Member Pipeline - Regulatory - March 2004 Regulatory Update
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| To: | Members & Affiliates, Regulatory Policy Committee, Legal Affairs Committee |
| From: | National Office |
| Date: | April 2, 2004 |
Printer friendly versionThe National Office of the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies (AMSA) is pleased to provide you with the March 2004 Regulatory Update. This Update provides a narrative summary of relevant regulatory issues and actions current to April 2, 2004. Unless another contact person is specifically listed, call Chris Hornback, AMSA’s Regulatory Affairs Director, at 202/833-9106 or email him at chornback@amsa-cleanwater.org with any questions or input you have concerning the Update topics.
Top Stories
AMSA Meets with EPA on Wet Weather Issues, Shows
Continued Support for SSO Policy
Key AMSA members met March 22 with James Hanlon, Director of U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA or the Agency) Office of Wastewater
Management and key staff to discuss the future of the Agency’s sanitary sewer
overflow (SSO) rule, among other issues. David Williams, Chair of AMSA’s Wet
Weather Issues Committee and Director of Wastewater at the East Bay Municipal
Utility District, Oakland, Calif., Lisa Hollander, Chair of AMSA’s Legal Affairs
Committee and Assistant General Counsel at the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer
District, Cleveland, Ohio, and Marty Umberg, Chair of AMSA’s SSO Workgroup and
Sewer Chief Engineer at the Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati,
Cincinnati, Ohio, attended the meeting on behalf of AMSA. Urging EPA to explore
alternatives to an outright prohibition on all SSOs, AMSA provided the Agency
with its SSO Legal Issues White Paper (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legalalerts/2004-01-12SSOWhitePaper.pdf),
which documents how EPA could develop a national regulatory program for
controlling SSOs, via the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
permitting process. AMSA suggested that EPA model its approach to SSOs in part
on the Agency’s 1994 Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Control Policy. EPA made it
clear that work on the SSO rule would not begin again in earnest until its work
on the blending policy is complete.
One EPA staff person close to the issue said it could likely be two or three years before EPA issues a final SSO rule. During the meeting, EPA indicated that its Report to Congress on the impacts of CSOs and SSOs was still at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) awaiting their review. The Agency also continues to review the thousands of comments it received on the blending proposal and expects to complete the review process this summer. AMSA will continue to pursue a SSO regulatory package that is both environmentally-sound and cost-effective for publicly owned treatment works (POTWs).
AMSA Continues Push for Final Pretreatment Streamlining
Rule
In its continuing push for a final Pretreatment Streamlining
Rule, AMSA sent Acting Assistant Administrator for Water, Benjamin Grumbles, and
Director of the Office of Wastewater Management, James Hanlon, a March 16
memorandum (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/outreach/2004-03-16streaml.pdf),
highlighting the Association’s preferred approach for the rule. AMSA’s memo
applauded EPA’s attempts to streamline key elements of the pretreatment
regulations, and urged the Agency to seize this opportunity to reevaluate the
pretreatment program, reduce burden, and free up much-needed resources for other
programs that can achieve greater environmental benefit. AMSA also plans to meet
with other key EPA and federal agency offices in the near future to highlight
the importance of this rule for EPA, the POTW community, and the National
Pretreatment Program as a whole.
AMSA Comments on EPA’s 2004/2005 ELG Plan, Urges Update
of ’50 POTW Study’
AMSA commented March 18 on EPA’s Preliminary Effluent
Guidelines Program Plan for 2004/2005 (ELG Plan) (68 Fed. Reg.
75515). AMSA highlighted several specific effluent guidelines needing revisions,
but focused on the growing need for the Agency to update its decades old report,
Fate of Priority Pollutants in Publicly Owned Treatment Works, also known
as the “50 POTW Study.” This study provides the underlying basis for regulating
pollutants under current or any future categorical pretreatment standards. AMSA
stated that the removal efficiencies, physical parameters, and process data in
the study are no longer valid and therefore need to be updated before the study
is used to evaluate the need for new or revised pretreatment standards. AMSA has
been encouraged by the level of stakeholder involvement in the ELG program since
EPA modified its approach in accordance with its 2002 Draft Strategy for
National Clean Water Industrial Regulations (67 Fed. Reg. 71165).
However, given the fact that POTWs are best positioned to provide EPA with
information regarding existing pretreatment standards and the potential need for
additional controls, AMSA believes POTWs should have even more involvement. To
read AMSA’s comments, please visit
http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/advocacy/comments/2004-03-18ELGcmts.pdf.
Please direct any questions to Will Pettit, AMSA’s Regulatory Analyst, at
202/833-3280 or
wpettit@amsa-cleanwater.org.
Permitting
Aging Compliance System Database Causes Delay in EPA
Permit Activities
AMSA has learned that EPA has postponed circulation of its Clean
Water Act (CWA) violation “watch list,” which is to be used by regions and
states as an internal management tool to address long-standing enforcement
violations. The list, which names facilities in “significant noncompliance” (SNC)
with the CWA, has been delayed by the lack of current information in the
Agency’s Permit Compliance System (PCS) database. The PCS database is supposed
to house information on every National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES) permit. EPA has been working to modernize the database for years, but
has experienced technical and financial hurdles that have led to the delay of
the “watch list’s” release to regions and states until the second quarter of
2004.
In a related matter, a March 5 memo (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/outreach/2004-03-05permitmemo.pdf) from James Hanlon, Director of EPA’s Office of Wastewater Management, directed states to develop a list of pending permits, prioritized by environmental benefit, by July 31, 2004. This program, known as “Permitting for Environmental Results” (PER), urges states to focus on obtaining optimum environmental benefit as efficiently as possible. EPA hopes that PER will help ease some of the permit backlog, due in part to incorrect permit tracking data in the Agency’s PCS database. AMSA will continue to track these Agency permitting activities and relay relevant information to its members.
Water Quality
EPA Reopens Comment Period for Copper Criteria, AMSA’s
Comments Available
On March 9, 2004 (69 Fed. Reg. 11012), EPA reopened the
comment period on the December 31, 2003 draft aquatic life criteria document for
copper (http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/criteria/copper/pdf/master.pdf)
(68 Fed. Reg. 75552). Comments are now due on April 8, 2004. AMSA
submitted comments (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/outreach/2004-03-01Cu.pdf) to EPA prior to the original March 1 deadline and the Association urges members
to use these in their own comment efforts. In addition to incorporating new data
to update the criteria, the biotic ligand model (BLM) was used for the first
time in the freshwater criteria derivation procedures. AMSA’s comments supported
EPA’s revision of the freshwater copper criteria to incorporate the BLM, but
questioned the defensibility of the proposed revision to the existing saltwater
criteria. AMSA suggested that EPA decouple the saltwater criteria revisions from
the freshwater, BLM-based criteria, finalize the freshwater criteria as soon as
possible, and expeditiously work to complete and promulgate a saltwater, BLM-based
copper criterion.
EPA Approves Annual Nutrient Limit for Chesapeake Bay,
Potentially Setting Precedent
AMSA has learned that on March 3, 2004, James Hanlon, Director of
EPA’s Office of Wastewater Management, sent a memo to the Water Permits Division
of EPA Region 3 and the Chesapeake Bay Program Office supporting the use of
annual permit limits for nitrogen and phosphorus in the Chesapeake Bay and its
tributaries. EPA’s backing of an annual permit limit in the Bay may set a
precedent for future nutrient permitting plans in other waterbodies.
The plan described in the March memo, which was copied to all EPA regions, would exempt point source dischargers from regular discharge limits, calling them “impracticable” for the Bay because of its complex nutrient dynamics. AMSA will continue to monitor the events in the Chesapeake Bay, as there are likely to be national implications associated with these permitting decisions. To view the EPA memo, visit AMSA’s website at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/outreach/2004-03-03EPAmemo.pdf.
Wet Weather
EPA Seeks Consent Decrees for CSO Communities, AMSA
Continues to Urge Other Options
In recent months, numerous CSO communities have met with EPA’s
Office of Science and Technology and Office of Wastewater Management to discuss
CSO permitting and implementation issues. These meetings were called for because
of clear signals from EPA and state enforcement agencies, including a September
16, 2003 memo from EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legal/CSOcdguidefinal916pdf.pdf),
that a consent decree is the best method to ensure compliance with long-term
control plan obligations. AMSA participated in these meetings to urge EPA to
maximize the use of permits for CSO communities versus consent decrees. AMSA
reminded the Agency that the CSO Policy and subsequent EPA guidance documents
consistently state that the requirement to develop and implement a long term
control plan must be embodied in an “enforceable mechanism,” which is not
limited to a judicial consent decree, but may also be an NPDES permit or a state
or federal administrative order. AMSA also noted the often negative public image
associated with consent decrees as opposed to permits. AMSA will stay active on
this issue to ensure CSO communities around the country have options when
developing and implementing long term control plans.
Conferences & Awards
Plan to Attend AMSA’s National Environmental Policy
Forum & 34th Annual Meeting
AMSA’s 2004 National Environmental Policy Forum & 34th Annual
Meeting, May 22-26, 2004, in Washington, D.C., will provide a unique
opportunity to interact with EPA, congressional officials, and key Association
leadership in order to further national water quality policy and discuss current
regulatory issues. The technical committee meetings, a panel with key EPA Office
of Water officials, regulatory roundtables – including several wet weather issue
tables, asset management, pretreatment, biosolids, and security – and various
other panel discussions will allow AMSA members to discuss issues critical to
their agencies and to POTWs nationwide with fellow public agency members and key
EPA and political staff. Also, with the November elections on the horizon, the
Policy Forum offers a unique opportunity for the wastewater treatment
community to help shape future national clean water policy. Numerous AMSA
priorities, including security, wet weather initiatives, and infrastructure
funding have received significant attention from both Capitol Hill and EPA, and
the Policy Forum is the key meeting to demonstrate the unity of the POTW
community on these issues.
Hotel information and a detailed agenda are posted at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/meetings/04nepf/. AMSA hopes to see you at the Policy Forum, May 22–26, 2004 in Washington, DC!
Last Chance to Attend April Workshop on CSO Long Term
Control Plan Issues
Act now to attend the National Workshop to Address Key Long
Term Control Plan Issues Facing CSO Program Managers to be held at the
Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, Ill., on April 19 and 20, 2004. AMSA is
co-sponsoring the workshop with the CSO Partnership. This workshop will be
relevant to AMSA member agencies at various stages of developing and
implementing combined sewer overflow (CSO) long term control plans and programs.
Timed to occur on the 10th Anniversary of the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency’s (EPA’s) issuance of the national CSO Control Policy, the workshop will
offer strategic insights and advice on cutting-edge CSO issues, and will provide
a forum for CSO communities to discuss future legislative and/or regulatory
efforts. The program features presentations by, and discussions with, top
municipal officials, legal and engineering experts, as well as EPA and state
regulators.
To view a preliminary agenda and registration form for the workshop, please visit AMSA’s website at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/meetings/2004 CSO Workshop.doc. We hope to see you at this important workshop! Please direct any questions to Alexandra Dunn, AMSA General Counsel, at 202/533-1803 or adunn@amsa-cleanwater.org.
AMSA Members Eligible for Clean Water Act Recognition
Awards
EPA is now accepting nominations for its National Clean Water Act
Recognition Awards (69 Fed. Reg. 13826). These awards honor
municipalities and industries for outstanding and innovative technological
achievements in wastewater treatment and pollution prevention programs. Eligible
programs include operations and maintenance at POTWs, biosolids management,
pretreatment programs, stormwater management, and combined sewer overflow
controls (CSO), among others. This is a prime opportunity for AMSA members to
educate the public on the contributions that POTWs make to clean water, and
garner additional public support and recognition for wastewater treatment
efforts. EPA recognizes award winners each year during the Water Environment
Federation’s Technical Conference (WEFTEC). AMSA also honors its members
receiving pretreatment awards at the annual National Pretreatment Coordinators
Workshop. Nominations are due to the Agency no later than June 18, 2004.
To obtain an application, and to find out more on the program, please visit
http://www.epa.gov/owm/intnet.htm.
Energy Efficiency
AMSA Participates in Meeting on Energy Efficiency in the
Wastewater Sector
Early in March, AMSA Executive Director, Ken Kirk, spoke at a
meeting of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) on the
opportunities in the wastewater sector for increasing the use of energy
efficient equipment and practices. Prior to the meeting, AMSA polled the
Management and Operations Committee to find out whether energy efficiency is a
management consideration for our members. The overwhelming response was that our
members are continually faced with increasing utility (electric, natural gas,
fuel oil) prices and are always exploring ways to control those costs. On
average, 10% of a wastewater agency's operating budget goes to electric
utilities, one of the largest budget items after salary and benefits (based on
AMSA's 2002 Financial Survey). For many AMSA members, efforts to improve the
energy efficiency of equipment associated with the wastewater treatment process,
administrative buildings, and other energy users (e.g., vehicles), are an
integral part of their daily operations and constitute a primary target for
potential cost savings.
Meeting attendees noted that the wastewater industry is poised to invest a large amount of money in clean water infrastructure over the next 10 to 20 years, and that now may be the time to take an even harder look at energy efficiency. AMSA members can expect to hear more about energy efficiency in the near future at the Management and Operations Committee meeting during AMSA’s 2004 National Environmental Policy Forum in May.