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The National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) is pleased to provide you with the June 2012 Regulatory Update.  This Update provides a narrative summary of relevant regulatory issues and actions current to the end of June 2012.  Please contact NACWA’s Chris Hornback at 202/833-9106 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   or Cynthia Finley at 202/533-1836 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   with any questions or information on the Update topics.

Top Stories

EPA Releases Final Integrated Planning Framework

NACWA is encouraged by the changes made by EPA to its final Integrated Municipal Stormwater and Wastewater Planning Approach Framework (Framework) , released June 12.  The changes to the Framework, though generally minor, are positive overall and address many of the concerns NACWA raised during the stakeholder meetings EPA held on the Framework and in written comments  on the January 2012 draft.  EPA has added a sixth element to the Framework to better acknowledge that integrated plans are adaptable and can change if the community’s circumstances, including its financial capability, change.  The Framework also has more explicitly outlined when and how a community’s financial capability should be factored into priority-setting as part of the integrated planning process.  Advocacy Alert 12-10 provides a brief summary of all the changes made to the Framework and an update on current efforts underway among the clean water community to implement integrated planning.

On the heels of the release of EPA’s Framework, NACWA thanked Nancy Stoner, Acting Assistant Administrator for Water and Cynthia Giles, Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, for their continued leadership on the issue of integrated planning in a June 20 letter , stressing the significance of their “offices’ collective efforts…[to bring to] bear quick and effective policy-making that promises to provide significant and badly needed flexibility for many in the clean water community.”  As NACWA’s letter highlights, “[w]ork to ensure that EPA’s Framework succeeds…is just beginning.”  Demonstrating that this Framework can succeed will be crucial to its long-term effectiveness and, as such, NACWA encouraged EPA to continue to be an active participant as implementation proceeds, while also working to ensure that authorized states have the lead and that state decisions are not second-guessed.

Please email Chris Hornback at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if your agency plans to move forward with an integrated plan so the full membership can benefit from lessons learned related to these efforts.  The integrated planning issue will be discussed at the upcoming Regulatory Policy Committee meeting in Philadelphia, during NACWA’s 2012 Summer Conference & 42nd Annual Meeting, July 15-18, 2012.

Air Quality

NACWA Participates in Siloxane Negotiations

NACWA participated as an interested party in a June 27 meeting to begin negotiation on an enforceable consent agreement (ECA) regarding two widely used siloxanes.  The siloxanes, known as D4 and D5, are found in soaps, detergents, and personal care products, as well as in a multitude of other consumer, commercial, and industrial products that are discharged into sewer systems.  As NACWA explained in a June 21 letter  to EPA, D4 and D5 are volatilized into biogas during the wastewater treatment process and then converted into silicon dioxide during biogas combustion as a renewable energy source for gas turbines, boilers, and internal combustion engines.  Silicon dioxide is deposited in the exhaust stages of the equipment, resulting in loss of heat transfer efficiency, premature equipment failure, and destruction of emissions control catalysts.  The increased maintenance and necessary siloxane removal systems are very expensive to publicly owned treatment works (POTWs).  In addition, D4 and D5 are persistent in sediment and highly bioaccumulative in aquatic species.

EPA solicited interested parties for the ECA to collect environmental monitoring data for environmental risk assessments of D4 and D5 in a May 24 Federal Register notice .  An ECA is a negotiated agreement between EPA, industry, and interested parties that requires the industry to generate and submit data to EPA on a specific schedule.  Under the ECA guidelines, negotiations for a D4 and D5 data collection plan must be completed by December 27.  As an interested party, NACWA will participate in the negotiation process and submit comments or objections on the draft ECA, allowing the Association to ensure that the data collected is useful to POTWs.  A proposed data collection plan was submitted to EPA by the Silicone Environmental Health and Safety Council of North America (SEHSC), which represents silicone chemical producers and importers. The plan consists of monitoring at four direct-discharging manufacturing facilities and at five POTWs.

During the June 27 meeting, EPA expressed doubts that five POTWs would be representative of POTWs across the country.  NACWA agreed to work with EPA, SEHSC, and other interested parties to determine an appropriate number of POTWs to monitor.  Any NACWA members with an interest in the issue of siloxanes are encouraged to contact Cynthia Finley at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  NACWA will keep members informed regarding this ECA development and will work with the Association’s Air Quality Workgroup to review the proposed ECA.

EPA Proposes Amendments to Emission Standards for Internal Combustion Engines

EPA proposed amendments to the national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) for stationary reciprocating internal combustion engines (RICE) in a June 7 Federal Register notice .  NACWA submitted comments  in 2009 on the proposed NESHAP, and most of these comments were addressed in the final NESHAP , which was issued in March 2010.  The proposed amendments would address many issues that have been raised by stakeholders since publication of the final rule, including replacement of emission limits with an equipment standard for certain spark ignition (SI) RICE and increasing the allowable hours for emergency RICE to operate.

The deadline for submitting comments on the proposed amendments was extended to August 9 in a subsequent Federal Register notice .  NACWA’s Air Quality Workgroup will be reviewing the proposal and determining if NACWA should submit comments.  NACWA members with comments about the proposal should contact Cynthia Finley at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Climate Change

EPA Greenhouse Gas Regulations Upheld in Court Decision

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on June 26 dismissed all challenges to EPA’s greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations.  In four separate cases, the court ruled that the petitioners lacked standing to challenge the GHG Tailoring Rule, since the rule was intended to reduce permitting burdens by permitting only the facilities with the largest GHG emissions.  The court also upheld EPA’s 2009 endangerment finding for GHGs, which followed a 2007 Supreme Court ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA that the Agency had the authority under the Clean Air Act (CAA) to regulate GHGs.

Since the June ruling keeps existing EPA GHG regulations in place, it will have no effect on the current Center for Biological Diversity v. EPA case that is challenging EPA’s three-year deferral of biogenic emissions from CAA regulations.  NACWA filed an amicus curiae brief  in this lawsuit last month, supporting the deferral, and the Association will keep members notified of any developments.

Conferences and Meetings

It’s Not Too Late to Plan Your Trip to Philadelphia for NACWA’s 2012 Summer Conference

NACWA’s 2012 Summer Conference, July 15 -18, will focus on transformational leadership and showcase innovative work now underway at clean water agencies, as well as look ahead at how water quality protection and utility management will change in the coming months and years.  Details on all of NACWA’s Standing Committee meetings in Philadelphia are now up on our enhanced Summer Conference page.  Register now before it’s too late!

Emerging Contaminants

NACWA Provides Clean Water Perspective at Great Lakes Summit on Pharmaceutical Waste

While emerging contaminant issues have not been in the national spotlight lately, active efforts across the country continue on the source control and research fronts to address this growing water quality and public health challenge.  Among the source control initiatives underway, product stewardship efforts focused on preventing the abuse of prescription drugs and on preventing expired and waste pharmaceuticals from entering the environment are garnering significant attention.  NACWA addressed more than 30 officials from state and local government, as well the environmental NGO community, law enforcement, and academia during the Great Lakes Pharmaceutical Stewardship Summit in Chicago, Ill., in early June.  The summit was convened to discuss policy issues and barriers to pharmaceutical source control efforts including collection/take-back programs in the Great Lakes Region.

During remarks at the Summit, NACWA highlighted the importance of a multi-pronged approach to addressing pharmaceuticals and other trace organics in the nation’s waters, including more research on impacts, source control, drug use and toxics reform, with potential wastewater treatment playing a role only where controls are deemed necessary and other options have been exhausted.  NACWA highlighted the important Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) research that continues to look at treatment capabilities, but stressed that regulation of clean water agency discharges is not warranted at this time.  Serious questions remain regarding the efficacy of treatment, the processes available to remove trace organics, which trace organics need to be targeted, the potential consequences and environmental trade-offs associated with treatment, the point at which treatment makes the most sense (the clean water utility, the drinking water intake, or both), and ultimately the additional costs compared to any resulting benefits.  Though treatment plants will continue to look for ways to do their part, including spearheading some of the most successful pharmaceutical collection programs in the country, NACWA stressed that the existing regulatory and financial burdens already facing the clean water community demand that any additional control requirements be an option of last resort, after a careful analysis of all potential alternatives.

Facilities & Collection Systems

EPA Releases Post-Construction Guidance for Monitoring Combined Sewer Overflows

On June 12, EPA released its final CSO Post Construction Compliance Monitoring Guidance, which is intended to help communities fulfill the ninth element of a combined sewer overflow (CSO) Long Term Control Plan (LTCP).  This element requires that communities develop a post construction compliance monitoring program to verify compliance with water quality-based requirements and ascertain the effectiveness of CSO controls.  NACWA submitted comments  on the draft Guidance, asking EPA for several revisions to the report, including clarification that CSOs are not necessarily the cause of all water quality problems in the receiving water and a limitation to sampling for chemicals of concern that are related to CSOs and NPDES permit requirements.  Although NACWA is still reviewing the final Guidance, it appears that EPA has addressed the Association’s concerns.  NACWA members with comments or concerns about the final Guidance should contact Cynthia Finley at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

EPA Publishes Green Infrastructure Factsheets

EPA released a series of “factsheets” on incorporating green infrastructure measures into wet weather programs, from permitting and enforcement perspectives.  EPA explains the series as building “upon existing authority, guidance, and agreements to describe how EPA and state permitting and enforcement professionals can work with permittees to include green infrastructure measures as part of control programs.”  The six factsheets and four related supplements address stormwater permits, TMDLs, CSO long-term control plans, SSOs, water quality standards, and enforcement actions. The series is available on EPA's Green Infrastructure website.  NACWA is currently reviewing these factsheets and requests that members send any comments on the documents to Cynthia Finley at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Nutrients

EPA Releases Nutrient Indicators Dataset

EPA’s Office of Water recently finalized a Nutrient Indicators Dataset (NID) and published it online as part of the Agency’s Nutrient Pollution Policy and Data website.  The NID consists of a set of nine indicators and associated state-level data to serve as a regional compendium of documented or potential nitrogen and phosphorus pollution information, impacts of this pollution, and states’ efforts to minimize loadings and adopt numeric criteria.  All of the data in the NID are publically available, with the exception of the fertilizer data, which EPA purchased.  EPA hopes that this new data will help states and Regions working to develop and implement nutrient frameworks consistent with EPA’s March 2011 memorandum  on nutrient control.

Nutrient Web Seminars Discuss Technology-based and Water Quality Approaches to Nutrients

NACWA Members Agencies and Affiliates from across the country participated in a web seminar series, Coming Soon to a Permit Near You . . . the Next Generation of Nutrient Management, last month exploring technology-based and water quality based approaches to nutrient control and the potential implications of two new legal cases for clean water utilities. During the first seminar, Jon Devine, Senior Attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) laid out his organization’s reasons for petitioning EPA to modify the secondary treatment regulations to include nutrients. NRDC continues to believe that EPA is compelled by the Clean Water Act to update its regulations to include nationwide control levels for nitrogen and phosphorus, as an initial step in addressing nutrient-related impacts.  Nathan Gardner-Andrews, NACWA’s General Counsel, explained the Association’s opposition to the NRDC petition.  Mike Tate, Chief of the Bureau of Water at the Kansas Department of Health & Environment, outlined Kansas’ approach to nutrient control. The Kansas program is using technology-based controls in a more targeted fashion, where point sources are demonstrated to be major sources of nitrogen and/or phosphorus and the economies of scale available at larger utilities can make significant reductions at a more reasonable cost.

During the second seminar, Ellen Gilinsky, Senior Policy Advisor for EPA’s Office of Water, provided an update on the progress that has been made since EPA issued its nutrient framework memorandum  in March of 2011. Though Gilinsky stressed that numeric nutrient criteria remain a critical element, she also noted that there is no single approach to developing the criteria.  Reflecting a significant change in EPA’s thinking since early 2011, Gilinsky referenced a Science Advisory Board report that emphasizes the importance of multiple lines of evidence when developing and implementing criteria.  EPA is working with states to further develop a bio-confirmation component of nutrient criteria and plans to have some “guiding principles” for this approach later this year. The principles are anticipated to suggest considerations for states as they develop nutrient criteria. Following Gilinsky, Rich Budell, Director of the Office of Agricultural Water Policy for the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, provided insights into Florida’s successful program for addressing nonpoint contributions of nutrients.

Pretreatment & Pollution Prevention

NACWA Provides Input to EPA on Revisions to Pretreatment Program Manual

NACWA’s Pretreatment and Pollution Prevention Committee provided input this month to EPA’s National Pretreatment Program on planned revisions to the Guidance Manual for POTW Pretreatment Program Development.  This manual is one of many pretreatment manuals that EPA is planning to update in the next few years.  EPA has invited NACWA to participate in the revision planning process and in commenting on the draft revisions to the manuals.  The practical experience that NACWA members have with implementing pretreatment programs will be invaluable to EPA’s updated manuals.  Since NACWA will coordinate the review of the revised manuals through the Pretreatment and Pollution Prevention Committee, any NACWA members who are interested in participating in the review but are not already members of the Committee are encouraged to join the Committee by emailing Cynthia Finley at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or visiting NACWA’s “Join a Committee” webpage.

Water Quality

USGS Strategic Plan on Water Science Available for Comment

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is asking for public comments on its Water Mission Area Science Strategy Plan for observing, understanding, and predicting water science for the next 5 to 10 years by implementing nine priority actions.  NACWA members may be particularly interested in the priority actions to improve integrated science planning for water and to conduct integrated watershed assessment, research, and modeling.  USGS is interested in stakeholder perspectives on the Plan, particularly on any “big picture” water resource issues that have been overlooked or inadequately emphasized.  Comments must be submitted by August 1 through the USGS “Start with Science” website.  Also available on this website are five other draft strategies that are open for public comment:  Core Science Systems, Energy and Minerals, Environmental Health, Ecosystems, and Natural Hazards.  NACWA members are invited to submit their comments directly to USGS and to send a copy of their comments to Cynthia Finley at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .