ARCHIVE SITE - Last updated Jan. 19, 2017. Please visit www.NACWA.org for the latest NACWA information.
ARCHIVE SITE - Last updated Jan. 19, 2017. Please visit www.NACWA.org for the latest NACWA information.
City of Homedale, Idaho, Administrative AppealOn July 8, 2014, the EPA Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) denied a petition to impose daily nutrient limits in a publicly owned treatment works (POTW) National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) discharge permit. In December 2013, NACWA joined the Wet Weather Partnership and a coalition of six state municipal wastewater associations in filing a joint amicus curiae brief in the in City of Homedale Wastewater Treatment Plant case, which involved a challenge by an environmental activist group to a permit issued by EPA to a POTW that allows discharges of total phosphorus (TP) at levels that exceed the number of pounds per day allowable under the applicable total maximum daily load (TMDL). The major issue presented in the case was whether the permit must include true daily maximum limits for nutrients rather than weekly/monthly average limits; the answer to this question may have significant national ramifications on how nutrient limits may be expressed in POTW permits. This case was of particular importance to NACWA members because of the technological and financial challenges posed by daily maximum nutrient limits. Most existing nutrient limits are based on annual, seasonal, or monthly averages and the technology to achieve those limits will not meet daily loadings if set at, for example, 1/30th of the monthly average, should daily maximum limits be required. The main objective of NACWA’s amicus brief was to ensure that the EAB understands the significant impacts on POTWs and water quality improvement programs nationwide should the wrong decision be rendered. Background Applicable Regulation and Legal Precedent NACWA’s Arguments in the Appeal National Impacts POTWs should seek inclusion of a provision in any future TMDL clarifying that the daily load shown in the TMDL does not require daily NPDES permit limits but, instead, are longer-term average loading assumptions. Other groups that joined the amicus brief with NACWA are the Wet Weather Partnership, the North Carolina Water Quality Association, the South Carolina Water Quality Association, the West Virginia Municipal Water Quality Association, the Association of Missouri Clean Water Agencies, the Virginia Association of Municipal Wastewater Agencies, and the Maryland Association of Municipal Wastewater Agencies.
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Winter Conference
Next Generation Compliance …Where Affordability & Innovation Intersect
February 4 – 7, 2017
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