Utilities and other entities that practice land application of biosolids can benefit from improved data management systems.Click here to enlarge imageThe Water Environment Federation questioned the EPA's cost figures, saying they were far short of the actual cost of controlling sewer system overflows.
"We are sure EPA can defend that number but it's a very narrow cost estimate that deals only with the incremental cost of preparing reports and doing things to comply with this particular proposal. It doesn't address the billions of dollars in infrastructure costs that cities will face to minimizes spills and overflows in the future," said Tim Williams, Director of Government Affairs for WEF.
The proposed regulations are designed to provide national consistency in permitting and enforcement, sewer operation and maintenance principles, public notification and other public policy issues. They will require facilities to develop and implement new capacity, management, operation, and maintenance programs and public notification programs.
EPA estimates that there are at least 40,000 sanitary sewer overflows each year. Untreated sewage from overflows can cause serious water quality problems and threaten drinking water supplies, fish and shellfish. It can also back up into basements, causing property damage and threats to public health.
"Each year, too many beaches in America must be closed due to contamination by raw sewage that threatens public health. Overflowing sewers are the major contributors to this problem," said EPA Assistant Administrator J. Charles Fox. The proposed SSO rule "is a step toward ensuring that sewer systems across America will be improved to help keep our beaches safe for swimming."
Sanitary sewer overflows that discharge to surface waters have been prohibited under the Clean Water Act since 1972. Municipal wastewater treatment plants that discharge are currently required to comply with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits, which require record-keeping and reporting of overflows and maintenance of their collection system. Most satellite sewage collection systems do not currently have NPDES permits, however.
EPA is proposing revisions to the NPDES permit regulations to reduce the frequency and occurrence of sewer overflows and provide more effective public notification when overflows do occur. Keys aspects of the proposed rule include:
Capacity Assurance, Management, Operation, and Maintenance Programs -- These programs will require communities to provide adequate wastewater collection and treatment capacity and incorporate many standard operation and maintenance activities for good system performance.
Notifying the Public and Health Authorities - Utilities will be required to establish a locally tailored program that notifies the public of overflows according to the risk associated with specific overflow events. EPA is also proposing that annual summaries of sewer overflows be made available to the public. The proposal clarifies existing record-keeping requirements and requirements to report to the state.
Prohibition of Overflows -- The existing Clean Water Act prohibition of sanitary sewer overflows that discharge to surface waters will be clarified to provide communities with limited protection from enforcement in cases where overflows are caused by factors beyond their reasonable control or severe natural conditions, provided there are no feasible alternatives.
Expanding Permit Coverage to Satellite Systems -- Satellite municipal collection systems are those collection systems where the owner or operator is different than the owner or operator of the treatment facility. Some 4,800 satellite collection systems will be required to obtain NPDES permit coverage to include the requirements under this proposal.
Requiring satellite collection systems to obtain NPDES permits would be problematic on a couple of levels, Williams said.
"EPA is forcing the issue at the state or local level to get cities to sort out jurisdictional issues of whose responsible for the satellite systems.
NPDES permits have traditionally covered discharges to surface waters. Under the proposed rule, permits would be required even if the discharges were to basements and other areas, and not to surface water, Williams said.
"This is a significant expansion of the current NPDES permit authority," he said.
One nice thing about the proposed rule is the issue of enforcement discretion. Cities across the country are working to develop model programs based on best practices, but sewer systems are large, hydraulic systems that can be subject to the whims of Mother nature.
"Cities want some assurance that if they have a model program they won't be sued every time there is an overflow," Williams said. "Industry wants overflows to be extremely rare, but realistically there are still going to be overflows and backups."
He sited the example of a city that first suffered an El Nino-induced flood that inundated the city and its sewer plant, and then was sued by EPA for allowing sewer systems overflows.
On a related note, national consistency in enforcement is also important, Williams said.
"Some regions are especially diligent in suing cities for overflows and some regions are not. Cities have asked for a nationally consistent policy for what is an overflow and situations where EPA would take an enforcement action," he said.
Although the process has been underway for a number of years, EPA's SSO recent proposal comes in response to President Clinton's May 1999 executive action to improve water quality and public health by developing stronger measures to prevent sewage spills, the major cause of beach closures, EPA said.
In 1999, nearly 1500 of the nation's beach closures and health advisories were due to sewage overflows, threatening public health, family vacations, recreational use of waterways and billions of tourist dollars.
For additional information about EPA's proposed sanitary sewer overflow regulation, contact Kevin Weiss at [email protected] or visit http://www.epa.gov/owm/sso.htm on the Internet.
