The Environmental Protection Agency has extended the effective date of the new Arsenic Rule an additional nine months, to February 22, 2002, and asked the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for an "expedited review" looking at a possible standard ranging from 3 to 20 parts per billion (ppb).
"The Bush Administration is committed to protecting the environment and the health of all Americans," said EPA Administrator Christie Whitman. "Today we are taking action to ensure that a standard will be put in place in a timely manner that provides clean, safe and affordable drinking water for the nation and is based on the best science."
EPA is asking the academy to look at new studies regarding health effects that were received after the previous comment period closed and to review EPA's risk analysis of arsenic. The NAS already has reported that the present standard of 50 ppb, set in 1942, is too high, but it did not specify what a protective level should be. EPA has directed staff to prepare a rule proposal seeking additional public comment on the 3-20 ppb range.
"I have said consistently that we will obtain the necessary scientific review to ensure a standard that fully protects the health of all Americans, and that we will establish that standard in a timely manner," Whitman said.
As part of her independent review, the Whitman will convene a subgroup of the National Drinking Water Advisory Council to review the economic issues associated with a standard.
"Many smaller water systems and the communities they serve may have to absorb additional costs to meet the new standard," Whitman said. "We want to make sure those costs are fair and fully justified. A new standard will not be fully protective of the health of Americans unless we make the proper plans now to ensure that all drinking water systems will be able to meet it."
She also has directed EPA staff to develop a technical assistance program.
On January 22, EPA published a standard that would have lowered the current arsenic standard, setting compliance dates in 2006. Administrator Whitman extended the January standard's March 23 effective date for 60 days in a Federal Register notice published March 23. Whitman, under pressure from the Bush Administration, took the step because of concerns that the initial study had been rushed, and a more precise scientific review was required.
Bush had drawn heavy criticism from environmentalists and others when EPA announced plans to withdraw the Arsenic Rule, which was pushed through in the closing days of the Clinton administration.
Additional information on the proposal and the comment period is available from EPA's drinking water hotline at 1-800-426-4781 or on EPA's Office of Water home page at: http://www.epa.gov/ow.
EPA Extends Deadline For CAFO Proposal Comments
In late March, EPA Administrator Whitman announced a 75-day extension to the public comment period for the proposed revisions to NPDES and Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) published on Jan. 12 in the Federal Register. The original comment period ended May 14; the extended deadline is July 30. EPA decided to extend the deadline as a result of stakeholder feedback during the eight March public hearings around the country.
Utility Company Faces Clean Water Act Fine
A Kansas City, MO., utility company will pay $1 million after pleading guilty to misdemeanor violations of the Clean Water Act. An Omaha utility will pay an additional $100,000. The penalties follow an investigation by the EPA.
The companies are Utilicorp United, of Kansas City, and PeopleService, of Omaha, NE. The companies failed to properly sample wastewater discharges from treatment facilities under their operation, as required in their Clean Water Act permits. The violations resulted from negligent supervision of the sampling procedures used by employees at facilities along rivers and streams in the Missouri River Basin of eastern Nebraska.
The Utilicorp violations occurred in 1995-1996 when PeopleService was a division of that company. The PeopleService violations occurred in 1997 after it became an independent company. Each company pleaded guilty to five violations, and each was sentenced in Federal Court by U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon.
Utilicorp's $1 million fine will be spent on improving water resources and water quality in Nebraska. The money will go to the U.S. Treasury ($100,000); the Nebraska Environmental Trust ($150,000); and Back to the River, Inc. ($750,000).
The Nebraska Environmental Trust funds environmental projects to enhance and preserve natural resources in Nebraska. Back to the River, Inc., is a public benefit corporation working to restore an ecological, economic, recreational, and historic corridor along the Missouri River in Nebraska and Iowa.
PeopleService will pay a $100,000 fine to undertake, finance, and complete a detailed compliance plan under the direction of EPA and the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality. An additional fine of $400,000 may be suspended by the court if the compliance plan is successful.
EPA Releases Wetlands Guidance
The EPA has released a new document, "Guiding Principles for Con-structed Treatment Wetlands: Providing Water Quality and Wildlife Habitat." The document includes guiding principles for siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and monitoring of constructed treatment wetlands, and information on current Agency policies, permits, regulations, and resources.
The number of constructed treatment wetland projects receiving wastewater from municipal and industrial treatment sources as well as agricultural and storm water sources has increased to more than 600 active projects across the United States. If planned properly, these treatment wetlands offer opportunities to regain some of the natural functions of wetlands and offset some of the significant losses in wetland acreage. In arid regions and communities reaching the limits of water availability, water reuse via these systems is an attractive option that may help achieve water conservation and wildlife habitat goals.
Constructed treatment wetland project proponents and regulators have expressed a desire for more efficient and consistent policy guidelines for the development and permitting of such projects, especially those providing both water quality and wildlife habitat benefits. An initial effort to develop this guidance was funded by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Environmental Technology Initiative (ETI) Program.
The Guiding Principles were developed by the Interagency Workgroup on Constructed Wetlands, which included representatives from the EPA, Army Corps of Engineers, Fish and Wildlife Service, Natural Resources Conservation Services, National Marine Fisheries Service, and Bureau of Reclamation.
Information from specific case study projects, and scientific literature was used to develop the principles, along with technical information provided by constructed wetlands experts and dialogue during the workgroup meetings.
For the purposes of the Guiding Principles, constructed treatment wetlands are defined as engineered or constructed wetlands that use natural processes involving wetland vegetation, soils, and their associated microbial assemblages to assist, at least partially, in treating an effluent or other water source. In general, these systems should be engineered and constructed in uplands, outside waters of the U.S., unless the source water can be used to restore a degraded or former wetland.
