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October 3, 1997
Region IV Members Organize to Address Enforcement Concerns
Over forty participants, representing 16 AMSA agencies met on Oct. 2 in Atlanta, Georgia to discuss common issues regarding EPA Region IV enforcement policies and activities. The meeting was convened due to concerns among several member agencies that EPA Region IV has been selectively targeting cities for CSO and SSO enforcement actions, and imposing unreasonable requirements in resulting enforcement orders. Several members informally shared their EPA Regional enforcement office and Department of Justice (DOJ) encounters with the group. Members discussed the events leading up to EPA and/or DOJ involvement, key EPA and DOJ enforcement officials, their strategies for negotiating, and pending or resulting enforcement orders or actions. Both ongoing and completed civil and criminal cases were highlighted. Of primary concern to members was the Region's currently strict interpretation of Clean Water Act secondary treatment requirements and its resistance to allow sanitary sewer overflows, whether avoidable or unavoidable, or bypasses during wet weather. Members also expressed frustration concerning the Region's reluctance to follow the provisions of national CSO policy, the lack of support for the SSO national policy dialogue, and the lack of focus on water quality benefits. Members hope to pursue these issues, including whether the Region can be persuaded to accept limited overflows during certain wet weather events, in follow up meetings with high-level regional EPA officials and through consideration of targeted legislative language.EPA Officials Highlight Status of Key Programs
On Sept.29-30, AMSA's board of directors, and Committee leadership met with EPA officials to discuss several Agency initiatives. Chuck Fox, associate administrator in EPA's Office of Reinvention, discussed potential AMSA involvement in Project XL through innovative pretreatment programs. Brian Maas, director of the Water Enforcement Division highlighted priorities for EPA's enforcement office in the coming year which include: wet weather programs, concentrated animal feeding operations, wetlands, industrial operations in nonpretreatment cities, and violators of the Oil Pollution Act. Also, a panel of director-level EPA officials from EPA's Office of Water, highlighted the status of several EPA initiatives including: 1) plans to re-propose mixing zone phaseout requirements for bioaccumulative pollutants for the Great Lakes; 2) plans to publish a narrowed advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) for the water quality standards regulation in late Dec. 1997; 3) plans to "reinvest" in the biosolids program in the wake of recent negative publicity on the use of manure and industrial sludges for land application; 4) integration of source water protection efforts with CWA programs; and 5) status of total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) program implementation. Mike Cook, director of the Office of Wastewater Management also expressed concern regarding a large number of petitions EPA has received recently to revoke state NPDES programs due to conflicting audit privilege laws, and other legislative or program deficiencies. The AMSA leadership also met with representatives of five major environmental groups and came to a consensus on the need for mandatory controls on nonpoint sources of pollution.EPA Releases Index of Watershed Indicators
On Oct. 2, EPA released its Index of Watershed Indicators (IWI), a comprehensive assessment of 2,111 watersheds nationwide. The study identifies 16% of our nation's watersheds as having "good" water quality, 36% as having "moderate" water quality, and 21% are said to be in "serious" jeopardy. Information on specific watersheds can be found on the EPA web site at: http://www.epa.gov/surf/iwi. AMSA plans to conduct a formal data review of IWI later this month.