addressed in the Committee’s final report.
Current EPA regulations at 40 CFR 122.4(I) provide that "no new permit may be issues to a new source or a new discharger, if the discharge from its construction, or operation will cause or contribute to the violation of water quality standards."
In the interim period between listing and TMDL development, the Committee has tentatively agreed that such a prohibition should be applied. However, the Committee has also recommended that the regulations be modified such that stakeholders are given flexibility to develop stabilization plans that include trading or offset activities. This flexibility would allow for prohibition exemptions when overall loadings decrease.
The Committee will be drafting a revised version of its report in early February, and will solicit public comment before finalizing the report at its May 4-6 meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. AMSA members will be asked to comment on the TMDL Committee’s February report when it is distributed via an upcoming Regulatory Alert. If you would like a copy of the Committee’s January 15 draft, please contact Mark Hoeke at AMSA (202/833-9106).
Registration for the 1998 Winter Conference has reached record attendance levels. We're looking forward to seeing everyone in San Antonio and to the release of AMSA's newest management publication, Thinking, Getting & Staying Competitive: A Public Sector Handbook. Members not attending the conference will receive a copy of the Handbook in the mail during the week of February 2.