EPA released on August 20 a draft clean water strategy that outlined plans for new rules and other initiatives to prevent water quality from degrading, better manage pollution from animal feeding operations, expand coverage of municipal stormwater permits, and promote green infrastructure. The draft document, Coming Together for Clean Water: EPA’s Strategy for Achieving Clean Water, reflects in part the realization that although the clean water program has traditionally focused on controlling point-source pollution from industrial plants, some of the most significant factors in water degradation today are agriculture, stormwater runoff, habitat, and hydrology. The draft strategy was developed following an EPA forum in April. EPA is taking comment on the draft through September 17. The draft strategy lays out a plan to focus on five broad areas:
- Systematically assessing U.S. waters to provide a baseline for tracking progress,
- Enhancing the agency’s ability to restore degraded waters and ecosystems,
- Increasing the focus on protecting healthy waters,
- Reducing new pollution, and
- Enhancing the resiliency of watersheds. Read more
From the State Water Resources Control Board…
To all interested parties:
Join us for “Compliance with ARRA Buy American Provision for SRF Projects”
A one hour webcast on specific areas of the Buy American provision of ARRA that have generated frequent questions. Topics discussed will include compliance, documentation, de minimis, and international trade agreements. This webcast is open to all interested parties, including assistance recipients and contractors.
A previous version of this same webcast was held for states and EPA regional offices in July 2010. Please review this presentation if you cannot attend, or want to see if the webcast will address your questions. EPA will have a live Q&A session at the end of the webcast.
This webcast addresses specific aspects of the Buy American provision that have generated frequent questions, but will not cover the basic elements of this provision or of ARRA. EPA has covered these basic elements of the Buy American provision in other webcasts. Previous webcasts and other ARRA reference materials can be found online at http://water.epa.gov/aboutow/eparecovery/
Call-in information will be provided prior to the webcast.
Date: Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Time: 2:00 P.M. – 3:00 P.M. EDT
After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.
CWEA, along with its Clean Water Summit Partners, wrote the Department of Recycling and Recovery on August 26 asking for its attention in resolving a policy decision that would stall popular recycling programs at wastewater treatment plants.
From the letter:
Specifically, we are concerned that if CalRecycle allows permit issuance and requirements to remain within the discretion of individual LEAs, it will serve as a disincentive for POTWs to accept and treat fats, oils, and grease (FOG), septage, and food waste. An additional unnecessary permitting process will inhibit state initiatives, which promote both renewable energy production and the diversion of organic material from landfills. In addition, the policy conflicts with the intent of Title 27, which was adopted to avoid jurisdictional overlap whenever feasible. Therefore, the Clean Water Summit Partners offer several alternative solutions to resolve this matter in a way that will maximize the amount of FOG and Food Waste accepted at POTWs.
Read the full comment letter and proposed solutions
The Northwest Environmental Training Center will offer a 2-day overview of California’s stormwater rules on October 6-7 in Sacramento.
Stormwater pollution from both point and non-point sources pose serious ecological, economic and social risks. Stringent regulations regarding pollution sources help reduce these risks. This course provides an overview of California’s stormwater regulations, including the General Industrial Stormwater Permit, the General Construction Stormwater Permit, Phase I and II municipal permitting, and programs addressing non-point source pollution like Confined Animal Feeding Operations and the Irrigated Lands Program. The course will also address the federal regulation of point and non-point pollution. The history and origin of each of the permits will be discussed, and the basic requirements of each permit will be outlined.
Find out more and Register Online
From Hugh Logan, CWEA SWRCB Advisory Committee Representative
The State Water Resources Control Board’s Advisory Committee, comprised of nine members from various stakeholder and industry groups, provides feedback to the Office of Operator Certification on regulation updates, reviews operator exams, and gives suggestions for continuing improvement. Hugh Logan, of the South Bayside System Authority, and Chris Berch, of the Inland Empire Utilities Agency, represent CWEA.
The State Office of Operator Certification (OOC) Staff hosted the Advisory Committee July 21st in Sacramento and presented numerous items for discussion. Read more
Earlier this month, Tri-TAC (made up of CWEA, CASA and the League of CA Cities) commented on the State Water Resources Control Board’s Preliminary Draft Policy for Whole Effluent Toxicity Assessment and Control.The Policy is based upon the EPA’s recently released Test of Significant Toxicity (TST). The
overarching concern is that use of the TST will lead to numerous “false positive” results, where non-toxic discharges and receiving waters are incorrectly identified as toxic. This, in turn, will lead to the wasting of significant State and Regional Water Board and publicly owned treatment works’ resources to respond to non-toxic, false positive indications of toxicity. Taken to its logical conclusion, the Policy could also ultimately lead to inappropriate use of public funds to provide unnecessary treatment plant upgrades based on non-existent biological community impacts. Tri-TAC believes that numeric limits for low levels of chronic toxicity are inappropriate, as low-level chronic toxicity has not been linked to instream biological impacts, and that there are significant technical problems with the TST methodology.
As you know from earlier E-bulletin posts, EPA may be making changes to the way it regulates municipal sanitary sewer collection systems and sanitary sewer overflows. CWEA, along with its partner organizations – BACWA, CASA, CVCWA, SCAP, and Tri-TAC – has submitted a comment letter to assist EPA in protecting our water resources while keeping our workforce strong.
Some key points include:
- We have a unique perspective on the advisability and effectiveness of a new federal regulatory program for SSOs, because for the past four years, our locally-owned systems have been operating under a comprehensive statewide program that requires permitting, planning and online reporting of SSOs. We have a strong interest in
ensuring that any new federal program is compatible with the California requirements and that the significant investments already made in collection system infrastructure, planning and reporting are not undermined. Read more
WEF’s Solid Waste Workgroup prepared comments for EPA’s proposed rulemaking on the definition of solid waste that was published in the June 24, 2010 Federal Register.
Public comments are due to EPA by Tuesday, August 3. In the event you wish to weigh in and also submit an email to the EPA RCRA docket in support the WEF comment letter, please highlight your support and use the following transmittal information below when submitting your email:
TO: rcra-docket@epa.gov.
SUBJECT: Attention Docket ID EPA–HQ–RCRA–2008–0329
Re: WEF Comments on the Proposed Rule on Identification of Non-Hazardous Secondary Materials That Are Solid Wastes, ATTN: RCRA Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–RCRA–2008–0329
You can say in your email that your agency or organization has reviewed WEF comment letter submittal and supports the Federation’s comments on EPA’s proposed rulemaking. Please cc any transmittal to me so that I may have this for our files.
On behalf of WEF staff, I would like to personally express our appreciation for the outstanding leadership of the RBC Solid Waste Work Group and Air Quality/Government Affairs team in preparing these comments. The next step, obviously, will be EPA’s final rulemaking determination along with an upcoming proposed rulemaking in the next few weeks on the MACT standards for sewage sludge incinerators that will require reviewer input and comment as well. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions. Thanks.
Sam Hadeed, Water Environment Federation
Session to be held August 24 & 26, 2010 (1 pm – 2:30 pm EDT)
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold two public listening sessions on potential changes to the water quality standards regulation before proposing a national rule. The current regulation, which has been in place since 1983, governs how states and authorized tribes adopt standards needed under the Clean Water Act to protect the quality of their rivers, streams, lakes, and estuaries. Potential revisions include strengthening protection for water bodies with water quality that already exceeds or meet the interim goals of the Clean Water Act; ensuring that standards reflect a continued commitment to these goals wherever attainable; improving transparency of regulatory decisions; and strengthening federal oversight.
WEF has submitted comments to to help EPA determine whether and how to modify the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) regulations as they apply to municipal sanitary sewer collection systems and sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs).
The Water Environment Federation (WEF) fully endorses EPA’s decision to collect information and views in support of developing a comprehensive program addressing sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) and peak flows. These critical environmental management issues must be effectively addressed in order to improve both the quality of our nation’s waters and the health and safety of local communities. WEF stands ready, as always, to technically support EPA in these efforts.
Read the full comment letter. WEF also contributed a presentation on benchmarking sanitary sewer maintenance programs.
Comments are due August 2. Visit EPA’s site for more information.
