AMSA Regulatory Update June 2002

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AMSA’s National Office is pleased to provide you with the June 2002 Regulatory Update. This Update provides a narrative summary of relevant regulatory issues and actions current to July 5, 2002. A Regulatory Digest of activities currently tracked by AMSA can be found on AMSA’s web site at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/regupdates/reg_digest.cfm. If you have any questions or comments, please contact the AMSA National Office at 202/833 AMSA or info@amsa-cleanwater.org.

AMSA’s Summer Conference is Approaching!
AMSA’s Summer Conference — Controlling Wet Weather Overflows . . . Challenges and Solutions — will be held at the Hilton Portland, July 16 – 19, 2002. The agenda will focus on key wet weather issues affecting the nation’s clean water community, such as sanitary and combined sewer overflows, total maximum daily loads and use attainability analyses. Wet weather related issues represent ever-increasing challenges for publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) and have recently come under increased scrutiny and evaluation by national policy-makers.

AMSA’s Controlling Wet Weather Overflows conference agenda will address a variety of wet weather issues of keen interest to the nation’s clean water community. Informative General Sessions will feature engaging speakers and in-depth discussions that will examine a host of wet weather related issues including the regulation of wet weather overflows, collection system design, peak flow and wet weather event strategies, operation and maintenance practices to reduce overflow events, lessons learned from management, operations and maintenance (MOM) programs, and wet weather watershed management concepts. In addition, a portion of the conference will be devoted to discussing EPA's new watershed rule and its implications for the clean water community.

For more information about the Summer Conference, you can go to AMSA’s web site at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/meetings/02summer/.

Air Quality

EPA Adds Sewage Sludge Incineration to Area Source Category List
On June 26, EPA added 18 industrial processes, including sewage sludge incineration, to its Clean Air Act (CAA) section 112(k) list of source categories that, based on 1990 emissions data, contribute to 90 percent of the emissions of the 30 hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) of greatest concern in urban areas. 67 Fed. Reg. 43,112. The CAA’s urban area source provisions require EPA to identify the 30 HAPs of most concern in urban areas, and to list and regulate the industrial categories responsible for 90 percent of the emissions of those HAPs.

Based on 1990 data, EPA estimates that each of the 18 new categories contributes between four and 16 percent of the urban area emissions for at least one of the 30 HAPs. AMSA has provided EPA with data showing drops in SSI HAP emissions since 1990. While EPA was not able under the CAA to use this information in the listing action, EPA will be able to use AMSA’s data in any subsequent rulemaking activity. In litigation with the Sierra Club, to which AMSA is a party, EPA has offered to propose area source rules for the 18 categories in October 2009, and to finalize them in December 2010. Sierra Club will not agree to this schedule. Accordingly, the parties will have to set a rulemaking schedule through briefing this fall before the District of Columbia District Court.

Notably, EPA’s listing of the 18 categories completes the process the Agency began via its 1999 Integrated Urban Air Toxics Strategy, in which it first identified the 30 HAPs of concern and listed 29 industrial categories, each of which was responsible for at least 15 percent of the total emissions of the 30 HAPs. 64 Fed. Reg. 38,706 (July 19, 1999). Publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) were one of the 29 categories listed in 1999. On March 22, EPA proposed CAA § 112(k) regulations of “no control” for new and existing non-industrial area source POTWs. 67 Fed. Reg. 13,496. For area source industrial POTWs, EPA proposed that these facilities should meet the same control requirements as major source industrial POTWs, and be exempt from CAA Title V permit provisions. AMSA supported EPA’s proposals in April comments. EPA will finalize the proposals by October.

Biosolids

AMSA to Comment on EPA’s NODA on the Part 503 Standards for Land Applied Biosolids
AMSA is currently working with Cambridge Environmental Inc. and its Biosolids Management Committee to compile comments on a Notice of Data Availability (NODA) on the Part 503 standards for land applied biosolids (67 Fed. Reg. 40554; See Regulatory Alert 02-14) published on June 12 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The NODA summarizes new data on the levels of dioxin in biosolids and EPA’s revised risk assessment for estimating the risks from dioxin and dioxin-like compounds associated with the land application of biosolids. Using the new dioxin data and revised risk assessment, EPA estimates that the lifetime cancer risk to its modeled (highly-exposed) population is within the Agency’s range of acceptable risks. Furthermore, EPA’s revised risk assessment shows no measurable effect on risk if all biosolids were required to meet the Agency’s 1999 proposed limit of 300 parts per trillion (ppt) toxic equivalents (TEQ).

AMSA is weighing a number of alternatives to a national numeric limit including a voluntary approach, consisting of periodic, self-monitoring combined with a methodology for identifying sources of dioxins, as discussed in the NODA. AMSA is also considering an alternative that would require, by federal regulation, periodic monitoring (once every five years) for dioxins in biosolids, with a requirement to investigate any elevated levels.

For more information contact Chris Hornback, AMSA at 202/833-9106 chornback@amsa-cleanwater.org. The NODA is available on EPA’s web site at: http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-WATER/2002/June/Day-12/w14761.pdf.

Pretreatment

EPA Proposes Effluent Guidelines Program Plan for 2002 and 2003
AMSA is preparing comments in response to EPA’s proposed Effluent Guidelines Program Plan for 2002/2003 (ELG Plan) released on June 18 (67 Fed. Reg. 41417). A copy of the notice can be obtained at: http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-WATER/2002/June/Day-18/w15329.htm.

Section 304(m) of the Clean Water Act directs EPA to publish a plan every two years that consists of three elements: 1) a schedule for the annual review and revision of existing effluent guidelines, 2) a list of categories of sources discharging toxic or nonconventional pollutants for which EPA has not published effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs) or new source performance standards (NSPS), and 3) a schedule for the promulgation of ELGs or NSPS for the categories listed under number 2 not later than three years after being identified in the plan.

In 1989, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Public Citizen, Inc. filed an action against EPA claiming the Agency had failed to comply with section 304(m). EPA and the plaintiffs agreed to a settlement of that action in a Consent Decree entered on January 31, 1992. The last date for EPA action under the Decree, as modified, is June 2004.

The proposed ELG Plan indicates that there are no new activities that would directly impact the POTW community. The plan outlines proposed and final action dates for the following source categories: Metal Products and Machinery, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, Meat and Poultry Products, Construction and Development, Aquatic Animal Production, and Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard. EPA also indicates that it is not planning to revise ELGs for eight subcategories of the pulp, paper, and paperboard industry (Subparts C and F through L).

The most notable section of the proposed ELG Plan is a discussion of the future of the ELG program. With the last deadline under the Consent Decree quickly approaching, EPA is expressing interest in evaluating the existing program and “how national industrial regulations can best meet the needs of the broader National Clean Water Program in the years ahead.” EPA is drafting a strategy that will outline a planning process by which the Agency will conduct a review of the national effluent guidelines and establish priorities for the future. In line with recommendations from AMSA’s recent White Paper on the ELG Program (available on AMSA’s web site at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/advocacy/elgwhitepaper.pdf), EPA highlights the need for transparency in this priority setting process and commits to working with “interested parties” to “assess the risks posed by industrial discharges and to identify the best approach to address these risks (i.e., through effluent guidelines or other tools).”

EPA plans to publish the new strategy later this year and AMSA will continue to meet with the Agency on the subject. For further information contact Chris Hornback, AMSA at 202/833-9106 or chornback@amsa-cleanwater.org.

AMSA Comments on EPA’s Meat and Poultry Products Effluent Limitations Guidelines
On June 25, AMSA submitted comments on the EPA’s proposed Effluent Limitations Guidelines and New Source Performance Standards for the Meat and Poultry Products Point Source Category. AMSA’s comments supported EPA’s decision not to promulgate categorical pretreatment standards for the MPP point source category, highlighting the fact that MPP facilities discharge pollutants that are compatible with the POTW treatment processes that receive them. AMSA commented that requiring MPP facilities to install treatment to control conventional pollutants would necessitate the expenditure of unnecessary resources to duplicate treatment already provided by the POTW and would also eliminate a vital source of surcharge revenue for many POTWs. EPA was unable to find evidence that interference or pass-through caused by MPP facilities is widespread. AMSA argued that the few problems that do exist are best addressed on the local level. AMSA will continue to argue that standards are not needed. EPA is planning to issue a NODA early next year. AMSA’s comments are available at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/outreach/062502comments.pdf. For more information contact Chris Hornback, AMSA at 202/833-9106 or chornback@amsa-cleanwater.org.

AMSA to Comment on EPA’s Metal Products and Machinery Effluent Guidelines NODA
AMSA is working through its Pretreatment and Hazardous Waste Committee to compile comments on EPA’s Notice of Data Availability (NODA) on the Metal Products and Machinery (MP&M) Effluent Guidelines (67 Fed. Reg. 38752; See Regulatory Alert 02-12) published June 5. The NODA releases for public comment new data collected by the Agency and received from industry groups and POTWs since the guidelines were proposed last year (66 Fed. Reg. 424; January 3, 2001). EPA is evaluating how the new data and comments received may change certain aspects of the MP&M effluent guidelines proposal, including the regulatory options considered, the estimated costs, pollutant load reductions, and financial impacts associated with the regulation. The NODA describes EPA's current thinking on these issues and presents information on how the new data may affect the final limitations and standards.

EPA is soliciting comment on a “no further regulation” option for indirect MP&M dischargers, the potential impacts of EPA’s suggested alternative to the MP&M limits which would move all Part 413 facilities to Part 433, and a pollution prevention alternative with an environmental management system (EMS) component for the General Metals Subcategory. The EMS option was proffered by industry.

For further information on the MP&M NODA and AMSA’s comment effort, contact Chris Hornback at 202/833-9106 or chornback@amsa-cleanwater.org. The NODA is available on EPA’s web site at: http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-WATER/2002/June/Day-05/w13808.pdf.

Water Quality

AMSA to Comment on EPA’S Draft Strategy for Water Quality Standards and Criteria
AMSA is preparing comments on EPA’s Draft Strategy for Water Quality Standards and Criteria: Strengthening the Foundation of Programs to Protect and Restore the Nation’s Waters (Draft Strategy), released for public comment on May 7 (See Regulatory Alert 02-11). The Draft Strategy represents the culmination of the Agency’s review of the existing standards and criteria program, its functionality, and its interaction with other clean water programs. The Draft Strategy lays out a series of strategic actions to guide program activities for the next seven years. EPA will consider any comments received by August 16 (the original July 15 deadline was recently extended). AMSA is working with its Water Quality Committee to compile comments on the strategy.

The Draft Strategy addresses a number of the issues AMSA has raised over the last few years, including the need for guidance on designated uses and use attainability analyses (UAAs), the need for coordinating total maximum daily load (TMDL) development with the review of water quality standards, and the lack of analytical methods for evaluating bacterial indicators in wastewater. However, the proposed schedule for some of the key actions will leave a number of critical issues unresolved for the near future. For more information contact Chris Hornback, AMSA at 202/833-9106 or chornback@amsa-cleanwater.org. The Draft Strategy can be obtained at: http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/standards/.

AMSA to Comment on EPA’s Draft Guidance for Ambient Water Quality Criteria for Bacteria
AMSA is working through its Water Quality Committee to compile comments on EPA’s Implementation Guidance for Ambient Water Quality Criteria for Bacteria (Draft Guidance) published on June 11 (See Regulatory Alert 02-13). EPA began work on the document in 1999 in response to the 1999 Action Plan for Beaches and Recreational Waters and issued an earlier draft in February 2000. The revised draft includes additional information to help states transition from the use of total coliform and fecal coliform counts to E. coli and enterococci as indicators of unhealthy levels of bacteria in recreational waters. The Draft Guidance also incorporates recommendations on implementing provisions of the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act of 2000 (BEACH Act), which requires coastal and Great Lakes states, by April 2004, to adopt EPA’s recommended water quality criteria for bacteria or other criteria that are as protective as the Agency’s criteria. The Draft Guidance addresses issues AMSA has raised in previous comments, including non-human sources of fecal contamination, but leaves other questions unanswered, including the lack of EPA approved test methods for enumerating E. coli and enterococci. For more information contact Chris Hornback, AMSA at 202/833-9106 or chornback@amsa-cleanwater.org. The Draft Guidance is available on EPA’s web site at: http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/standards/bacteria.

AMSA Plans Comments on EPA Draft Water Quality Trading Policy
On May 15, EPA’s Office of Water released for public comment its draft Water Quality Trading Policy (“proposed policy”). The proposed policy, available at http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/trading/proptradepolicy.pdf, will supersede the 1996 policy developed under the Clinton administration. The purpose of the proposed policy is to encourage states to adopt voluntary effluent trading programs that facilitate the implementation of TMDLs, reduce the costs of compliance with Clean Water Act (CWA) regulations, establish incentives for voluntary reductions and promote watershed-based initiatives. AMSA has been actively involved in reviewing earlier drafts of the trading policy. Leading up to the recent proposal, the Agency has been responsive to AMSA’s preliminary concerns, recognizing that for trading to work the key permitholders will need to accept the policy.

The National Office is compiling comments on the proposed policy based on the issues and concerns raised by the membership in response to Regulatory Alert RA 02-10 (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/regalerts/ra02-10.cfm). Among other issues, AMSA will seek further clarification on the options available in the NPDES permit for recognizing an effluent trade, recommend that a 1:1 trading ratio is sufficient for all trades, and suggest that the policy avoid discouraging trading of additional parameters, such as mercury. In addition, AMSA recommend that the Agency take further steps to clarify that trading programs should not be used as a replacement for a fair and equitable allocation of pollutant removal responsibilities under an approved TMDL. The EPA deadline for filing comments is July 15, recently extended from the original deadline of July 1. For further information, contact Greg Schaner at 202/296-9836 or gschaner@amsa-cleanwater.org.

Wet Weather

AMSA to Provide Overview of 2002 Wet Weather Survey Results at Summer Conference
On March 27, AMSA launched its 2002 Wet Weather Survey via Regulatory Alert RA 02-7, a comprehensive questionnaire on collection system and treatment plant design relating to peak wet weather flows. Roughly 85 members submitted completed surveys. AMSA’s consultant, CH2M Hill, is in the process of completing its analysis on the data set and will present the results at AMSA’s Summer Conference on July 17 at a panel focusing on collection system capacity issues. This information is expected to be critical to AMSA’s ongoing regulatory negotiations with EPA on a reasonable sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) rule and blending policy.

In addition to the survey analysis, the SSO Workgroup is also working on the development of a draft site-specific, collection system capacity-setting process for review by the membership. The development of this process is intended to provide EPA with recommendations on possible alternative methods of determining capacity for peak flows. The draft capacity-setting process will be distributed to the membership for comment upon its completion. A final report, which will include the completed survey analysis and the capacity-setting process, will be available in late summer. For further information, contact Greg Schaner at 202/296-9836 or gschaner@amsa-cleanwater.org.