Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - AMSA in the News
Treatment Officials Want EPA to Act
On Blending, Other Wet Weather Policies
Wastewater officials expressed frustration May 19 at the seemingly slow pace
at which the Environmental Protection Agency is moving on wet weather policy
matters and other issues.
"We can't get anything done because you're having too much trouble getting
together on your issues," Lisa Hollander, assistant general counsel for the
Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, told EPA officials at a meeting of the
Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies.
She was referring to ongoing discussions within the agency over a rulemaking to
address sanitary sewer overflows, a policy to address blending whereby partially
treated stormwater is routed around part of the treatment process before being
recombined and discharged, and other Clean Water Act issues currently under
consideration.
Publicly owned treatment works say they have to employ blending to prevent their
secondary treatment systems--biological processes to remove biochemical oxygen
demand pollutants--from being overrun during heavy wet-weather events. A portion
of the excess flow is routed around the secondary system then recombined with
the treated effluent before being discharged. Treatment officials said the
recombined effluent still meets secondary standards as required by the Clean
Water Act, but opponents of the practice said blending does not address the high
levels of pathogens that go into rivers and streams as a result.
Without the blending option, the excess water could incapacitate the secondary
treatment system, municipal officials have said.
Benjamin Grumbles, deputy assistant administrator in the EPA Office of Water,
said his office has been working with the agency's general counsel and
enforcement officials to resolve some of the difficult issues within the
policies.
"Whenever there is something worthwhile, there is always some level of
controversy in getting it out the door," he said. He did not give an expected
time for releasing any of the policies.
AMSA members and other municipal officials said the matter needs to be resolved
because of disagreement within EPA regions and among regional staff on whether
blending is legal under the Clean Water Act. Because of the differences of
opinion, treatment officials said EPA has been inconsistent in its enforcement
of the wet weather program.
Three municipal groups have sued EPA for prohibiting blending even though no
regulation specifically bans the practice (Pennsylvania Municipal Authorities
Ass'n v. Whitman, D.D.C., No. 1:02CV01361, 7/8/02; 58 DEN A-11, 3/26/03 ).
In a May 16 letter to EPA Deputy Administrator Linda Fisher, AMSA requested the
agency release a draft of the blending policy for public comment.
"By far the most important consideration for EPA in deciding how to proceed with
its blending guidance is whether a prohibition on blending will in fact improve
the quality of the nation's waters," the AMSA letter said. "While a prohibition
on blending may ultimately ensure that more peak flows receive full secondary
treatment, overall water quality will remain unchanged as POTWs must continue to
meet the same permit limits, with or without blending."
EPA officials have said they do not intend to propose a rule on sanitary sewer
overflows until they complete work on the blending issue.
In addition, some municipal officials said the agency needs to convene a
national dialogue to resolve outstanding issues regarding the stormwater
program. Some of the issues include how to reconcile the requirements of the
stormwater program and the total maximum daily loads program and how to develop
good monitoring strategies.
Municipal officials also said they want EPA to move forward with its rulemaking
to revise the total maximum daily loads program. While a draft of the so-called
Watershed Rule has been circulating, Grumbles said the agency still has not
decided whether a rule is needed.