Wet Weather Issues
EPA Releases Outline of Proposed Regulations on SSOs
Background: EPA is crafting a national framework to guide the Agency in revising regulations and guidance to address SSO permitting and enforcement issues. A federal advisory committee, made up of municipal (including AMSA), environmental, EPA, and state interests met from November 1994 to December 1996 to discuss framework and implementation issues. The Office of Wastewater Management (OWM) is currently developing a draft Federal Register notice that will include: 1) An interim policy statement addressing NPDES permit requirements for municipal sanitary sewer collection systems (the policy will clarify how existing 'generic' standard NPDES permit conditions apply to municipal sanitary sewer collection systems); and 2) Proposed modifications to the NPDES regulations which would establish standard permit conditions specifically for municipal sanitary sewer collection systems. These standard permit conditions will address: reporting requirements for sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs); and a prohibition on discharges from municipal sanitary sewer collection systems.
Status: On July 29, 1999 AMSA, along with the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties, the American Public Works Association and the Water Environment Federation, resigned from the Federal Advisory Committee (FACA) negotiations on national sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) regulations. Expressing serious concerns with the course EPA was taking with the draft proposed regulations and the FACA process, AMSA and the other groups decided, with reluctance, to withdraw and seek other means to participate in the development of future SSO regulations. After determining that EPA was inflexible on issues critical to municipalities and wastewater agencies, members of AMSA's leadership “in caucus with other local government organizations on the FACA” ended their participation. The two-and-a-half-year lapse in SSO FACA meetings and an October 15 deadline contributed to making the process extremely unfavorable to municipal interests. These factors changed what had been a consensus-based, regulation development process to an EPA “listening session.” Other considerations that factored into the withdrawal of AMSA and the other organizations included the lack of an alternative, watershed approach to SSOs in EPA's draft proposed regulations and no discussion of the rule's costs and benefits to communities. EPA currently estimates that the SSO problem will cost local governments and their ratepayers $80-90 billion. But AMSA and the other groups are extremely concerned that the unrealistic requirements in the draft proposed regulations could drive these costs drastically higher. Combined, these factors amounted to an unacceptable departure from the original SSO FACA process that AMSA had asked EPA to initiate almost five years ago. Despite the failure of the SSO FACA process, AMSA will continue to work with its municipal partners, EPA, environmentalists, Congress and the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) toward technically and financially feasible SSO regulations. The Association and its municipal partners will also continue efforts to pass the Urban Wet Weather Priorities Act of 1999. EPA expects to issue proposed regulations in May 1999. CONTACT: Mark Hoeke, AMSA 202/833-9106 or Kevin Weiss, EPA 202/260-9524.
AMSA to Testify on Wet Weather BillBackground: AMSA is aggressively gearing up for the upcoming 106th Congress by taking the lead role in the development of a targeted wet weather bill to amend the Clean Water Act. The draft bill, entitled Urban Wet Weather Watershed Act of 1999, proposes changes to the Clean Water Act to provide a unified mechanism for management of urban wet weather flows, clarifies combined sewer overflows (CSOs), sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs), and municipal separate stormwater discharge requirements, and provides a total of $6 billion in funding for wet weather projects over three years. AMSA worked in cooperations with the following groups in the development of the wet weather bill: the American Public Works Association (APWA), CSO Partnership, National League of Cities (NLC), National Association of Counties (NACo), National Association of Flood and Stormwater Management Agencies (NAFSMA), U.S. Conference of Mayors, CSO Partnership, Water Environment Federation (WEF), and Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA).
Status: Lobbying efforts continue with the objective of getting the bill introduced after Congress returns from recess. AMSA was invited to participate in a June 22 hearing of the House Water Resources & Environment Subcommittee on wet weather and funding issues. In the testimony, AMSA emphasized the importance of regulatory certainty and Federal funding to comprehensively address urban wet weather discharges. Testifying on behalf of AMSA, Board Member William B. Schatz, General Counsel for the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District in Cleveland and Vice Chair of AMSA's Legislative Policy Committee, said that while “chronic water program shortfalls and nonpoint source pollution will require long-term solutions . . . Congress can take a critical first step by passing the Urban Wet Weather Priorities Act of 1999.This bill is essential to the future success of the Clean Water Act and the future of communities grappling with an uncertain regulatory climate and the skyrocketing costs of correcting sewer overflows and controlling stormwater.” As a result of the lobbying effort by members during AMSA's National Environmental Policy Forum and continuing efforts by the National Office, the wet weather coalition has narrowed its potential list of sponsors to establish the best chances for the bill's success.The National Office is pushing for the bill's introduction in the next few weeks. The membership will be contacted for letters of support for the bill at the appropriate time. CONTACT: Greg Schaner, AMSA 202/296-9836.
Proposed Stormwater Phase II Regulations
Background: EPA's proposed stormwater phase II rule regulating stormwater discharges from small municipal separate sewer systems and small construction sites was published in the January 9, 1998 Federal Register. The proposed rule would require smaller municipalities within urbanized areas to apply for NPDES permit coverage by May 31, 2002 and implement a mix of best management practices to "reduce the discharge of pollutants to the maximum extent practicable and protect water quality."
Status: EPA is scheduled to promulgate final stormwater regulations by October 29, 1999. CONTACT: George Utting, EPA 202/260-9530 or Mark Hoeke, AMSA 202/833-9106.
Water Quality Guidance for CSO Receiving Waters
Background: Under the 1994 CSO policy, EPA urged states to coordinate the development of local long-term CSO planning with the review and appropriate revision of water quality standards and implementation procedures to ensure that the long-term controls will be sufficient to meet water quality standards. However, after almost five years since the agreement, and with half the CSO communities currently in the long-term planning process, only two states (Maine and Massachusetts) have conducted coordinated water quality standards reviews with long-term CSO planning. In report language accompanying the 1999 VA, HUD, & Independent Agencies spending bill, congressional appropriators urged EPA to “(1) develop, after a period for public comment, a guidance document to facilitate the conduct of water quality and designated use reviews for CSO-receiving waters; (2) provide technical and financial assistance to states and EPA regions to conduct these reviews; and (3) submit a report to the relevant authorizing and appropriations committees of the House and Senate by December 1, 1999 on the progress of meeting the requirements set forth above.”
Status: EPA is in the process of developing a guidance document to facilitate the conduct of water quality and designated use reviews for CSO receiving waters. EPA has hosted three meetings in the month of May with stakeholder groups, including municipalities. An EPA staff document titled "Question/Issues on the Impediments/Solutions to the Implementation of the WQ-Based Provisions of the CSO Policy" was the basis for the discussions (see AMSA Regulatory Alert RA 99-5). Separate meetings for municipalities, regional and state permitting authorities, and environmentalists, were held at each location. During the meetings, municipalities stressed the lack of cost/benefit analysis for water quality in developing CSO long-term control plans, as most municipalities have been compelled by EPA and States to develop plans based upon financial capability, i.e. 2 percent median income. Municipalities also highlighted state and local resource issues, political impediments, and the lack of EPA guidance in the water quality standards review process, as it relates to wet weather, as major obstacles for developing reasonable CSO water quality goals. EPA will now develop a draft guidance document that will be reviewed by an invited stakeholder group in September of 1999. CONTACT: Ross Brennan, EPA 202/260-6928 or Mark Hoeke, AMSA 202/833-9106.