Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - AMSA in the News
AMSA, Municipal Groups Send Letter to EPA in Support of Blending Policy
Source: Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies
Today a broad coalition of national and municipal organizations wrote to the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA or Agency) Administrator, Michael
Leavitt, offering their broad support for the Agency’s November 7, 2003 blending
policy. The organizations supporting EPA’s clarification of its long-standing
policy that blending is an acceptable method of addressing peak wet weather
flows at publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) include the National League of
Cities, the National Association of Counties, the National Association of Towns
and Townships, the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies (AMSA), and
over 20 other key municipal organizations.
The coalition letter comes in response to environmental activist efforts that
are mischaracterizing EPA’s blending policy as an “environmental rollback” in an
attempt to further criticize the Administration’s environmental record.
Contrary to activist reports, blended effluent fully meets Clean Water Act
permit requirements. Blending protects public utility infrastructure, and
prevents the release of untreated sewage into the environment and sewer backups
into homes and businesses. In fact, a final blending policy will increase
permitting consistency and make more information publicly available – far from a
rollback. A final policy also will recognize that already scarce public
resources must be used to support meaningful, environmentally beneficial water
protection efforts at the local level.
Blending involves mixing partially treated and fully treated effluent during
peak wet weather flows, when heavy rain or snow melt exceed the capacity of a
wastewater treatment plant. Blending has been an accepted, environmentally
sound, practice used by the nation’s POTWs for over 30 years as a component of
their wet weather management strategies to ensure that these excess flows
receive the greatest treatment possible under extreme wet weather conditions.
A final national policy affirming this critical practice is essential to the
communities across the country that use blending to provide treatment for
unpredictable, exceptionally heavy precipitation and prevent the discharge of
untreated sewage.
Contact:
Chris Hornback
202-833-9106