AMSA Regulatory Alert (RA 02-23)
To: Members & Affiliates, Pretreatment & Hazardous Waste Committee
From: National Office
Date: December 24, 2002
Subject: EPA SEEKS COMMENT ON DRAFT NATIONAL EFFLUENT LIMITATIONS GUIDELINES STRATEGY
Reference: RA 02-23
Action Please By:
February 7, 2003
On November 29, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency) released its Draft Strategy for National Clean Water Industrial Regulations (Draft Strategy) (67 Fed. Reg. 71165). The Draft Strategy may be found on EPA’s web site at http://epa.gov/guide/strategy/304mstrategy.pdf. The Draft Strategy describes a new process for identifying existing effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs) that need revising, and for identifying any new industrial categories for which the Agency should consider developing new ELGs. EPA is required to carry out a review of the ELG program every two years under section 304(m) of the Clean Water Act. EPA intends this new strategy to guide ELG development once the Agency’s obligations under the existing consent decree with Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) are fulfilled.
The November 29 Federal Register notice also announced a public meeting scheduled for January 15, 2003 in Washington, D.C. to discuss the Draft Strategy. Comments on the Draft Strategy are due on February 27, 2003.
AMSA Member Input Requested
The Agency is seeking comment on several specific parts of the
Draft Strategy. To facilitate AMSA’s preparation of comments, please submit
your feedback on the Draft Strategy by February 7, 2003 to Will
Pettit at
wpettit@amsa-cleanwater.org.
Below are the areas where the Agency is seeking specific comments on its Draft Strategy. Additional details on these areas can be found on page 41 of the Draft Strategy.
Summary of Draft Strategy
After more than a decade under consent decree with NRDC, EPA now
has an opportunity to take a fresh look at the ELG program. The Draft
Strategy proposes an approach that allows for the greatest risk reduction,
using all tools available. EPA’s Draft Strategy is based on two main
goals:
Rather than working its way through a list of industries, the Draft Strategy proposes an approach that would evaluate the risk of individual pollutants to human health or the environment, and then identify the industrial sources of such pollutants in the environment. The Agency will not only assess whether effluent guideline development or revision is the appropriate tool to reduce risk. EPA will also identify what other tools may be more efficient.
EPA has identified four major factors that it will use as a screening device in evaluating the need to revise a particular effluent guideline or in identifying whether a new effluent guideline is needed. They are:
A critical part of the proposed planning process is inclusion of stakeholders – industry, academia, States, POTWs, environmental groups, and the public – in a more transparent decision-making process. EPA hopes the process described in the Draft Strategy will give such stakeholders an opportunity to understand EPA’s review process and to participate in decisions about how effluent guidelines can best meet the needs of the national clean water program. EPA also hopes that stakeholders will identify information that will help the Agency evaluate the four factors listed above, as well as suggest other factors and information the Agency should consider in revising or establishing effluent guidelines. EPA will obtain feedback on individual industrial categories from stakeholders by soliciting comments in a Federal Register notice, by holding a public meeting, and by meeting with organizations which represent the groups that will most likely be interested in the future of national industrial clean water regulations.
The first step in the Agency’s planning process is an initial screen, using the four factors described above, of NPDES-authorized states, pretreatment control authorities, and professional associations to obtain their recommendations pertaining to revising existing effluent guidelines and identifying industries for new guidelines. EPA intends to use a variety of mechanisms to solicit input from these stakeholders, coordinating with major organizations to use regularly planned conferences to the maximum extent possible.
EPA expects the outcome of the initial screening process to be a list of industrial categories. In a second-level screen, EPA will review effluent guidelines currently under development, effluent guidelines promulgated in the past seven years, and voluntary loadings reductions by industry to help prioritize the industrial categories identified in the initial screen for further study. Once EPA has completed its review, EPA expects to rank the industrial categories in terms of their risk to human health and the environment.
After the initial and secondary screening is complete, EPA would then determine whether development or revision of an effluent guideline is appropriate. This determination will then be presented in the biennial effluent guidelines plan. The first biennial plan to use the process described in the Draft Strategy will be the 2004-2005 plan. The plan will describe the outcomes of both stages of the screening process, EPA’s tentative selection of industrial categories for further study, and the rationale for this selection. EPA plans to hold outreach meetings to discuss their findings with stakeholders, and to solicit additional information to fill data gaps. After consideration of comments, EPA will publish the biennial plan, indicating a schedule for any guidelines that will be developed or revised.
For more information on the Draft Strategy please contact Will Pettit, AMSA, at 202/833-3280 or wpettit@amsa-cleanwater.org.