9
Biosolids Management,
Energy Recovery &Air Emissions
NACWA Works Aggressively to Preserve Biosolids
Incineration as Viable Management Option
This past year NACWA’s engagement in the biosolids arena
continued to focus on maintaining management options and
preserving local choice. While prior emphasis and interest has
focused largely on land application, this year saw incinera-
tion move to the top of the list of ‘most-threatened’ biosolids
management options. A cascading series of lawsuits has left
sewage sludge incinerators (SSIs) facing a set of stringent
Clean Air Act (CAA) maximum achievable control technology
(MACT) standards – and the use of biosolids as a fuel in other
combustion units has been called into question. NACWA
maintained active efforts on the regulatory, legal and legisla-
tive fronts to address these major challenges to biosolids
management.
Significant Victory Scored on
Cost Impacts of SSI Standards
Continuing work it began in 2009, NACWA maintained an
aggressive presence with staff at the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) responsible for drafting the CAA SSI
rule – providing information about the industry and helping to
shape the final regulations wherever and whenever possible.
In the run up to the proposal of the SSI rule in October 2010,
the Association met with key EPA staff, including the Assistant
Administrator for the Agency’s air office, as well as the White
House’s Office of Management & Budget.
With the release of the proposed standards – including a mer-
cury limit that alone would have imposed billions of dollars of
costs on SSIs – NACWA requested, and ultimately participated
in, a public hearing on the rule. At the hearing the Associa-
tion underscored several fundamental flaws in the proposal,
including EPA’s cost estimates for the mercury limit. The
Association urged the Agency to pursue regulation under a
different section of the CAA, allowing for additional flexibility
when setting control standards. NACWA provided over 500
pages of comments and additional information to the Agency.
The comments of the Association and its Member Agencies on
the proposed SSI rule were successful in convincing EPA that
a ‘beyond the MACT floor’ level of control for mercury was
not justified, resulting in avoided costs of more than $1 billion
for clean water agencies operating SSIs. Despite significant
improvements, the final rule still contained fundamental flaws.
As a result, NACWA petitioned EPA to reconsider and stay the
proposed SSI rule, citing the Agency’s lack of legal authority,
its failure to collect sufficient information to develop lawful
MACT standards, and its failure to consider the variability of
pollutant concentrations in sewage sludge fed to SSIs, among
other issues.
NACWA also actively engaged EPA on its development of the
related definition of non-hazardous solid waste rule. The rule,
which provides the regulatory underpinnings for the SSI MACT
rule, defines sewage sludge destined for combustion as a solid
waste. NACWA’s regulatory advocacy was successful in limit-
ing the scope of EPA’s determination to combustion, thereby
minimizing any implications for land application, but the final
rule continued to define all sewage sludge that is combusted
as a solid waste – a conclusion that has implications for both
SSIs and utilities burning or offering sludge as a fuel.
NACWA Challenge EPA Incineration,
Solid Waste Rules in Court
In addition to filing the administrative petition for recon-
sideration on the SSI rule, NACWA also initiated the largest
single litigation effort in the Association’s history to protect its
members, and the clean water utility community as a whole,
from the final rule and the related definition of non-hazardous
solid waste. While NACWA’s legal strategy compliments the
Association’s successful regulatory advocacy efforts on the SSI
issue, it also marks the maturation of the Association’s legal
advocacy program and demonstrates the willingness of the
Association to take on EPA as a lead plaintiff in federal court
in defense of its members’ interests.
Central to NACWA’s efforts is its legal challenge to the final
SSI rule, which was initiated in May 2011 when the Associa-
tion filed a legal Petition for Review of the rule in the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The
case, NACWA v. EPA, focuses on the legal and technical flaws
in the SSI rule, including the fact that EPA choose to regulate
NACWA Remains Active with EPA on
Other Biosolids Management Options
While EPA’s biosolids program was fairly inactive
over the past year, work at the Agency continues
on evaluating the data from its Targeted National
Sewage Sludge Survey. NACWA has remained
engaged with EPA as it continues to evaluate the data
from the survey and conduct risk characterizations
to determine whether additional pollutants in land
applied biosolids require regulation. This work is
ongoing, but NACWA anticipates that EPA will
provide additional details on its plans in the coming
year.