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AMSA October 2002 Regulatory Update

Member Pipeline - Regulatory - October 2002 Update

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To: Members, Affiliates,
Regulatory Policy Committee, Legal Affairs Committee
From: National Office
Date: November 1, 2002

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AMSA’s National Office is pleased to provide you with the October 2002 Regulatory Update. This Update provides a narrative summary of relevant regulatory issues and actions current to November 1, 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.

Last Chance to Register for the 2002 AMSA/EPA Pretreatment Coordinators’ Workshop
This year’s Pretreatment Workshop (Philadelphia, PA - November 20 – 22) will feature many “hot” topics for the pretreatment professional, including: the future of the effluent guidelines program, oil and grease solutions, the challenge of emerging pollutants, enforcement, and security issues. If you need assistance with hotel reservations, please contact Nirah Forman, Manager of Meetings and Conferences, at the National Office at 202/833-8418 or nforman@amsa-cleanwater.org. For more information on the Pretreatment Workshop, visit AMSA’s web site at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/meetings/02pret/.

AMSA Receives CWA 30th Anniversary Achievement Award at the World Watershed Summit
This week, Buddy Morgan, General Manager of the Montgomery Water Works & Sanitary Sewer Board and AMSA Board member, accepted the Clean Water Act 30th Anniversary Award on behalf of the Association at the World Watershed Summit. This award recognized AMSA’s members for their dedication to fulfilling the objectives of the CWA over the last 30 years. The Summit was part of the Clean Water Foundation’s Year of Clean Water initiative, commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Clean Water Act (CWA). The Summit took place October 31 - November 1 in Washington, DC. AMSA’s Executive Director also opened one of the Summit’s technical sessions, The Realities of Restoring Urbanized Streams, highlighting the miraculous progress in water pollution control made since the 1970s, yet emphasizing the need for a bold program of reinvestment by the federal government to upgrade treatment plants and repair aging collection pipes to help finish the job. For more information, contact Greg Schaner at 202/296-9836 or gschaner@amsa-cleanwater.org, or access the Summit’s web site at http://www.yearofcleanwater.org/.

 

Air Quality

AMSA Supports EPA's Changes to POTW MACT Provisions for Area Sources
On October 21, EPA finalized its proposal of “no control” for new and existing non-industrial area source POTWs, and an exemption from Clean Air Act (CAA) Title V permitting requirements for area source industrial POTWs (67 Fed. Reg. 64741). The new final rule addresses industrial dischargers' concerns with a provision of the 1999 POTW maximum achievable control technology (MACT) rule (64 Fed. Reg. 57579) which stated that if an industrial major source complied with its wastewater requirements by using the treatment and controls at a POTW, then the POTW was automatically considered a “major source”, even if its emission rates made it an area source. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America challenged this provision because of its concern that the burdens associated with an automatic major source designation for POTWs would lead to POTWs’ refusal to accept their wastewater. AMSA supported the changes to the POTW MACT rule for area sources in comments earlier this year. For more information, please contact Alexandra Dunn, AMSA, at 202/533-1803 or adunn@amsa-cleanwater.org.

 

Biosolids

Interagency Working Group to Review EPA’s Draft Dioxin Reassessment
AMSA continues to track EPA’s Draft Dioxin Reassessment to determine how it will impact the Part 503 rulemaking on dioxins in land applied biosolids. In the pending House Appropriations 2003 Bill for VA-HUD & Independent Agencies (accompanying H.R. 5605), which funds EPA programs, the House Appropriations Committee directs EPA to perform an interagency review of the Draft Dioxin Reassessment. Although the Dioxin Reassessment has already been reviewed by EPA’s own Science Advisory Board, certain members of Congress had considered appropriations language that would have required a National Academy of Sciences review of the reassessment. Instead, the House provision would require EPA to send the draft reassessment to an Interagency Working Group, a move EPA had already been considering. The bill language also notes that further action will be necessary if the review does not move forward in a progressive manner. Among other things, the reassessment includes a new cancer value for dioxins, which is likely to affect all EPA rulemakings related to dioxins. For more information, please contact Chris Hornback, AMSA, at 202/833-9106 or chornback@amsa-cleanwater.org.

 

Pretreatment

AMSA Reviews EPA’s Revised Effluent Limitations Guidelines for Iron and Steel Manufacturing
EPA released the final Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELGs), Pretreatment Standards, and New Source Performance Standards for the Iron and Steel Manufacturing Point Source Category on October 17, (67 Fed. Reg. 64215). There are several aspects of the revised ELG that AMSA sees as key victories, including: EPA’s determination that phenol does not pass through POTWs; the elimination of categorical pretreatment standards for thiocyanate and selenium; and an exemption from ammonia limits when discharging to a POTW that performs nitrification. The final regulation revises effluent limitations guidelines and standards for certain wastewater discharges associated with metallurgical cokemaking, sintering, and ironmaking operations, and codifies new effluent limitations guidelines and standards for direct reduced ironmaking, briquetting, and forging. In addition, EPA is eliminating the rule’s references to obsolete operations. EPA is not revising effluent limitations guidelines and standards for the remaining subcategories within this industrial category. EPA expects this regulation to reduce the discharge of conventional pollutants by 351,000 pounds per year and toxic and non-conventional pollutants by at least 1,018,000 pounds per year. The Agency estimates the annual cost of the rule will be $12 million and that the annual benefits of the rule will be between $1.4 and $7.3 million. The rule becomes effective on November 18, 2002. For more information, please contact Chris Hornback, AMSA, at 202/833-9106 or chornback@amsa-cleanwater.org.

 

Water Quality

Bush Declares 2002-03 “The Year of Clean Water,” Citing Need for Renewed Commitment
October 18, 2002 marked the 30th anniversary of the Clean Water Act. To commemorate this landmark piece of legislation, President George W. Bush proclaimed 2002-03 as the “Year of Clean Water,” urging that we as a nation “must renew our commitment to building on these successes [under the Clean Water Act] and to developing new approaches and partnerships to meet our environmental challenges.” Bush also emphasized in his Proclamation that the “important advances in wastewater treatment since the Clean Water Act’s passage constitute one of the major achievements in modern American public health.” You can find President Bush’s Proclamation on AMSA’s web site at: http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/pubs/cleanwater/oct02/yocw02-03.pdf. For more information, contact Adam Krantz, AMSA, at 202/833-4651 or akrantz@amsa-cleanwater.org.

AMSA Continues to Track Progress of Watershed Rule
At AMSA’s Fall Leadership Retreat & Strategy Session, EPA officials informed AMSA that the Watershed Rule is undergoing final EPA review and will be released to the Office of Management & Budget (OMB) for its 90-day review in November. Among the issues that are still being debated internally are the provisions for modifying allocations once a total maximum daily load (TMDL) has been approved, the objection authority for expired permits, and how to express non-point source allocations in the approved TMDL.

AMSA will await the release of the proposal before taking firm positions on concepts being considered to revise the prior TMDL regulations. On balance, the Association has supported EPA’s issuance of a proposed rule for comment, and has sharply opposed the activist community’s stance that the existing 1992 regulations are satisfactory (see AMSA’s August 7 letter at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/outreach/080702whitmanletter.pdf). However, because the Agency has not yet issued or made public its proposed rule language, AMSA has not taken a position on any of the specific changes. Only very general observations at this point can be made.

At this time, the following are concepts being considered in the proposal that AMSA generally supports:

In addition, areas of potential concern for AMSA include:

AMSA will continue to track the progress of the Watershed Rule, and will conduct a thorough review of the proposal through the Water Quality and Legal Affairs Committees. For further information, contact Greg Schaner, AMSA, at 202/296-9836 or gschaner@amsa-cleanwater.org.

EPA Releases Final Data Quality Plan
EPA has released its final Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, Objectivity, Utility, and Integrity of Information Disseminated by the Environmental Protection Agency. The document can be found on EPA’s web site at http://www.epa.gov/oei/qualityguidelines/index.html. The Guidelines were developed pursuant to OMB’s Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, Objectivity, Utility, and Integrity of Information Disseminated by Federal Agencies (67 Fed. Reg. 8452). EPA plans to conduct a workshop in conjunction with the National Research Council in late Fall 2002 to provide further clarification on the associated document, Assessment Factors for Evaluating the Quality of Information from External Sources. The Assessment Factors document can be found at http://www.epa.gov/oei/qualityguidelines/af_assessdraft.pdf.

On September 20, AMSA attended a public meeting to discuss the Assessment Factors. The bulk of the public comments presented at the meeting concentrated on the:

Many of the concerns expressed during the comment period for the Guidelines are not reflected in the final document. Many commenters sought additional detail from the Agency on how certain aspects of the Guidelines would be implemented. By providing few details, EPA will have greater discretion over how and when the Guidelines are used. For more information please contact Will Pettit, AMSA, at 202/833-3280 or wpettit@amsa-cleanwater.org.

AMSA Reviews EPA’s Revised Mercury Method
On October 29, EPA published Method 1631, Revision E: Mercury in Water by Oxidation, Purge and Trap, and Cold Vapor Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry (67 Fed. Reg. 65876). This revision replaces the currently approved version of Method 1631 effective November 23, 2002.

EPA proposed changes to Method 1631 on October 9, 2001 (66 Fed. Reg. 51518), which among other things, would have made certain recommendations and guidance required in the method, specifically the clean sampling techniques and quality control provisions.

Many of the proposed changes AMSA concurred with were not part of the final rule based on other comments received by the Agency (see AMSA comments from December 10, 2001 on the web site at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/advocacy/comments/12-11-01AMSAW-01-05%20Comments.pdf). In the revised method, most of the clean techniques and quality control provisions will remain as recommendations, not requirements.

AMSA’s comments on the Method 1631 revisions also reiterated its long-standing position that Method 1631 is a very sensitive research method that may not be well suited for use as a routine monitoring method. AMSA continues to support the validation of Method 245.7, a method nearly as sensitive as Method 1631, but less burdensome and 30 to 40 percent less expensive. EPA has recently indicated that approval of Method 245.7 may be delayed further as the result of a funding shortage. AMSA will continue to pursue the approval of Method 245.7. For more information, please contact Chris Hornback, AMSA, at 202/833-9106 or chornback@amsa-cleanwater.org.

 

Wet Weather

AMSA Tracks SSO Rule Progress as EPA Undergoes Final Agency Review
AMSA has learned that EPA is about to enter final agency review (FAR) on the sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) proposal after a nearly two year delay. The FAR process requires all relevant EPA offices to comment on the proposal and reach consensus on the draft rule’s provisions and preamble discussion before releasing it to OMB. The FAR process is expected to take approximately two weeks. AMSA believes that its discussions with key EPA officials in recent weeks, including at the October 17 and 18 Fall Leadership Retreat & Strategy Session, will help to enhance the proposal’s preamble language to include consideration of pivotal alternatives to the current zero overflow standard contained in the proposal. AMSA discussed its concerns and made recommendations regarding the SSO rule at last week’s Leadership Retreat with, among others, the Assistant Administrator (AA) for Water, G. Tracy Mehan; EPA’s AA for the Office of Enforcement & Compliance Assurance, John Peter Suarez; and Ken Munis of the Regulatory Analysis & Policy Team of the Office of Policy, Economics and Innovation (OPEI). AMSA has also learned that EPA may have revamped its cost estimate of the SSO proposal in anticipation of OMB’s concerns about the rule’s relative costs and benefits. OMB has 90 days to review the proposal. AMSA will keep its members informed of developments in the SSO arena as they occur. For further information, contact Greg Schaner, AMSA at 202/296-9836 or gschaner@amsa-cleanwater.org.

 

Miscellaneous

AMSA Learns of EPA Management Shuffle in Water and Waste Offices
AMSA understands that long-time Deputy Assistant Administrator (AA) in the Office of Solid Waste & Emergency Response (OSWER), Mike Shapiro, will move next month to EPA’s Office of Water, to serve in the same capacity. The Current Deputy AA of Water, Diane Regas, will become Director of the Office of Water’s Office of Wetlands, Ocean & Watersheds after the retirement of current director Bob Wayland. During her tenure as Deputy AA, Regas was particularly active on discussions relating to the SSO rule.

AMSA Tracks Release of First Phase of NPDES Permit Application Software System
EPA has released its first phase of the Permit Application Software System (PASS), an electronic National Pollutant Discharged Elimination System (NPDES) permit application system. This first version is intended to help applicants complete their NPDES forms more easily. EPA is still working on improving PASS to enable applicants to actually submit NPDES application electronically, a feature that is likely to be available in subsequent versions of the software. EPA believes PASS will improve the application process by eliminating the need of completing numerous, burdensome paper forms. Initially, PASS will be available in states where EPA is the permitting authority, which includes Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Washington D.C., and all Territories except the U.S. Virgin Islands. Alabama, California, Delaware, and Oregon are also accepting applications generated by PASS. Members may find out more information on PASS on EPA’s web site at www.epa.gov/npdes/PASS. For further information, please contact Chris Hornback, AMSA, at 202/833-9106 or chornback@amsa-cleanwater.org.