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The National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) is pleased to provide you with the February 2015 Regulatory Update.  This Update provides a summary of relevant regulatory issues and actions from February 2015.

Top Stories

NACWA Requests Withdrawal of Dental Amalgam Separator Rule

NACWA submitted comments  on February 20 on EPA’s proposed Dental Amalgam Separator rule , asking the Agency to withdraw the rule because it is unnecessary and its costs are not justified by its environmental benefits. The rule would require the over 100,000 dental offices that place or remove amalgam to have separators installed. Utilities with pretreatment programs would be required to provide oversight of these dental offices, which must also submit annual certifications and follow best management practices. NACWA’s Advocacy Alert 14-21 provides details about the proposed rule and its impacts on utilities.

NACWA requested that EPA withdraw the rule since states and utilities have the authority to establish dental amalgam separator programs when needed, and many have already established successful programs. Utilities that do not have mercury problems with their effluent or biosolids could better spend their resources on other environmental issues. NACWA also stated that “EPA’s analysis to justify the rule is fatally flawed.” EPA used the out-of-date 50 POTW Study to determine mercury removal efficiencies, underestimating current mercury removal capabilities of wastewater treatment plants. The Agency also overestimated the number of dental amalgam fillings that are placed and removed, leading to an overestimation of the amount of mercury that is currently discharged to publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) from dental offices. The costs to utilities were severely underestimated, with EPA allowing less than 10 minutes to verify compliance of each dental office in the U.S.

In its comments, NACWA extensively used the information submitted by over 200 wastewater treatment utilities in the Association’s Mercury & Dental Amalgam Separator Survey. The survey data demonstrated that utilities do not have problems meeting their effluent and biosolids requirements for mercury. Additionally, the data submitted by utilities that already have dental amalgam separator programs enabled NACWA to estimate the cost of the rule to utilities and other control authorities as $12 million/year, plus an initial cost of $24 million to develop dental amalgam separator programs. EPA’s estimate for utilities and other control authorities was $960,000/year. NACWA will continue to push for withdrawal of the proposed rule and keep members informed of any developments.

Contact: Cynthia Finley at 202/533-1836 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

NACWA Meets with Top White House Officials to Discuss Smarter Regulations

NACWA, along with representatives from a number of state organizations including the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Environmental Council of States (ECOS), met with the head of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Shaun Donovan, February 16 to discuss the Administration’s ongoing regulatory review efforts. Howard Shelanski, head of OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), which reviews all major regulations developed by EPA and other federal agencies, and Jerry Abramson, White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, also participated in the roundtable discussion – the kickoff meeting of a new effort to accelerate the reform initiative. The regulatory review was initiated several years ago via Executive Order, but the Administration is hoping to intensify its efforts to cut wasteful and duplicative regulations over its final two years. While specific regulatory provisions were not the focus of the meeting, NACWA highlighted the importance of the federal and state governments working in partnership with their local and regional equivalents to prioritize investments – acknowledging EPA’s efforts to develop and implement the Integrated Planning Framework – and the need to better consider the financial capability of local governments to meet the growing list of regulatory requirements. These comments echoed the discussion that NACWA’s Board of Directors and Legislative and Regulatory Policy Committee engaged in during NACWA’s Winter Conference. NACWA will remain engaged with OMB on the high-level policy discussion, but will also engage directly with EPA, which is responsible for reviewing its regulations and reporting on its progress to OMB.

Contact: Chris Hornback at 202/833-9106 or  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

NACWA Weighs in with EPA Inspector General on Consent Decree Investigation

NACWA submitted  recommendations on February 12 to EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) outlining how the Agency can improve the effectiveness of their municipal wet weather enforcement efforts via consent decrees. The Association’s comments, developed in consultation with a number of Member Agencies, were submitted as part of an ongoing investigation  being conducted by OIG.

NACWA recognizes that enforcement efforts are a powerful tool for EPA to ensure that precious resources are achieving the maximum environmental benefits. As such, the Association is hopeful that the OIG investigation – and resulting report – will embrace its recommendations and include them as key elements of all EPA enforcement actions moving forward. NACWA applauds the OIG for pursuing this investigation and interviewing a broad array of clean water agencies to determine whether EPA’s enforcement efforts are pursuing the most effective approaches – from both a cost and environmental standpoint – to address wet weather-related water quality impacts.

The Association believes that EPA can vastly improve its enforcement efforts to maximize environmental outcomes and cost-effectiveness. Clean water agencies and the federal government should enter into consent decrees as stewards of the environment and partners with a joint obligation to ensure the long-term effectiveness, viability and affordability of any given plan or program.

For additional background on OIG’s investigation, see the December 12 Clean Water Current and the October 2014 Regulatory Update. In coming months, OIG will issue a final report providing recommendations to EPA on how it can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of this enforcement initiative. NACWA thanks those members that assisted with development of the Association’s comments, and looks forward to distributing OIG’s report to membership as soon as it is released.

Contact: Amanda Waters at 202/530-2758 or  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Air Quality

NACWA Discusses Status of SSI Petition, Rule Implementation with Key EPA Staff

NACWA and key EPA Office of Air & Radiation staff discussed in late January the status of the Association’s Petition for Reconsideration of the Sewage Sludge Incineration (SSI) Rule, the Agency’s efforts to address the DC Circuit’s August 2013 remand of portions of the rule, and a number of implementation issues. Based on the discussion, it is clear that EPA remains unpersuaded by NACWA’s arguments for a stay of the compliance date and the Association’s request that the Agency reconsider its decision to regulate SSIs under Section 129 of the Clean Air Act. EPA senior policy officials had indicated in early 2014 that they were not inclined to grant a stay or reconsider the rule, but NACWA proceeded with filing its petition for a stay and reconsideration last May to force the Agency to make an official determination. While there is no final decision at this point on the petition, there appears to be no change in EPA’s position to leave the compliance date of March 2016 in place and to address SSIs under Section 129. NACWA again asked for a final, written response to its petition, but anticipates that such a response, whenever it comes, will deny the petition. This means that the current March 2016 compliance date (or earlier if determined by the state) will remain in place, and that whatever relief or flexibility NACWA seeks from the current emissions standards will have to be within the confines of the Section 129 requirements.

While a Section 112 rule framework would have provided EPA with the greatest flexibility, Agency staff on the call did indicate their willingness to work with NACWA on discrete issues that might be addressed within their authority under Section 129. First and foremost on this front are the unresolved remand issues that EPA has not addressed with regard to sludge variability. It appears that EPA has done little to date to address the concerns raised by the DC Circuit with regard to variability, and pointed to the lack of data comparing sludge pollutant levels and varying air emissions levels. NACWA provided data on this in its original 2011 petition for reconsideration and re-sent the information to EPA following the call, but will also be reaching out to its incinerator members for additional information on the variability issue and to identify other areas that could benefit from additional flexibility. Unfortunately, EPA does not appear prepared to address these issues before the March 2016 compliance date as the DC Circuit’s remand has no specific deadline for responding – but NACWA will continue to press the Agency to accelerate its timetable.

EPA expects signature of the Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) within the next month, with it appearing in the Federal Register shortly thereafter. NACWA will be working to influence the content of the final FIP in the hope of providing additional clarity on several issues that have already been raised by members. The Association expects to hear more on the status of its petition in early March.

Contact: Chris Hornback at 202/833-9106 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Conferences & Meetings

EPA’s Combined Heat and Power Partnership will be hosting a webinar on how to finance CHP systems using Clean Water Revolving Fund Resources. Obtaining capital to finance CHP systems can be a challenge for facilities, but the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) can help overcome the financing challenge. EPA also recently released a fact sheet about CWSRF financing for CHP. This webinar will also present a case study of a utility that successfully used the CWSRF for facility upgrades as well as DOE’s CHP Technical Assistance Partnerships. The Financing CHP at Wastewater Treatment Facilities with Clean Water State Revolving Fund Resources webinar will be hosted on March 16 from 3:00-4:30pm ET. Registration and more information about the webinar can be can be found here.

Contact: Chris Hornback at 202/833-9106 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Environmental Justice

NACWA Meets with EPA on Soon-to-be-released Environmental Justice Tool

NACWA met with the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice on January 28 about a new environmental justice (EJ) tool currently under development by the Agency. EJSCREEN  is a screening and mapping tool that is intended to provide EPA with a nationally consistent dataset and methodology for calculating EJ indices, which can be used for identifying areas of potential disproportionate environmental impact for further review or analysis. As part of the meeting, NACWA received a demonstration of the tool’s capabilities.

The EJSCREEN uses 12 environmental indicators, most of which are based on air or solid waste pollution sources, but one of which is Proximity to Major Water Dischargers. The raw data for the water indicator are the “count of NPDES major direct water discharger facilities within 5 km (or nearest one beyond 5 km)” to a given location, regardless of whether the discharge point is upstream or downstream. Actual discharge and compliance data (e.g., discharge monitoring reports) are not being used at this time.

During the demonstration there were a significant number of minor dischargers that also appeared in the database. Thus, it is unclear how the tool defines “major” – i.e., what parameters and thresholds are used to identify these dischargers. EPA acknowledged that this was a potential problem with the tool, and committed to work closely with NACWA to clarify and fine-tune the dataset used. In addition, the Agency seemed open to adding new water parameters if complete, nationwide datasets are available for such parameters.

NACWA expressed concern during the meeting about the potential for the public to misinterpret the tool as a risk assessment on its own, especially with regard to indicators based solely on proximity. The Association will work with EPA to ensure the intended use of the tool and its water data are clearly communicated to users. EPA anticipates releasing EJSCREEN in the late spring or early summer.

Contact: Amanda Waters at 202/530-2758 or  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Facilities & Collection Systems

Work Begins on New Flushability Guidelines

The committee that will develop new flushability guidelines for wipes held their first meeting on January 27. The committee is comprised of representatives from NACWA, the Water Environment Federation (WEF), the American Public Works Association (APWA), the Canadian Water & Wastewater Association (CWWA), and INDA (the trade association of the nonwoven fabrics industry). NACWA’s representative is Frank Dick, Industrial Pretreatment Coordinator for the City of Vancouver Department of Public Works and Vice Chair of the Association’s Pretreatment & Pollution Prevention Committee.

The committee reviewed the findings of the Technical Workgroup that held a series of meetings last year to investigate issues related to flushability, and is using the information compiled by the Workgroup to develop a plan for further testing and research that will help determine the characteristics of wipes that will be required to make them safe for sewer systems. The new flushability guidelines are expected to be completed by June 2016.

Contact: Cynthia Finley at 202/533-1836 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Funding/Financing

EPA Issues Final Interpretive Guidance on SRF Program Revisions to States

On January 6, EPA issued final interpretive guidance  to States for implementing revisions to the Clean Water State Revolving Fund program, enacted as part of the Water Resources Reform & Development Act of 2014 (WRRDA) last year. The final guidance document maintains provisions originally included in the draft guidance released in September. It does, however, include additional direction to states on two key outstanding issues 1) a new provision in the statute requiring certain loan recipients to certify that they have completed a cost effectiveness analysis for the proposed investments; and 2) clarification that States can decide whether a proposed activity would trigger the definition of a treatment works for the purposes of applying prevailing wage and Buy American provisions.

Contact: Pat Sinicropi at 202/533-1823 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The Obama Administration Focuses on Infrastructure Finance, NACWA Creates Finance Workgroup

In late January, the White House called for the creation of a Water Infrastructure Finance & Resilience Center and issued a brief memorandum  that focused on the Center’s role in increasing federal support for ‘predevelopment’ activities for public infrastructure projects. ‘Predevelopment’ refers to the pre-construction stages of a project such as feasibility studies, financial planning, cost-benefit analyses, permitting, and environmental impact assessments.

These activities may comprise a small percentage of total project costs, but according to the Administration can have a profound impact on the ultimate project design, cost, and effectiveness of implementation. Increased investment in predevelopment is also expected to translate into prioritized projects that use innovative technologies and financing methods – including public-private partnerships. NACWA believes that large, more sophisticated utilities can help provide technical assistance and financial guidance to smaller utilities as part of predevelopment planning. The predevelopment activity is also very much in line with both NACWA’s advocacy work on integrated planning/affordability, as well as its Water Resources Utility of the Future initiative.

A blog post in The Water Voice focuses on financing rather than funding, and what this means for the clean water community. NACWA will continue to work with the Administration and Congress to make the rhetoric of a bold, bipartisan infrastructure package a reality and to ensure the new Finance Center accounts for key public utility positions on financing. In an effort to inform this effort, NACWA has created a Finance Workgroup to develop strategies for how to approach myriad financial issues facing utilities including public-private partnerships and defending municipal bond tax exempt status. Public agencies are encouraged to join the workgroup.

Contact: Adam Krantz at 202/833-4651 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Water Quality

NACWA Briefs EPA on Alternative Approaches for Nutrient Permit Limits

NACWA met with key EPA Office of Water staff February 12 to provide an in-depth briefing on several alternative concepts and approaches for use in nutrient permit limit derivation. The briefing was an outgrowth of a September 2014 meeting during which NACWA outlined the findings and recommendations from its June 2014 report, Review of USEPA Methods for Setting Water Quality-Based Effluent Limits for Nutrients . The report, developed using NACWA's Targeted Action Fund (TAF), detailed where the use of toxics-based methods for deriving permits limits are often inappropriate for use in the nutrient context. At the conclusion of the September 2014 meeting, EPA asked that the Association provide more detailed information on several recommendations in the report.

Using the TAF once again, NACWA, together with its project contractor Brown & Caldwell, developed more in-depth briefing materials , which were used at the February meeting. NACWA's objective, using both the report and in-depth briefings, is to influence the content of EPA's nutrient permit writer training course. The Association's review of an earlier version of the training materials raised significant concerns, prompting the development of the report. Thursday's meeting explored ways that permit writers can better reflect the unique characteristics of nutrients – including the use of annual averaging periods, choosing appropriate probability bases, and using empirical alternatives to the approaches used in EPA's Technical Support Document – that provide additional flexibility while being equally protective of the environment. During the meeting, EPA flagged as a major concern, and a topic for future discussion, the poor quality of many of the total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) that are driving nutrient permit limits. Permit writers are limited in what they can do by the way a TMDL or water quality criterion has been structured. EPA's permitting office has been working to address this with its sister offices in Washington, and NACWA is planning at least two more meetings with the Agency over the next year to discuss these issues further.

Contact: Chris Hornback at 202/833-9106 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

EPA Proposes Changes to Test Methods, NACWA to Comment

EPA published a proposed Methods Update Rule  February 19, outlining a number of potential changes to its test procedure regulations in 40 CFR Part 136. The proposed changes include the addition of new and revised methods; technical and typographical corrections to Part 136; and, amendments to the procedure for determining method detection limits (MDL) to address lab contamination and to better account for intra-lab variability. NACWA will be reviewing the proposed changes, but encourages its members to review the proposal and send any comments or concerns. The Association will develop comments on the proposal prior to its April 20, 2015 deadline.

Contact: Chris Hornback at 202/833-9106 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Controversial WET Limits in California Permit are the Focus of NACWA Comments

NACWA commented  on a tentative permit for member agency the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts’ (LACSD) San Jose Creek Water Reclamation Plant January 16, expressing concern with several requirements related to whole effluent toxicity (WET) included in the permit by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board. While NACWA rarely comments on matters impacting individual treatment plants, the tentative permit in question includes provisions that could have significant statewide and national impacts. Specifically, the permit requires use of the test of significant toxicity (TST), a WET test result evaluation methodology that has not been approved by EPA and that NACWA has raised significant concerns over in the past. In addition, the permit limits LACSD’s ability to use existing tools, like multiple concentration/dilution testing and dose response evaluation, that help to improve the reliability of WET tests. The permit would also penalize the permittee for continued WET failures once at toxicity identification evaluation (TIE) process has been initiated. NACWA’s comment letter will preserve its ability to weigh in on the issue should the permit ultimately be challenged.

Contact: Chris Hornback at 202/833-9106 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

NACWA Comments on Draft Standard for Test Method Detection, Quantitation Limits

NACWA submitted comments  January 12 on a draft standard for limits of detection and quantitation for analytical methods developed by The NELAC Institute (TNI). TNI is a nonprofit organization working to foster the generation of environmental data in a known and transparent fashion and several NACWA members have been on TNI’s Board of Directors in the past. The draft standard provides guidelines for establishing method detection and quantitation limits and NACWA provided several comments to help clarify certain provisions and improve the document.

Contact: Chris Hornback at 202/833-9106 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

NACWA Comments on NPDES e-Reporting Supplemental Notice

NACWA submitted comments  January 30 on the Office of Enforcement & Compliance Assurance (OECA) proposed National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) e-Reporting Rule supplemental notice. The supplemental notice sought to clarify a number of issues, especially on adjusting implementation schedules and the State Readiness Criteria. The Association maintained positions set out in earlier comments  on the original proposed rule and incorporated Member Agency notes to focus on the need for longer implementation periods, data quality, and consideration of how the complexity of stormwater and biosolids reporting will impact transition to electronic reports.

Contact: Brenna Mannion at 202/533-1839 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

NACWA Begins Preliminary Discussion with EPA on NPDES Permit Rule

A select group of NACWA members and staff met with key EPA Office of Water State and Regional Branch staff January 27 to begin a dialogue on the NPDES Application and Program Updates Rule. This rule is intended to address application, permitting, monitoring and reporting requirements that have become obsolete or outdated over the past 35 years. Clean water utilities may be impacted by the five key categories expected in the proposal, including application updates, updated Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) and pesticide definitions, and clarifications to anti-backsliding, anti-degradation, and design flows. More details are available, please contact the Association.

Contact: Brenna Mannion at 202/533-1839 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Security & Emergency Preparedness

Wastewater Associations Meet with Centers for Disease Control; Recommendations Available for Pretreatment of Ebola Virus Patient Waste

NACWA, the Water Environment Federation (WEF), the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF), and the California Association of Sanitation Agencies (CASA) met with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on February 24 to discuss risks to wastewater utility workers from Ebola patient waste and other pathogens. Although there are currently no active Ebola virus cases in the U.S., the associations would still like to see better communication from CDC on how workers can best be protected from Ebola and other risks.

The CDC’s Interim Guidance for Managers and Workers Handling Untreated Sewage from Individuals with Ebola in the United States does not recommend pretreatment of Ebola patient waste prior to sewer discharge, utilities remain concerned about the potential risks presented by this waste. To respond to this concern, CASA consulted with microbiologists and considered other recommendations, including a U.S. Army Institute of Public Health Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)  for Ebola-related waste, to develop recommendations  for pretreating patient waste with bleach or quaternary ammonium disinfectant. These recommendations were reviewed and supported by NACWA as a reasonable and practical way to reduce any risk to wastewater utility workers.

While the CDC does not believe that pretreatment is necessary based on current knowledge of the Ebola virus, it is willing to work with the wastewater associations to improve provisions in the CDC documents that will acknowledge pretreatment as a local option. The associations and CDC also talked about how government agencies can better communicate with utilities the next time a public health issue raises questions of risk to wastewater utility workers, since there was a long delay in releasing the CDC’s Interim Guidance last fall. The ongoing research into the fate of the Ebola virus in wastewater was also discussed, including project sponsored by WERF. NACWA will notify members when the results of the research are released, and the Association will continue to work with the CDC and the other associations to improve the information available to utilities about the Ebola virus and other threats.

Contact: Cynthia Finley at 202/533-1836 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .