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Member Pipeline - Fax Alerts - June 8, 2001

June 8, 2001

AMSA Letter To Whitman Lists Draft SSO Proposal Concerns
In a letter today to EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, AMSA outlined its key concerns with several provisions of the Agency’s draft Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) proposed rule. AMSA’s letter is timely as Whitman continues to evaluate the fate of the rule. As the letter points out, "The most problematic aspect of the draft proposal is the retention of a zero overflow standard for collection systems – a standard that is unachievable" for publicly owned treatment works (POTWs). While AMSA supports the draft’s language that would create a separate National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System program for collection systems and treatment plants, the Association roundly opposes its provision requiring collection systems to meet the same secondary treatment standard as treatment plants. Instead, AMSA supports a collection system-specific, technology-based standard. AMSA will continue a dialogue with EPA on these issues. See AMSA’s letter at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/outreach/060801whitmanletter.pdf.

AMSA Triumphs as Lawmakers Boost USGS Budget
The House Appropriations Interior Subcommittee decided yesterday to boost dramatically the United States Geological Survey’s Fiscal Year 2002 program budget despite President Bush’s decision to slash USGS water quality programs in his budget request, handing AMSA a critical success. The subcommittee’s decision comes hot on the heals of a June 5 letter AMSA sent to subcommittee Chairman Joe Skeen (R-NM) and Ranking Member Norman Dicks (D-WA) urging them to restore funds to a vital USGS water quality information program whose budget Bush slashed by $20 million. AMSA believes that the much-needed funding boost, if ultimately passed, will allow the USGS’ National Water Quality Assessment program to continue providing information critical to developing sound water quality criteria needed to implement the CWA. See AMSA’s letter at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/outreach/060601usgsletter.pdf.

EPA Briefs AMSA on Part 503 Rule Status
This week AMSA met with EPA officials responsible for finalizing Part 503, Round 2 regulations for dioxins in land applied biosolids. EPA is proceeding to finalize regulations proposed in 1999 that would establish a 300 ppt standard for dioxins in land applied biosolids and to take no action for dioxins in landfilled or incinerated biosolids. During the meeting, also attended by environmental group representatives, AMSA provided a report on the status of its dioxin sampling effort of POTWs in 31 states. EPA provided the Association with a status report on its probabilistic risk assessment and additional sampling of POTWs that the Agency will use to finalize the 503 rule. Under a consent decree that includes AMSA and environmental groups, EPA must complete the regulations by December 15, 2001. Risk assessment and data collection activities will continue through the summer.

EPA Draft Enforcement Guidance Targets Wet Weather
EPA’s Office of Enforcement & Compliance Assurance (OECA) has drafted a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) setting forth OECA’s enforcement priorities for Fiscal Years 2002/2003 under the Clean Water Act (CWA). The document lists Combined Sewer Overflows and SSOs as OECA’s primary enforcement targets. AMSA recognizes the potential for an uneven enforcement policy given the lack of an official SSO rule setting out POTW responsibilities, and continues to strive to ensure a fair SSO rule that will lead to equitable enforcement (see related story). The MOA is at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/faxalerts/02-03moa.pdf.

> AMSA’s summer conference, The Biosolids Challenge . . . Ensuring Success, from July 17-20, 2001 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is little more than a month away so please be advised that the cutoff for hotel reservations is June 20^th. For reservations, call the historic Pfister Hotel at 1-800-558-8222. See you there!