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Interest Groups Urge White House To Release EPA Wastewater Blending Policy
Environmental advocates and wastewater treatment plant operators urged the White House Nov. 2 to release the Environmental Protection Agency's draft policy on blending partially and fully treated sewage during heavy rains.
The National Association of Clean Water Agencies and the Natural Resources Defense Council wrote to Stephen Aiken, acting administrator for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the White House Office of Management and Budget, urging him to "finalize and release the policy as soon as possible."
The letter also was sent to OMB Director Rob Portman, EPA
Administrator Stephen Johnson, and Benjamin Grumbles, EPA's assistant
administrator for water.
EPA's proposed "peak weather flows" policy, issued in December 2005, is based on
joint guidance for sanitary sewer systems developed after five months of
negotiations between NACWA, which represents wastewater treatment plants, and
NRDC.
NACWA said the draft final policy is undergoing review at OMB.
The policy would allow blending of fully treated and partially treated
wastewater at sewage treatment plants when it rains heavily, but it would
require public notification within 24 hours of the blending. The proposed policy
also would require that a treatment plant conduct an analysis demonstrating that
blending was the only feasible option during periods of heavy rains (243 DEN
A-6, 12/20/05 ).
Blending takes place at treatment plants during heavy rain because the volume of
water exceeds a plant's biological treatment capacity. In such cases, a portion
of wastewater is rerouted after primary treatment (when solids are removed),
around the secondary biological treatment system (where pathogens are killed and
pollutants are removed), and then mixed with treated wastewater and discharged
into lakes and streams.
Ken Kirk, NACWA's executive director, and Nancy Stoner, NRDC's clean water
project director, warned OMB that the costs of inaction on the agency's policy
would be "exponential."
"Without clarity, countless permits will be held up and appealed, litigation
costs will skyrocket, significant planned facility investments will be stranded,
and environmental progress will stagnate," Kirk and Stoner wrote.
Most Comments Supportive
Kirk and Stoner also told OMB to ignore the few dissenting comments received
from wastewater agencies that were incensed at the compromise that was reached
between the two "historic adversaries."
The overwhelming comments, Kirk and Stoner wrote, were largely supportive, an
assertion backed Oct. 20 by James Hanlon, director of EPA's Office of Wastewater
Management. Hanlon was speaking at a seminar, Clean Water Act: Law and
Regulation, during a discussion on policies governing wet weather conditions.
The seminar was sponsored by the Environmental Law Institute and the American
Bar Association's Section on Environment, Energy, and Resources (204 DEN A-7,
10/23/06 ).
Hanlon said the policy would be issued in another 30-40 days.
In the letter, Kirk and Stoner indicated that OMB might be pushing the agency to
abandon its peak weather flow policy as it did a sanitary sewer overflows policy
that was abandoned in 2001.
"It would be, frankly, unconscionable to abandon a sound compromise by historic
adversaries on a controversial environmental issue," wrote Kirk and Stoner.
NACWA Expresses Concern
When asked by BNA whether the White House or EPA had alluded to possible
abandonment of the policy, Alexandra Dunn, NACWA's general counsel, was unable
to answer definitively.
"We are very concerned about the status of the policy because it has been at the
White House Office of Management and Budget for longer than we believe is
necessary given the level of support the policy has received," said Dunn.
Likewise, EPA's Grumbles said, "No," when asked the same question by BNA.
"We have been working very closely with the stakeholders and we are now at the
point of ironing out the details," Grumbles said. "We are fully committed to
releasing the policy."
The joint NACWA-NRDC letter will be available at http://www.nacwa.org.
By Amena H. Saiyid