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August 28, 1998
EPA Holds Public Meeting on Water Quality Standards Regulation
On August 27-28, EPA held the first of three public meetings to discuss and debate EPA’s current thinking as presented in the July 7, 1998 Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) on the Water Quality Standards Regulation. Over 250 representatives from EPA, states, tribes, municipalities, environmental groups and industry were in attendence. Jim Hanlon, EPA’s Deputy Director of the Office of Science and Technology opened the meeting by providing an overview of the ANPRM and highlighting each of five key issue areas including: 1) refined use designations; 2) water quality criteria; 3) antidegradation; 4) mixing zones; and 5) independent application. The first day of the meeting was led by a panel of resource experts representing states, industry, municipalities, and environmental groups. The resource experts presented their perspectives on the ANPRM and provided feedback to questions posed by attendees. AMSA was represented on the panel by Bob Berger, Manager of Regulatory Planning and Analysis, East Bay Municipal Utility District, and former chair of AMSA’s Water Quality Committee.
Balance Between National Consistency and State/Local Flexibility Receives Considerable Attention
The main topic of discussion during the first day of the meeting was how to balance national consistency with state and local flexibility. The ANPRM poses several questions on whether EPA should mandate additional requirements for states to improve their water quality standards. Examples of such additional requirements include: whether EPA should mandate greater specificity in the use designation process, or identifying basic elements of state antidegradation policies or mixing zones policies. States opposed the ANPRM call for additional mandates and supported leaving flexibility in the regulation, while environmental representatives called for a minimum baseline program that states must implement. One municipal official commented that there needs to be greater flexibility in implementation and that change should be sought through guidance, not regulation.
There was a general consensus among the participants at the meeting that the water quality program is working with limited resources to solve increasingly complex problems. During the resource panel presentations it became apparent that stakeholders have differing views on resource allocation. States indicated that these resources should be targeted to developing site-specific standards, while industry and municipal representatives thought EPA should work to provide better assessment tools and data, and that states should be given the flexibility to refine uses. Environmental groups believe EPA should focus efforts on the development of an improved suite of criteria (i.e., biological, physical, habitat) and strengthen existing "loopholes" in the regulation such as vague antidegradation and mixing zones policy requirements.
EPA has scheduled two additional meetings, one for September 24-25 in Phoenix, Arizona and a final meeting on October 20-21 in Chicago, Illinois. More information can be found on EPA’s website at http://www.epa.gov/OST. If you would like more information on AMSA’s activities on the ANPRM, please contact Mark Hoeke at the National Office.
Ø AMSA is currently collecting information for the annual AMSA Index survey, an analysis of nationwide average household sewer service charges and trends (see Member Update 98-14). Past surveys have provided thirteen years of trend data on average household sewer service charges. The deadline for responding to the AMSA Index survey is September 4. Members who have not yet responded to the one-page survey are encouraged to do so by the deadline. If you need another survey form, please contact Jeni Hornback at the National Office.