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August 27, 1999
AMSA Comments on EPA Standards Approval Proposal
AMSA filed comments this week on a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed rule that would significantly alter the review and approval process for adopting new state water quality standards. Prior to the so-called “Alaska Case,” EPA regulations allowed water quality standards to go into effect upon state adoption rather than requiring EPA approval. The proposed changes are intended to address a court victory by Alaskan environmental groups, who argued that, according to the Clean Water Act, state standards changes were invalid without EPA approval. To meet the terms of the court's decision, the Agency's proposal revises the regulations to require EPA to review and approve standards adjustments within 60 days or to deny the changes within 90 days. The agency proposes these revisions while acknowledging a substantial backlog of pending water quality standards changes that must be addressed. Also as a result of the “Alaska Case,” EPA will establish regional “water quality standards dockets,” with which the Agency will document and provide the rationale for its water quality standards approval and denial decisions.AMSA's comments presented several recommendations to the Agency. First, AMSA recommended that EPA allow the conditional approval of revised standards that have not been denied after 90 days. This would prevent publicly owned treatment works from attaining outdated water quality standards in the case of delayed approvals, which may be caused by prolonged consultations with fish and wildlife services under the Endangered Species Act.
AMSA also recommended that certain water quality standards revisions be exempted from the review and approval process in certain situations in order to streamline the process as much as possible. For instance, AMSA believes that if a state bases its criteria on the Agency's recom-mendations, and EPA revises a standard to make it less stringent, then that state should be allowed to immediately implement the new standard without awaiting EPA approval. In cases such as these EPA's approval would be understood, the comments pointed out. Another recommendation is that EPA should not require states to obtain approval of standards when typographical errors are corrected. Since many pollutants have formula-driven criteria, its possible for errors to occur during the standards adoption process, the comments stated.
Finally, AMSA encouraged the Agency to, in addition to setting up the regional water quality standards dockets, establish a web site where current and proposed water quality standards for any tribe, state or territory would be publicly accessible. Proposed standards in one area would be of interest to publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) in other regions considering similar proposals, the comments said. Under the terms of EPA's agreement with the environmentalists, the Agency must finalize the rule by April 2000.
AMSA Members Invited to L.A. Y2K Conference . . . The City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board will jointly host the Y2K Contingency Planning Conference for POTWs. All interested AMSA member agencies are invited to attend. The conference will take place on September 22, 1999 at the Los Angeles Convention Center from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm. For further information call Adele Sonora at 530/757-2574.