3
A
number of recent administrative and judicial rulings have
brought with them good news for the municipal clean
water community. NACWA actively participated in many
of these cases and the Association’s advocacy helped to
achieve positive results. More information is available on NACWA’s
webpage.
Nutrient Discharge Permit Limits
On July 8, the U.S. Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) issued a pos-
itive
upholding the ability of regulators to express National
Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit nutrient
limits in weekly or monthly averages echoing arguments made by
NACWA and other municipal partners who filed a
the ap-
peal. The EAB’s decision in the
declined a request from an environmental group to review an
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-issued permit on the
basis that an existing total maximum daily load (TMDL) nutrient
wasteload allocation for the plant should be interpreted and applied
to require a daily maximum nutrient limit in the permit, rather than
average discharge limits. The EAB rejected this interpretation and
instead found EPA’s more flexible interpretation was acceptable. It
also reaffirmed the basic principle that discharge permit require-
ments do not have to be identical to TMDL wasteload allocations,
only that the limits be consistent with the assumptions and require-
ments of the allocation. This decision preserves the important flex-
ibility available under the Clean Water Act (CWA) to express nutrient
limits in monthly or seasonal averages and not as true daily maxi-
mums.
CWA Permit Shield Defense
On July 11, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a
in
regarding the scope of the protection afforded by Section 402(k) of
the CWA, commonly referred to as the “permit shield,” which holds
that compliance with an NPDES permit constitutes compliance
with the CWA. The court ruled that the mining permittee could
not avail itself of the permit shield but also reinforced the validity of
EPA’s guidance on the shield. The court further upheld its previous
decision in
, in which it found that the shield extends to pollut-
ants that are not expressly listed in the permit so long as the permit-
tee provides adequate disclosure during the application process and
the discharge was within the reasonable contemplation of the per-
mitting authority at the time the permit was granted. NACWA be-
lieves this decision maintains the key elements of EPA’s permit shield
policy – and the Piney Run decision as advocated in a joint
in
which the Association participated – and preserves the permit shield
as a strong defense.
EPA Greenhouse Gas Regulation
The Supreme Court released a significant
regarding EPA
regulation of greenhouse gases (GHGs) on June 23, limiting EPA’s
ability to require Clean Air Act (CAA) permits from municipal clean
water utilities based solely on GHG emissions. The decision will
help many publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) avoid unneces-
sary and costly permitting requirement under the CAA’s Title V and
Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) programs for GHG
emissions generated onsite by burning of biogas and/or biosolids,
process emissions, or other sources. NACWA has long pushed to
exempt POTWs from CAA permitting requirements based solely on
GHG emissions, and this ruling by the Supreme Court is consistent
with the Association’s ongoing advocacy. Additional information
and analysis on the decision is available in
.
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Court Rulings Reflect NACWA Advocacy
O
n three Wednesdays in September NACWA’s newest web
seminar series,
Charting a Path to the Utility of the Future
,
will highlight how utilities are providing leadership
through innovative approaches and new technologies to
change the clean water paradigm. Designed as a central component
of NACWA’s award-winning Water Resources Utility of the Future
(UOTF) campaign, the series will feature utility and private sector ex-
perts discussing initiatives that can be emulated by utilities across the
country, regardless of size. The series aims to inspire new ways of solv-
ing utility management challenges and offers compelling ways to tell
each utility’s UOTF story.
The topics for the three web seminars are as follows:
Join us in September on three
Wednesdays (the 10th, 17th, and 24th)
at 2:00 PMEastern Time for:
y
y
September 9:
Resource Recovery
– FromWaste Stream to Goldmine
y
y
September 16:
Sustainable Infrastructure – Resiliency, Gray, Green
& the Regulatory Regime
y
y
September 24:
Innovative Financing&Rates – Finding New
Revenue &Stretching Each Dollar
All three seminars will take place from 2:00 – 3:30 pm Eastern. The
registration rate for the series is $600 per location, while single semiars
are available at $250 per location.
September Web Seminar Series Charts
Path to Utility of the Future
