Member Pipeline - Regulatory - June 2003 Update
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| To: | Members & Affiliates, Regulatory Policy Committee, Legal Affairs Committee |
| From: | National Office |
| Date: | July 3, 2003 |
Printer friendly versionThe National Office of the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies (AMSA) is pleased to provide you with the June 2003 Regulatory Update. This Update provides a narrative summary of relevant regulatory issues and actions current to July 3, 2003. A Regulatory Digest of activities currently tracked by AMSA can be found on the Association’s web site at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/regupdates/reg_digest.cfm. Unless another contact person is specifically listed, call or email questions to Chris Hornback, AMSA’s Regulatory Affairs Director, at 202/833-9106 or chornback@amsa-cleanwater.org.
AMSA Conferences
There is Still Time to Register for AMSA’s
Summer Conference
AMSA’s Summer Conference is set for July 15-18, 2003 in Boston,
Mass., at the Fairmont Copley Plaza. The theme of the conference will be
Water Quality and the Wastewater Community: Emerging Pollutants and New
Challenges. Issues surrounding emerging pollutants, including endocrine
disruptors, and the latest on mercury, water quality trading, and total maximum
daily loads as well as other water quality topics will be addressed. The
conference will also examine the heightened focus that the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) and the States are now placing on existing pollutants
such as nutrients and pathogens in many communities. Assistant Administrator for
Water, G. Tracy Mehan III, will be on hand to give the conference’s keynote
address. In addition to a strong agenda, AMSA and the Water Environment Research
Foundation plan to launch a revised CleanWater Central database tool for
the clean water community. To register for AMSA’s Summer Conference and to
review an updated conference agenda please visit the Association’s web site at
http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/meetings/03summer/.
Air Quality
AMSA’s Air Quality Committee Begins
Evaluation of EPA’s WATER9 Model
In June, AMSA’s Air Quality Committee began work with CH2M HILL,
Inc., to evaluate EPA’s WATER9 Model for estimating air emissions of individual
water constituents in wastewater collection, storage, treatment, and disposal
facilities. The project will run the WATER9 model, and two other models
currently available for collection system modeling, using data available in
published literature. Results from the WATER9 model will be compared with the
other models used and with field-measured emissions to determine their accuracy.
If the results of the comparisons show that the WATER9 Model does in fact
over-predict emissions, CH2M HILL, Inc., will prepare a white paper that AMSA
and its member agencies can use to express to air permitting authorities that
the model over-predicts emissions, and to support requests that alternatives to
it be used to estimate hazardous air pollutant emissions. AMSA’s WATER9 model
project team will meet with EPA on July 31, 2003 in Research Triangle Park,
N.C., to discuss the scope of the project with hopes of gaining Agency
acceptance of the outcome of the project. For more information, please contact
Will Pettit, AMSA, at 202/833-3280 or
wpettit@amsa-cleanwater.org.
AMSA Supports Agency Clarification of
Delegable NESHAP Provisions
On June 23, 2003, the Agency published its final
Clarifications to Existing National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air
Pollutants Delegations’ Provisions (68 Fed. Reg. 37333). The final
rule, which will become effective August 22, 2003, clarifies which portions of
National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) can be
delegated to state, local, and tribal agencies. The Agency retains the authority
to implement and enforce NESHAP standards, but can delegate to state, local and
tribal agencies the authority to approve certain compliance assurance measures
that offer changes to testing, monitoring, reporting, and recordkeeping
procedures, as long as they are as stringent as EPA requirements. Additionally,
through this clarification, the Agency has delegated the authority to approve
alternate minor work practices that are of equal or greater stringency than the
Agency’s own. AMSA supports the Agency’s clarifications in that they provide
wastewater utilities with greater flexibility in meeting NESHAP requirements.
For more information, please contact Will Pettit, AMSA, at 202/833-3280 or
wpettit@amsa-cleanwater.org.
Biosolids
AMSA Urges the Agency’s Science Policy
Council Not to Use Draft Science in Biosolids Rule
On June 13, 2003, AMSA sent Assistant Administrator for Research
and Development, Paul Gilman, in his capacity as Chair of the Agency’s Science
Policy Council, a letter urging the Council not to recommend the use of draft
science contained in EPA’s draft Dioxin Reassessment in the forthcoming
regulation governing dioxin in land-applied biosolids. In their urgency to
finalize the biosolids rule by the court-ordered October 15, 2003 deadline, the
Office of Water asked the Science Policy Council in a June 16, 2003 meeting if
the draft science should be used. AMSA raised concerns that the use of draft
science in a final regulation would set a bad Agency-wide precedent, and would
serve to undermine the validity of the regulations to which it is applied. Since
AMSA’s letter was sent, an Agency source has told the National Office that the
Science Policy Council has decided that the Office of Water should not use the
draft science in the final land application of biosolids rule – an important
step toward a regulation based on sound science.
Pretreatment
AMSA to Review Need for Changes to Effluent
Guidelines for Centralized Waste Treatment
Although some details are still unclear, AMSA has learned that
the Agency is considering making revisions to the Effluent Limitations
Guidelines for the Centralized Waste Treatment (CWT) Point Source Category,
which were finalized in December of 2000 (65 Fed. Reg. 81242). Based on a
review of the data used to develop the rule, the Agency is considering removing
metal parameters, including those for antimony and molybdenum from both the Oils
and Multiple Wastestream Subcategories. The Agency is apparently not planning to
remove any metal parameters from the Organics Subcategory. AMSA’s Pretreatment &
Hazardous Waste Committee will discuss this issue at its upcoming meeting at
AMSA’s Summer Conference in Boston, Mass., on July 15, 2003.
Water Quality
AMSA Tracks Release of Two Relevant
Environmental Reports
Two reports were released last month that are of significance to
AMSA’s membership. The first is a General Accounting Office (GAO) report,
released June 19, 2003, entitled Water Quality: EPA Should Improve Guidance
and Support to Help States Develop Standards that Better Target Cleanup Efforts.
The report, the product of a study to examine the state of water quality
standards (WQS), shows that EPA’s guidance on the two building blocks of WQS,
setting and changing designated uses of waterbodies and establishing water
quality criteria, is severely lacking. Surprisingly, the report stated that 30
states would have different waterbodies slated for cleanup if the process of
creating and modifying water quality standards was improved. John B. Stephenson,
Director of Natural Resources and Environment at GAO, summarized the report
findings in testimony before the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and
Environment, during a June 20, 2003 hearing to discuss the need for updating
water quality standards. AMSA has long maintained that States must have the
flexibility to set designated uses that reflect the realistic uses of their
waterbodies and the GAO report helps support this position. The report may be
found on GAO’s web site at
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03881t.pdf.
The second report is the Agency’s first-ever Draft Report on the Environment, released June 23, 2003. This report is intended to describe current national environmental conditions and trends using existing data and indicators, identify data gaps and research needs, and discuss the challenges government and our partners face in filling those gaps. While the report does address indicators of water quality, it largely ignores the contributions and practices of the wastewater treatment sector. The Agency’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) has, at the same time, requested nominations for experts to serve on a panel to aid in the review and finalization of the Report on the Environment. This presents AMSA with an opportunity to not only nominate a prominent figure from its membership, but to raise the awareness and inclusion of wastewater practices and successes in the report. AMSA is currently considering several AMSA public agency member representatives to nominate and will do so prior to the July 8, 2003 deadline. The draft report may be viewed or downloaded on EPA’s web site at http://www.epa.gov/indicators/roe/index.htm.
AMSA to Participate in Water Quality
Trading Forum, Aids in Pilot Study
AMSA will participate in EPA’s forthcoming National Forum on
Water Quality Trading to be held in Chicago, Ill., July 22 – 23, 2003. The
forum will focus on market innovations to restore watersheds and meet water
quality goals more efficiently. The program, announced January 13, 2003 by
then-EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, is a market-based approach to
improve and preserve water quality. Trading is intended to provide greater
efficiency in achieving water quality goals in watersheds by allowing one source
to meet its regulatory obligations by using pollutant reductions created by
another source that has lower pollution control costs. AMSA has remained active
in the trading arena, as is evident in the pilot trading program of member
agency Montgomery Water Works & Sanitary Sewer Board, Montgomery, Ala., where
AMSA President Thomas R. “Buddy” Morgan is General Manager. More information on
trading can be found on EPA’s web site at
http://www.epa.gov/OWOW/watershed/trading.htm. For information on the
Forum, visit
http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/trading/conferences.html.
AMSA Lends Support to Water Efficiency
Program
In response to a request, from the City of Seattle and others,
seeking signatories on a Position Statement to encourage EPA to develop a
water-efficiency product labeling program, which would be similar to the EPA's
Energy Star program, AMSA’s Board decided to support the program and sign the
Position Statement. This voluntary program would help protect the environment by
enabling consumers to identify and select the most water efficient products that
meet their needs. Supporters of this program include several AMSA member
agencies, the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, and the Water
Environment Federation. A description of the program and a list of signatories
are available on AMSA’s web site at
http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/outreach/07-01-03welp.pdf.
Wet Weather
AMSA Advocates for Reasonable Guidance on the Practice of
Blending
With EPA’s Office of Water (OW) ready to issue its blending guidance, the
primary roadblock to issuing the guidance remains the Agency’s Office of
Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA). OECA has made it clear that they do
not intend to pursue a guidance that prohibits the practice of blending, but
instead add an additional condition to the OW guidance that would require
performance of a "no feasible alternative" determination akin to the bypass
regulations prior to permitting blending. Since AMSA's May 30 meeting with the
Assistant Administrator for Enforcement & Compliance Assurance, John Peter
Suarez, OW and OECA officials have met with Linda Fisher, EPA's Deputy
Administrator, to again brief her on the issue. At that meeting, both OW and
OECA were given "homework" to obtain additional information on the issue,
especially with regard to the cost associated with each option. AMSA has learned
that EPA's Office of Policy, Economics and Innovation has also been involved in
these discussions. AMSA continues to advocate that a national blending policy
should state that blending is not a bypass as defined by 40 CFR §122.41(m), as
long as POTWs meet appropriate conditions, and that permitting agencies should
be authorized to incorporate blending as an “alternative flow routing scenario”
in permits.
Activity on the blending issue has not been restricted to discussions within the Agency. In fact, Suarez and other EPA officials met with staff of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee last week to discuss the issue. AMSA has also been actively discussing the issue with key EPW staff. It remains to be seen whether any type of congressional action may be taken, but AMSA has learned that some stakeholders may ultimately request a congressional hearing on blending. AMSA does not believe such hearings are warranted at this time.
The issue of blending and several other key initiatives that AMSA continues to track, including EPA’s Watershed Rule, will likely be impacted by the recent shake-up in EPA leadership. Just a day before Administrator Whitman was scheduled to leave her position, her Deputy, Linda Fisher announced that she was resigning her position effective July 11. As both the blending issue and the Watershed Rule have been elevated to the Deputy Administrator level for ultimate approval, it remains unclear whether either issue will proceed until new leadership is in place. AMSA remains active on these key clean water issues and will alert the membership as more information becomes available.
AMSA Attends Stakeholder Meeting on CSO/SSO Report, Shows Need for More Data
On June 24 and 25, AMSA attended a stakeholders meeting held by EPA in
Washington, D.C. to discuss what data the Agency has collected so far in support
of the upcoming 2003 Report to Congress on the Impacts and Control of Combined
Sewer Overflows and Sanitary Sewer Overflows, which is under court-ordered
deadline to be submitted by December 15. EPA hopes to complete a draft of the
report for consideration by the White House's Office of Management and Budget by
August 29. EPA provided presentations on several topics including the
characterization of CSOs and SSOs, environmental and human health impacts,
overflow control technologies, and resources/funding, each of which will
comprise a chapter in the final report. Copies of the presentations are
available on AMSA's web site at
http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/faxalerts/0624-2503pm.cfm.
The discussion regarding the characterization of CSOs and SSOs, in which EPA attempts to define the universe of CSO and SSO communities, including number and volume of overflows, was by far the most contentious. Much of the information presented by EPA in its presentation was straight from engineering textbooks and, in the opinion of many participants, did not accurately reflect actual characteristics of overflows. The stakeholders provided EPA with additional data sources that would help inform their decision-making process in this section and in nearly every other section of the report. Based on feedback received during the meeting, EPA acknowledged that the final report will need to do more to put CSOs and SSOs into the context of the broader wet weather picture, including stormwater/urban runoff and other sources of pollutants. Furthermore, EPA acknowledged that the report must do more to examine the relative impacts of dry versus wet weather overflows.
EPA is hosting a similar, though shorter, one-day meeting in Huntington Beach, Calif., on July 8. AMSA will discuss the stakeholder meetings during the Wet Weather Committee Meeting at its Summer Conference in Boston. AMSA will consider whether to prepare a companion report, as it did for the first Report to Congress in December 2001, or prepare some other advocacy paper either in advance of, or in response to, EPA's report. AMSA hopes to use the results of a recently initiated pathogens study in support of this effort, and will keep members apprised of further information regarding this initiative.