This Week in Washington is a weekly publication of the Water Environment Federation’s Government Affairs department. It provides updates on the latest legislative and regulatory developments that affect the water and wastewater communities.

Provided by the Water Environment Federation, Alexandria, VA

WEF Sends Letter to EPA on Draft Policy for Wet Weather Significant Noncompliance
This week the Water Environment Federation (WEF) sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with comments on EPA’s draft Significant Noncompliance (SNC) Policy for Clean Water Act Violations Associated with CSOs, SSOs, CAFOs, and Storm Water Point Sources.  In the letter to Walker Smith, Director of the Office of Regulatory Enforcement, WEF commented that the proposed SNC criteria in the draft policy are too broad to serve as effective tools in prioritizing wet weather compliance problems.  WEF stated that the draft policy does not adequately consider the unpredictable and sometimes extreme nature of wet weather events and urged EPA to recognize that mitigating factors often must be considered in determining whether sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) are enforceable events.  WEF suggested that EPA build on its already established guidance for determining SNC and further clarify how to identify priority problems.  The letter also stated that WEF believes that the draft SNC policy regarding separate sanitary sewer systems would best be incorporated into a formal, national SSO rule.  The draft policy, dated June 21, was under consideration by EPA and has not been released for public comment or review.  WEF urged EPA to make any future versions of the policy available for public comment.  WEF’s comments were developed by a work group of WEF members from the Government Affairs and Collection Systems Committee.  Requests for a copy of the letter should be sent to sthomas@wef.org.  (SRT)

EPA Releases 2006 Effluent Guidelines Program Plan
On December 14 the EPA Assistant Administrator for Water, Ben Grumbles, signed the final 2006 Effluent Guidelines Program Plan notice.  EPA is required by the Clean Water Act to publish a plan every other year that describes the Agency’s approach to revising or developing effluent guidelines for future years. The final 2006 plan provides an overview of the Agency's actions for the effluent guidelines program for 2007 and 2008.  After reviewing additional data and public comments on the draft plan published in August 2005, EPA has decided to conduct more detailed reviews in 2007 and 2008 on the following industrial sectors as part of the2008 Plan: steam electric power generating, coal mining, coalbed methane extraction, and health services including emerging pollutants such as pharmaceuticals. No industrial sectors were selected for revisions to current effluent guideline regulations.  EPA is also requesting comments on how to conduct its 2007 annual review of effluent guidelines and pretreatment standards for the 2008 Plan. The signed plan is available at http://epa.gov/guide/plan.html and should be in the Federal Register soon.  (SRT)

EPA Finalizes TRI Burden Reduction Rule
On December 18 EPA announced a final rule that expands the number of Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) facilities eligible to use the Form A Certification Statement (Form A) in lieu of the more detailed Form R.  The rule is the second phase of a multi-year initiative. Phase One removed unneeded items from TRI reporting forms and eliminated items that could be pulled from other data sources already available to EPA.  The rule makes Form A available for use in reporting persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) chemicals under limited circumstances for the first time in the program’s history. Facilities may use Form A for PBT chemicals when there have been no releases or other disposal into the environment and the total amount of the chemical managed by treatment, energy recovery, and recycling is not more than 500 pounds.  EPA hopes the rule will provide incentives for facilities to improve environmental performance by eliminating or reducing releases and managing remaining wastes using preferred methods such as recycling and treatment.   The final rule will not eliminate reporting on any releases of PBT chemicals but will allow a limited amount of recycling and treatment to be reported on Form A.  The final rule also expands the current use of Form A for non-PBT chemicals by raising the eligibility limit on total waste management (i.e., releases, recycling, energy recovery, and treatment) from 500 to 5,000 pounds, with a 2,000 pound cap on releases and other disposal.  The final rule is available at http://www.epa.gov/tri/tridata/modrule/phase2/forma.htm. (SRT)

EPA Extends Toxic Substance Control Act Inventory Reporting Deadline
EPA announced in the December 20 Federal Register that it is amending the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Inventory Update Reporting (IUR) regulations by extending the submission deadline for 2006 reports from December 23 to March 23. This is a one-time extension for the 2006 submission period. The IUR requires manufacturers and importers of certain chemical substances included on the TSCA Chemical Substance Inventory to report current data on the manufacturing, processing, and use of the substances.  To view the Federal Register notice, visit: http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-TOX/2006/December/Day-20/t21711.htm. (SJH)

This Week in Washington is provided by the Water Environment Federation, Alexandria, VA. To receive This Week in Washington by e-mail, contact Lisa Jones, (703) 684-2400 ext. 7741, ljones@wef.org. For more information on this week's stories, please contact the WEF staff whose initials appear at the end of the item in which you are interested. TW –Tim Williams (703) 684-2437, twilliams@wef.org; SRT - Sharon Thomas, (703) 684-2423, sthomas@wef.org; SJH - Sam Hadeed (703) 684-2418, shadeed@wef.org; PS-Patricia Sinicropi (703) 684-2416, psinicropi@wef.org. This Week in Washington is available on-line at http://www.wef.org/GovernmentAffairs/TWIW/.