EPA issued on August 13 draft total maximum daily load (TMDL) sediment limits for use by six states and the District of Columbia in developing broad plans to restore the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The draft sediment limits provide the jurisdictions guidance in developing their Watershed Implementation Plans to improve pollution controls and accelerate restoration of the bay and its tributaries by 2025. The states and the District of Columbia are to use the sediment limits, along with previously issued limits for nitrogen and phosphorus, for completing a broader pollution-reduction plan covering the entire 64,000-square-mile watershed. The Watershed Implementation Plans to be developed by the six watershed states and the District of Columbia will apportion the sediment limits as well as limits on nitrogen and phosphorus and outline actions needed to improve water quality. The sediment and pollution limits cover the bay and its tidal tributaries as well as local rivers and streams throughout the watershed. EPA set the overall sediment allocation for the six states and the District of Columbia in its draft document in the range of 6.06 million to 6.67 million pounds of suspended solids per year. The three jurisdictions receiving the largest portions of that overall sediment allocation, or budget, are Virginia (2.45 million to 2.69 million pounds per year); Pennsylvania (1.9 million to 2.09 million pounds per year); and Maryland (1.12 million to 1.23 million pounds per year). The allocations are also broken down by major river basins, including the Susquehanna, Potomac, and Rappahannock rivers. According to a letter sent to the jurisdictions, EPA plans to issue a final version of the TDML by December 31.

EPA asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on August 13 in a filingthat it intends to conduct a limited rulemaking to determine whether to revise the numeric limit for discharges from construction sites. EPA asked the court to remand to the agency portions of a final rule on effluent limits for construction projects (Wisconsin Builders Association v. EPA, 7th Cir., No. 09-4113. EPA said the court should remand limited portions of the final rule, Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Construction and Development Point Source Category, published in the December 1, 2009 Federal Register. The agency also asked the court to remand the administrative record for the rule so that EPA could better explain the rationale for its new standards. It asked that the court hold the case in abeyance for 18 months, until February. 15, 2012, to allow time to fix the rule. According to EPA, the rule affects about 82,000 companies, including residential and commercial construction companies and civil engineering firms involved in highway, street, and bridge construction.

Congress is being urged to invest in wastewater infrastructure and green projects to stop wastewater discharges and reduce stormwater overflows in the Great Lakes Region, according to a report released August 9 by the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition. The coalition of more than 80 organizations is seeking to reduce water pollution in the Great Lakes and argue that cities in this region are strapped for cash and cannot afford the cost of increased water pollution from untreated wastewater discharges and stormwater runoff that threaten the area's environment and public health. The coalition’s report - Turning the Tide: Investing in Wastewater Infrastructure to Create Jobs and Solve the Sewage Crisis in the Great Lakes – examines the problem of wastewater overflows in the eight-state region of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. From January 2009 through January 2010, just five cities on the U.S. side of the Great Lakes—Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Milwaukee, and Gary, Ind.—discharged 41 billion gallons of untreated sewage and dirty stormwater into the lakes, the report said. The coalition states that Federal investment would create jobs and improve the environment and encourages Congress to provide at least $2.7 billion this year for sewer upgrades nationwide, with 20 percent of that money going to green infrastructure projects. This would include $972 million for Great Lakes states. Congress increased funding for the Clean Water Revolving Fund last year, appropriating $2 billion in the 2010 fiscal budget and $4 billion in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. 

EPA announced in the August 16 Federal Register that it has scheduled three public web conferences for technical discussion with stakeholders on a reevaluation of currently approved analytical methods for detecting coliform bacteria in drinking water. The web conferences will be held Sept. 8, Oct. 5, and Nov. 4. The consideration of possible changes to analytical methods comes as EPA is working on a revision to the total coliform rule, the primary regulation protecting drinking water from harmful bacteria. For more information or to register for participation in the web discussions, contact Cesar Cordero of EPA at (202) 564-3716 or cordero.cesar@epa.gov.

EPA will be gathering feedback on the new drinking water strategy in-person and online. It will present an overview of the Agency’s new Drinking Water Strategy at listening sessions on August 19, 2010 to obtain feedback from the public and stakeholders on possible approaches to implementing the strategy. The California and Nevada section of American Water Works Association, in coordination with EPA Region 9, will sponsor the listening session from 10 am to noon PST in Cucamonga, CA. These meetings will conclude a series of four listening sessions on the specific proposal of addressing contaminants as group(s).  EPA will consider feedback, ideas, and perspectives from the public and stakeholders presented at the listening sessions as we develop the agenda for the upcoming Drinking Water Strategy stakeholder meeting and the framework for addressing contaminants as group(s). This week, EPA also launched an online discussion forum about the strategy. Each segment of the strategy will be posted for comment and discussion. The forum will be open for about a month.

The National Biosolids Partnership will conduct September 22 “no charge” webcast on the topic - Combined Heat and Power Generation Opportunities at Wastewater Treatment Facilities. Combined heat and power (CHP) projects are becoming more and more popular at wastewater treatment facilities. Evidence of this enthusiasm for CHP projects was on display at WEF’s most recent Residuals and Biosolids Specialty Conference held in Savannah, GA. This webcast will bring together plant operators, utility managers, consultants, engineers, equipment/process vendors, regulators, and academics interested in learning about the state of the practice and opportunities for combined heat and power generation from wastewater treatment plant operations and the various technologies to achieve that objective. Join NBP for the third in a series of “no charge” quarterly webcasts based on critical biosolids technical topics. The webcast will be held on September 22 from 2:00 – 4:00 pm EDT.Online Registration.  More information.  Last Day to register is Monday, September 20, 2010. There will be professional development hours (PDH) offered for registrants requiring these training credits. Webcast login instructions and call-in instructions will be sent to all registrants just prior to the webcasts along with instructions on downloading the PDF copies of the power point presentations.

Speakers:

• John Willis – (Brown and Caldwell, Atlanta, GA) - Overview of Technology Options for CHP -  Discussion of Engines, Combustion Turbines, Microturbines, Fuel Cells, and Boiler-Steam Turbine Systems
• Dan O’Brien– (Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, Boston, MA) MWRA’s Deer Island Heat First-Power Second CHP with Boilers and Steam Turbines
• Srinivas Jalla– (Gwinnett County, GA) - Making the Case for a CHP Project in Gwinnett County, GA
• Dale Doerr– (Sheboygan, WI) - Sheboygan, WI’s Journey to Energy Independence Experience with CHP

New research evaluating the water security of 165 countries rates the supply of clean, fresh water to the societies and businesses of 10 nations at "extreme risk." The research finds that countries in the extreme risk category, including the emerging economies of Pakistan, Egypt and Uzbekistan, are already experiencing internal and cross-border tensions due to limited water resources. Furthermore, as the global climate changes, water stress is predicted to become more acute in these regions and has the potential to threaten stability. Pakistan's long-running dispute over Kashmir with India (13 and high risk) is in part fuelled by competition for critical water resources that are needed to maintain the growth of industry and investment for both countries. Egypt, which is dependent on water from the Blue Nile, is currently threatening legal action over the construction of the Gibe III dam in Ethiopia, which will further jeopardize its limited supplies; and in Uzbekistan, where an estimated 87% of the population has access to good quality drinking water, tensions are rising with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan due to hydro-electric projects on the rivers that flow into the country.

According to the Water Security Risk Index, Somalia (1), Mauritania (2), Sudan (3), Niger (4), Iraq (5), Uzbekistan (6), Pakistan (7), Egypt (8), Turkmenistan (9) and Syria (10) are the countries with the least secure supplies of water. Regions particularly vulnerable to a lack of water security include the Middle East and the CIS countries of the former Soviet Union, where all appear in the high and extreme risk categories, except Georgia, Belarus and Russia, which is considered low risk. Africa is also acutely affected by the issue, with 15 countries in the high and extreme risk categories. The countries with the most stable supplies of clean water include Iceland (165), Norway (164) and New Zealand (163). Other low risk countries include the UK (144) and Brazil (148).

On August 12, EPA’s Office of Water (OW) launched its redesigned website, replacing four OW content areas on www.epa.gov. Information is now organized by topic in a way that should be more straight-forward and useful to visitors. Visitors to the agency site looking for water-related content will be redirected to appropriate pages on the new OW site.

Take almost any path you please, and ten to one it carries you down in a dale, and leaves you there by a pool in the stream. There is magic in it. Let the most absent-minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveries--stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region. Should you ever be athirst in the great American desert, try this experiment, if your caravan happen to be supplied with a metaphysical professor. Yes, as everyone knows, meditation and water are wedded forever.

- Herman Melville (1819-1891),Moby Dick, 1851  

Note: This Week in Washington will be on hiatus August 27 and will be resumed on September 3.

This Week in Washingtonis provided by the Water Environment Federation, Alexandria, VA and is available on-line.  To receive by e-mail, please contact the Editor -Sam Hadeed - at shadeed@wef.org or call 703.684.2418 with questions.