Regulations that Protect Clean Water

1. Regulations that Protect Clean Water Jocelyn Mullen, P.E. PART 3 OF PRESENTATION Presented at The Water Course January 27, 2010 Mesa County Water Association

2. Clean Water Act Total Maximum Daily Loads Antidegradation Nonpoint Source Program

3. Develop Strategies to Attain and Maintain Water Quality Standards • §303(d) - Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) • §320 - National Estuary Program • Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan • Other holistic watershed-based strategies

4. §303(d) Process: Establishing TMDLs A TMDL. . . . • Is a strategy for achieving WQS • Is based on the relationship between pollutant sources and the condition of a waterbody • Describes an allowable load and allocates it among several sources

5. Pollution • The man-made or man-induced alteration of the chemical, physical, biological and radiological integrity of the water CWA Section 502(14)

6. TMDLs • Amount of a specific pollutant that a waterbody can receive and assimilate and still meet water quality standards • States and tribes are required to develop TMDLs for waters on their §303(d) lists • TMDLs are approved or disapproved by EPA; if disapproved, EPA develops the TMDL

7. TMDL = SWLAi + SLAi + MOS SWLAi: Sum of waste loads (point sources) where i=1 to n SLAi: Sum of loads (nonpoint sources) MOS: Margin of Safety - Extra measure of protection due to uncertainty - Can be explicit (e.g., 10%) or implicit (safety factors and assumptions in modeling, etc.) i=1 TMDL Definition

8. WQS: Antidegradation • Purpose: Prevent deterioration of existing levels of good water quality • Two basic rules apply to all high- quality waters • More stringent rules apply to specially designated waters

9. Nonpoint Source Program CWA Section 319

10. State NPS Management Programs • States, territories, and tribes • Identify waters impaired or threatened by nonpoint sources • Short- (< 5 years) and long-term goals for NPS program • Identify key categories of NPS: estimate total loadings from each category • Best management practices useful with each key category

11. CWA Point Source ProgramsStormwater ProgramsSection 404 Program

12. Municipal Wet Weather Flows

13. MS4/CSO Permits: Special Features • System-wide permits rather than outfall-by-outfall • Often no end-of-pipe pollutant limits, but may be included • Application of various types of BMPs required • Strategic plans for addressing problems required • Opportunity for public input • Links to land use issues

14. MS4s MS4 Sanitary Sewer

15. MS4s: Permit Conditions • Eliminate non-storm water discharges to storm sewer system • Implement program to reduce runoff from industrial, commercial, and residential areas to "maximum extent practicable" (MEP) • No specific EPA regulations defining MEP: permit-by-permit • Implement program to control discharges from new development and redevelopment areas

16. Industrial Storm Water • Facilities with effluent limits • Manufacturing • Mineral, metal, oil, gas • Hazardous waste facilities • Steam electric plants • Construction disturbing > 1 acre • Recycling facilities • Transportation • Treatment works • Landfills • Light industry

17. Sediment and Erosion During Construction • Until March 10, 2003, applies to projects disturbing more than 5 acres • After that date, applies to construction affecting 1 or more acres • Permits to include controls on S&E (through BMPs) during and after construction if it is part of a larger permitted project

18. Threats to Ground Water

19. Underground Injection Control Program • Designed to protect underground sources of drinking water • Very much a water pollution control program • Addresses ground water, which is typically not protected by the CWA

20. What is an Underground Injection Well? • Well: A bored, drilled, or driven shaft, or a dug well or dug hole where the depth is greater than the largest surface dimension; or an improved sinkhole; or a subsurface distribution system • Underground injection: Subsurface emplacement of fluids through a well

21. Source: GWPC

22. Types of Injection Wells: • Type I : Inject hazardous wastes, industrial non-hazardous liquids, or municipal wastewater beneath the lowermost USDW • Type II : Inject brines and other fluids associated with oil and gas production, and hydrocarbons for storage. They inject beneath the lowermost USDW. • Type III : Inject fluids associated with solution mining of minerals beneath the lowermost USDW. • Type IV : Inject hazardous or radioactive wastes into or above USDWs. These wells are banned unless authorized under a federal or state ground water remediation project. • Type V : Class V wells inject non-hazardous fluids into or above USDWs and are typically shallow, on-site disposal systems

23. Class V Wells Mineral & Fossil Fuel Recovery Industrial Facility Agricultural Areas Residential Areas Improved Sinkhole Industrial Process Water and Waste Disposal Well Septic Tank Treatment Plant Commercial Drainage Areas Agricultural Drainage Well Service Station Repair Bay Limestone Fractured Bedrock Heat Pump Air Conditioning Return Flow System Sandstone Source: Ohio EPA

24. Specific Exclusions • Injection wells on drilling platforms or elsewhere beyond State’s territorial waters • Individual or single-family residential waste disposal systems (cesspools or septic systems) • Non-residential cesspools or septic systems if receive only sanitary waste and serve < 20 people per day

25. Specific Exclusions • Wells used for injection of gas hydrocarbons for storage • Dug holes not used for subsurface fluid emplacement

26. Manmade Water Management Systems Drinking Water-Wastewater Interaction Water Treatment Water Resource Protection

27. Pretreatment • Applies to POTWs >5 MGD • Objective: Prevent upset, pass-through, sludge contamination from incoming toxics • Prohibits discharge of explosive, highly flammable, and extremely corrosive substances into municipal sewers • Oversight of compliance of indirect dischargers with EPA-issued tech-based limits (categorical) • Local limits addressing additional problems, including meeting WQ-based limits for POTWs

28. Sludge (aka Biosolids)

29. Municipal Sewage Sludge (Section 503) • EPA regulations dealing with disposal and use of sewage sludge • Addresses toxics, pathogens, and vectors • Generators, processors, disposers, and users usually need a permit • Sludge disposal • Monofills • Mixed municipal solid waste landfills (RCRA) • Land application, impoundments and lagoons • Incineration (CAA)

30. Beneficial Sludge Uses • Agriculture and forest land • Parks and golf courses • Land reclamation sites • Home gardens and lawns

31. Domestic Septage • Septage - liquid or solid removed from a septic tank, cesspool, portable toilet • 40 CFR Part 503 rules imposed if septage is applied to land with high human contact potential • Parks, ballfields, cemeteries, plant nurseries, golf courses • Less burdensome requirements imposed if septage is applied to nonpublic contact sites • Agricultural land, forests, reclamation sites

32. CWA Section 401 Oversight of Federal Permitting

33. Section 401: Oversight of Federal Permitting • Coverage • EPA-issued NPDES permits • FERC licensing of dams • Section 404 permits • No federal permit or license issued without state certification that authorized activity is consistent with attainment of WQS • Downstream States and authorized Tribes also have section 401 leverage • Certification often issued with conditions • Vegetated buffer areas, BMPs, wetland restoration, modified hydrodam operations