» Clean Water Current Archive

September 4, 2009

NACWA Urges EPA to Make Water Quality Improvement Top Goal of Enforcement Plan

NACWA submitted comments  Aug. 31 saying water quality improvement should be the overall objective of an action plan being developed by EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA).  The action plan was called for by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in a July 2 memo as a way to make Clean Water Act (CWA) enforcement more transparent and effective.  NACWA’s comments, sent to OECA Assistant Administrator Cynthia Giles, said the success of an enforcement program should be measured by improved water quality, not the number of enforcement actions or the dollar value of fines and consent decree obligations.  The NACWA letter also calls for consistent and predictable enforcement of CWA requirements —particularly with regard to wet weather issues such as peak flow blending — “that should be carried out within the framework of a larger watershed.”

An area of concern highlighted by NACWA’s comments involves utilities in EPA regions 7 and 10 that have been threatened with enforcement action because they have acted responsibly by installing costly “parallel treatment facilities” to treat excess flows during wet weather.  These utilities have recently been informed that these systems are illegal, a position that is not consistent with previous actions.  “It is a perfect example of how inconsistent enforcement policies, applied in some Regions but not others, can have an uneven and disproportionate impact on municipal utilities,” the letter said.  Such actions also do not sufficiently take into account the water quality benefits of such municipal investments.  The letter also calls for better coordination and cooperation between OECA and EPA’s Office of Water to help achieve the agency’s national water policy goals.

NACWA’s comments said enforcement actions could be made more transparent with more accurate data and urged EPA to upgrade and improve its Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) database.  The letter urged enforcement agencies to focus more on nonpoint sources of pollution, which are a leading cause of water quality impairment.  NACWA’s comments incorporated information submitted by member agencies in response to Legal Alert 09-02.  Members of NACWA’s Board and committee leadership also discussed the proposed action plan with OECA during an Aug. 24 conference call.  OECA is expected to deliver the action plan to Administrator Jackson in early October.

Top EPA Officials Confirmed for NACWA Law Seminar, Registration Now Open

Peter Silva, EPA assistant administrator for water, and Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, have been confirmed to speak at NACWA’s 2009 Developments in Clean Water Law Seminar, headlining an impressive array of speakers who will address today’s cutting edge issues in clean water law.  The Seminar, scheduled for Nov. 11-13 at the Marriott Metro Center in Washington, D.C., will also    feature a variety of panel discussions tackling areas of interest to legal practitioners and utility managers.  Topics include what to do when legal rules change, managing public perception of your utility, and understanding key legal terms of art.  There will also be an overview of the current state of clean water law, a review of the top 10 Clean Water Act cases of the past year, information on current clean water enforcement trends, and a legal ethics presentation.  Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits, including ethics credits, will be available for participants.  Additional details on the Seminar, including an agenda and registration information, are available at the Conferences and Professional Development page of the NACWA website.  Be sure to join your clean water colleagues for this exciting and informative conference!

EPA Releases Study of Emerging Contaminants at POTWs

EPA released a report this week on a multi-year sampling effort at nine publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) examining influent and effluent concentrations of emerging contaminants (including pharmaceuticals and personal care products, steroids/hormones, flame retardants, pesticides, and alkylphenol ethoxylates).  EPA’s report contains the analytical results and detailed information on each of the nine plants, including full treatment diagrams.  EPA briefed NACWA and members of its Emerging Contaminants Workgroup on the study earlier this year, and NACWA is now reviewing the report.  EPA said it plans only to outline its observations from the study effort without drawing any conclusions based on the analytical results due to the small number of POTWs and limited number of samples at each plant.  Nevertheless, the report is expected to garner significant interest from stakeholder groups and, potentially, the media.

During the briefing, EPA noted that selection of the POTWs for sampling was not random and did not represent the characteristics of a typical secondary treatment plant.  In fact, EPA sought out POTWs with a range of treatment levels, including plants with advanced treatment and a variety of disinfection processes.  EPA also evaluated different sludge ages to determine whether longer detention times would affect removal of contaminants.  When the EPA sampling study began several years ago, the Agency focused on POTWs with a large industrial component.  The original intent of the study was to collect data on more than emerging contaminants, including priority pollutants, in an effort to provide new information that might update the decades-old ‘50 POTW’ study that has been used as the basis for pretreatment standards development.

Midway through the study, however, EPA noted that it was not finding many of the emerging contaminants, either because the high industrial flows were diluting the influent or because their analytical methods were not performing well.  At that point, EPA worked to refine its analytical methods and began to focus solely on emerging contaminants and to target treatment plants with more residential flows, specifically in areas such as retirement communities where prescription drug use may be higher.  NACWA’s Emerging Contaminants Workgroup will comment on the study and/or meet with EPA as needed once its review is complete.  EPA is not publicizing the release of the report given its limited usefulness and currently has no plans to conduct similar studies.

Water Sector to Launch Second Round of Security Metrics Reporting

The Water Sector is poised to become the first critical infrastructure group to launch a second round of annual sector-specific security metrics reporting on Sept. 22.  Last year’s responses indicated that drinking water and wastewater utilities have made significant progress in many areas of security.  The 2009 metrics survey will be available to all utilities on the WaterISAC public website.  The measures consist of a short series of voluntary questions that are expected to take approximately 20-30 minutes to complete.  All responses will be completely anonymous — participants will not be asked to provide utility names or contact information.  A final report of aggregated sector-wide data will be made available in January 2010.   The measures, developed by the Water Sector Coordinating Council (WSCC) in partnership with EPA and the Department of Homeland Security, are an important means to determining the extent to which the sector is progressing in the areas of security, preparedness, and resiliency.  NACWA helped to develop the measures, and the Association encourages all members to participate in this important process.