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AMSA warns of adverse changes in TMDL policies
WASHINGTON — The Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies said yesterday
that a change in the national rules for the way total maximum daily loads
(TMDLs) are recorded by wastewater facilities could undermine an important water
quality program being administered by the government, as well as the significant
efforts of communities nationwide to implement key components of the Clean Water
Act.
The opinion was rendered in a brief filed in the ongoing litigation in the DC
Circuit Court case Friends of the Earth (FoE) versus the US Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), in which citizen groups assert that TMDLs — discharge
limits developed under the Clean Water Act — must be expressed in 24-hour daily
load form.
AMSA said in a news release that it filed the brief jointly with the District of
Columbia's Water and Sewer Authority (WASA).
AMSA said a ruling in favor of FoE would have adverse implications, most notably
precluding the implementation of the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA)
combined sewer overflow (CSO) policy — a plan designed to improve water quality
nationwide.
AMSA's brief said that under EPA regulations, TMDLs may be expressed in any form
appropriate to the pollutant of concern – including in monthly, seasonal, or
annual load — and said that FoE's contention that TMDLs must be expressed in the
form of a 24-hour load is in direct conflict with Clean Water Act provisions.
FoE's assertion "could effectively undermine CSO control planning across the
country," AMSA said.
For example, WASA's long-term CSO control plan, which will reduce the average
volume of CSO discharges to the Anacostia River by 97.5 percent, would be a
casualty of a pro-FoE ruling, AMSA claimed.
WASA has already demonstrated its commitment to curbing overflows by investing
millions of dollars in the development of its control plan and having committed
to an estimated capital cost of $1.265 billion in 2001 dollars, AMSA said.
"TMDLs expressed as 24-hour loads would require complete separation of the
District's combined sewer system, which is neither economically nor technically
feasible and would in fact provide less water quality benefit to the Anacostia
River," said Ken Kirk, AMSA executive director.
"FoE's position also could disrupt the efforts of the nearly 800 cities
nationwide to comply with the Clean Water Act's CSO provisions," he added. "Why
would a citizens group seek to litigate a case that will only serve to slow
environmental progress and negatively impact citizens?"
A 2002 AMSA survey, which drew responses from 47 of the association's 81
CSO-member communities, revealed that these cities collectively have already
spent $5.1 billion in capital dollars and $39.6 million for operation and
maintenance costs toward the implementation of their long-term CSO control
plans, AMSA claimed.
AMSA said municipalities are committing the needed funds toward limiting
overflows already and lawsuits that serve only to delay this process run counter
to the interest of Americans.
AMSA is a national trade association representing hundreds of the nation's
publicly owned wastewater utilities.
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