Member Pipeline - Regulatory - March 2005 Regulatory Update
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| To: | Members & Affiliates, Regulatory Policy Committee, Legal Affairs Committee |
| From: | National Office |
| Date: | April 4, 2005 |
Printer friendly versionThe Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies (AMSA) is pleased to provide you with the March 2005 Regulatory Update. This Update provides a narrative summary of relevant regulatory issues and actions current to April 4, 2005. Unless another contact person is specifically listed, call Chris Hornback, AMSA’s Regulatory Affairs Director, at 202/833-9106 or e-mail him at chornback@amsa-cleanwater.org with any questions or input you have concerning the Update topics.
Top Stories
AMSA Reviews Draft EPA Fact Sheet,
Nears Completion of Model Rule on SSOs
AMSA is reviewing a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or
Agency) draft 'fact sheet' on sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/outreach/2005-03-07draftSSOfactsheet.pdf),
released March 7, 2005. The draft 'fact sheet', which reads like a policy
statement, asserts that many of the requirements EPA intended to propose in its
January 2001 draft SSO rule are already required in the standard conditions of
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for wastewater
treatment facilities. These requirements include: immediate reporting (as soon
as practicable, but within 24 hours of an SSO); written reports within five days
of an SSO; third party notice; recordkeeping; and capacity, management operation
and maintenance (CMOM) programs. Also, EPA is asserting that municipal satellite
collection systems that overflow, or have the potential to overflow, into waters
of the U.S. must have a NPDES permit.
Significantly, the ‘fact sheet’ does not explicitly discuss whether meeting all the above ‘requirements’ would provide any relief to wastewater treatment facilities from a ‘zero tolerance’ standard for SSOs, which was the standard in the January 2001 draft SSO rule. AMSA will discuss this issue and the draft ‘fact sheet’ during relevant committee meetings at the Association’s 35th Anniversary Annual Meeting, May 1-2, in Washington, DC (see below for more information). Also, through its Targeted Action Fund, AMSA is nearing completion of its model SSO rule project and will set up a meeting with EPA to discuss the Agency’s new 'fact sheet' and the Association’s model rule. AMSA will alert the membership of any developments on these issues.
Blending Continues to Garner Increased
Attention in Washington, D.C., AMSA Remains Active
Activity on the blending issue has not let up in the past month.
Throughout March, AMSA worked with Congress and EPA on this contentious issue.
On March 16, 2005, AMSA, along with the Water Environment Federation (WEF) and
the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF), held an informational briefing
on blending on Capitol Hill. The briefing, made possible with the support of the
leadership and staff of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee
on Water Resources and Environment, provided key Capitol Hill staff with
municipal perspectives on the blending issue and countered the misstatements of
the environmental activist community regarding blending’s environmental impacts.
Dave Williams, AMSA Board Member and Director of Wastewater at the East Bay
Municipal Utility District, Oakland, Calif., provided a presentation at the
briefing on why blending is a needed tool for treating peak wet weather flows
and helped to set the record straight on pathogen-related issues. Bob Matthews,
Senior Vice President, with AMSA Private Affiliate Camp Dresser & McKee, Inc.,
and Chair of WEF’s Regulatory Policy Committee, provided a technical
presentation on the EPA blending guidance at the briefing. After the briefing,
Williams, along with AMSA member Bill Elmore, Chief Operating Officer of the
Knoxville Utilities Board, Tenn., met with key Congressional leaders and staff
on the blending issue. Significantly, AMSA is working with the Subcommittee on
an April 13, 2005, hearing that will help to provide additional information to
Members of Congress.
In addition to the March 16 briefing and upcoming hearing, AMSA recently sent Congress a technical review (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/advocacy/co/2005-03-08CongBlltrep.pdf) of the November 2003 Katonak-Rose Report on Public Health Risks Associated with Wastewater Blending. The 2003 Katonak-Rose Report provided the basis for environmental activist characterizations of the human health risks associated with exposure to blended effluent. The Technical Review offers a thorough and scientific analysis of the flawed assumptions contained in the Katonak-Rose Report’s risk assessment methodology. These flawed assumptions led to the Rose Report’s vast overstatement of the potential risk of pathogen loads in blended effluent. AMSA sent the review to all Members of Congress and will continue to work to ensure the municipal perspective on blending is heard.
Additionally, AMSA learned that many of its public agency members had received a survey on blending from the Clean Water Network, an alliance of environmental activist organizations run by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The Clean Water Network and NRDC have long been outspoken opponents of EPA’s proposed blending policy. The information they are seeking via this current survey will likely be used to support their anti-blending efforts. For more information on the survey, please see the Special Edition Fax Alert on AMSA’s website (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/faxalerts/032105se.cfm).
Also, on March 22, 2005, AMSA met with EPA’s General Counsel, Ann Klee, to discuss the legal merits of blending. Karen Pallansch, Director of Environmental Services, Alexandria Sanitation Authority, Va., and Chair of AMSA’s Wet Weather Committee, and Lisa Hollander, Assistant General Counsel for the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, Cleveland, Ohio, and Chair of AMSA’s Legal Affairs Committee, provided the Association’s views on the blending issue. AMSA's presentation (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/reg_outreach.cfm) focused on why clean water agencies need a final blending policy and outlined the Association’s support for elements of the November 2003 proposed policy. AMSA will continue its advocacy efforts to ensure that EPA finalizes its proposed blending policy.
Pretreatment Streamlining Rule
Nears Finalization, AMSA Continues Advocacy Efforts
On March 15, 2005, AMSA received a letter from Benjamin Grumbles,
Assistant Administrator of the Office of Water, which noted that the Agency
continues to discuss internally the two remaining issues that are holding up
finalization of the pretreatment streamlining rule – issues surrounding
equivalent mass limits for concentration limits and the definition of a
non-significant categorical industrial user. In the March 15 letter, Grumbles
noted that the Agency expects to finalize the rule in June 2005. Immediately
following that letter, on March 17, 2005, AMSA sent another letter (http://www.nacwa.org/getfile.cfm?fn=2005-03-17PretStrmltr.pdf)
to Grumbles, key officials in the Office of Management and Budget, the Small
Business Administration, and other EPA offices, further clarifying the
Association’s positions on the two remaining issues. As noted in the letter,
AMSA is working to provide more information in support of these two issues. AMSA
will continue its advocacy and alert the membership to other developments as
they occur. For more information on the pretreatment streamlining rule, please
contact Will Pettit, AMSA, at 202/833-3280 or
wpettit@amsa-cleanwater.org.
Conferences and Meetings
Register Today for AMSA’s 35th Annual Meeting and National Clean Water Policy
Forum
Join your clean water colleagues in Washington, D.C. to make the
voice of the water quality community heard! AMSA and WEF are joining forces to
present the first-ever National Clean Water Policy Forum, May 3 – 4, 2005. The
Policy Forum will bring together the best features of AMSA’s National
Environmental Policy Forum and WEF’s Washington Briefing in a streamlined new
program featuring the latest legislative and regulatory developments in our
nation’s capital. This year’s Policy Forum will feature keynote speeches
from Benjamin Grumbles, the Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Water,
and Representative Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), making this one conference that you
should not miss!
Immediately preceding the Policy Forum, AMSA will host its 35th Anniversary Annual Meeting on May 1 - 2, which will also be held at the Marriott Metro Center. The Association’s Annual Meeting will include the election of new Board Members, the presentation of AMSA’s National Environmental Achievement and Peak Performance Awards, and a gala celebration of 35 years of commitment to clean water.
Space is limited – make your plans now to attend. Reserve your hotel room today by calling the Marriott at Metro Center, 202/737-2200, to ensure the special room rate of $219 single/double. The deadline for hotel reservations is April 8, 2005. An updated agenda and online conference registration are available on AMSA’s website (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/meetings/05nepf/).
Register Today to Claim Last Remaining Spots at CSO
Partnership Meeting in Chicago, April 11 - 12
A few spots remain for the jointly sponsored meeting of the CSO
Partnership and AMSA, in cooperation with EPA, on combined sewer overflow (CSO)
control programs, to be held at the Drake Hotel, Chicago, Ill., April 11 – 12,
2005. This program follows a sold-out workshop conducted in the Fall of 2004 and
will focus on water quality compliance strategies for CSO long-term control
plans (LTCP) as well as key LTCP-related developments. For more information on
the meeting and to register, visit AMSA’s website (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/meetings/2005SCOP.doc)
or contact AMSA’s General Counsel, Alexandra Dunn, at 202/533-1803 or
adunn@amsa-cleanwater.org.
International Organization of Standardization (ISO) Issues
AMSA Meets with ISO Working Group on Dental Amalgam
Separators
AMSA met with an International Organization of Standardization
(ISO) working group in early March to review comments on a draft revision of an
ISO standard for testing dental amalgam separators, often used to control levels
of mercury in dental office effluent. This effort is not related to AMSA’s work
on the ISO wastewater management services standard. The current standard for
testing dental amalgam dictates how the units should be tested to asses the
efficiency with which they remove mercury-containing dental amalgam. AMSA and
the working group will soon be conducting a review of the formal ISO Committee
Draft of the revision, which will incorporate the various comments received to
date. Many communities in the U.S., including AMSA members, now require dentists
to install separators from a list of approved models or to select an 'ISO
tested' model. AMSA's Mercury Workgroup is currently working on guidance related
to amalgam separators that will provide communities exploring similar
requirements with case studies on how others have set up their separator
requirements.
Security
GAO Releases Report on Funding Priorities for Security
Enhancements at POTWs
In early March, the Government Accountability Office (GAO)
released its report Wastewater Facilities, Experts' Views on How Federal
Funds Should be Spent to Improve Security (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05165.pdf).
The report recommends priorities on how the federal government should spend its
resources in the wastewater treatment security arena. The report concludes that
collection systems are among the most vulnerable physical components of
wastewater utilities and identifies several areas which require federal
financial support. These include replacing gaseous chemicals with less harmful
alternatives; improving state, local and regional collaboration; and completing
vulnerability assessments for individual wastewater systems. The report also
identifies more training opportunities for wastewater utility operators,
hardening facilities against attack, and increasing research and development to
improve detection, assessment and response as priorities. The report's findings
benefited from the experience and expertise of AMSA members and staff who served
on an expert panel for the GAO report.
AMSA has already done or is doing significant work in the priority areas the report mentions. For example, AMSA is currently working with the Department of Homeland Security to create a decision tree for chlorine gas replacement issues. Also, AMSA, in cooperation with EPA, is nearly finished with its Managing Decontamination Wastewater… A Utility Planning Tool publication, which deals with planning and coordination on the local level to help utilities be prepared in the event of a chemical, biological, or radiological attack. Finally, AMSA continues to develop and enhance its Vulnerability Self-Assessment Tool™ software suite, designed to help water and wastewater utilities conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments. AMSA remains active on these and other security-related issues and will alert the membership of any developments.
Water Quality
AMSA Comments on Draft Whole Effluent
Toxicity Implementation Guidance
On March 31, AMSA submitted comments (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/reg_outreach.cfm)
on EPA’s draft Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) Implementation Guidance. AMSA has
requested additional guidance for years to address a number of issues that are
currently complicating implementation of WET testing requirements and limits in
Clean Water Act permits. AMSA’s comments emphasized that many of the
Association’s long-standing issues have still not been addressed. Furthermore,
there are new concerns that the guidance may hinder the ability of states now
using better approaches to continue to do so once the final guidance is released
and that the guidance will increase the likelihood that dischargers will receive
a WET limit simply due to the statistics of EPA’s reasonable potential process.
EPA’s draft WET Implementation Guidance, released on December 28, 2004, can be
downloaded from EPA’s website (http://www.epa.gov/npdes/permitbasics).