REGULATORY UPDATE

Federal

Clean Water Act		NPDES Permit Program
Combined Sewer Overflow Policy		Sanitary Sewer Overflow Policy
Stormwater Phase II Program

Clean Water Act

The U.S. Congress passed the Clean Water Act (CWA) in 1972 to help protect the country’s water resources. The Act was created to regulate all types of discharges to U.S. waterways, and has significantly reduced direct pollutant discharges, funded the construction of municipal wastewater treatment facilities and requires management of polluted stormwater runoff. "Direct pollutant discharges" include wet weather sewer overflows from combined sewer and sanitary sewer systems, discharges from municipal sewage plants and industrial facilities and stormwater runoff from streets, construction sites, farms, etc. Under the CWA, all overflows from sanitary sewers (designed to carry wastewater only) are prohibited and overflows from combined sewers (designed to carry wastewater and stormwater in the same pipe) must be reduced to only a few each year.

The EPA’s Office of Wastewater Management (OWM) has created numerous programs and policies to promote compliance with the requirements of the Clean Water Act, including the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permitting program, the Combined Sewer Overflow Policy, the Sanitary Sewer Overflow Policy and the recent Stormwater Phase II regulation.

For more information on the Clean Water Act, click here.

National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permitting Program

Any facility that discharges pollutants (any type of industrial, municipal or agricultural waste) from a point source into the waters of the United States needs an NPDES permit. A point source is any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance, such as a pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, or container. It also includes vessels or other floating craft from which pollutants are or may be discharged. Typical point source discharges include discharges from publicly owned treatment works (POTWs), which treat sewage from commercial and residential customers and discharges from industrial facilities.

Combined sewer systems, which frequently overflow untreated sewage into the waterways during wet weather, are regulated under the NPDES program. The City of Pittsburgh and many Allegheny County municipalities operate combined sewage collection systems under an NPDES permit. In general, the permit serves as a license to discharge a specified amount of a pollutant into receiving waters under certain conditions.

In order for the NPDES permit to be renewed, the permit holder must meet certain requirements (or commit to a schedule to meet the requirements), such as the "Nine Minimum Controls," outlined in the Combined Sewer Overflow Policy. For more information on EPA’s NPDES permitting program, click here.

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National Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Control Policy

As part of the NPDES permitting system, communities with combined sewer systems, which carry both wastewater and stormwater in the same set of pipes, must comply with the CSO Control Policy. The CSO Control Policy was created to provide guidance to municipalities on meeting the Clean Water Act’s pollution control goals. If a community does not comply with the CSO Control Policy, its NPDES permit (required for any entity discharging pollutants into the waterways) may not be renewed.

A critical component of the policy is a section called "The Nine Minimum Controls (NMCs)," which are measures that communities must implement to control CSOs without requiring significant engineering studies or major construction. The Nine Minimum Controls include:

1. Proper operation and regular maintenance programs for the sewer system and the CSOs
2. Maximum use of the collection system for storage
3. Review and modification of pretreatment requirements to assure CSO impacts are minimized
4. Maximization of flow to the publicly owned treatment works (POTW) for treatment
5. Prohibition of CSOs during dry weather
6. Control of solid and floatable materials in CSOs
7. Pollution prevention
8. Public notification to ensure that the public receives adequate notification of CSO occurrences and CSO impacts
9. Monitoring to effectively characterize CSO impacts and the efficacy of CSO controls

CSO communities are also expected to develop long-term control plans (LTCPs) that will ultimately result in full compliance with the Clean Water Act.

For more information on the EPA’s National CSO Control Policy, click here.

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Proposed Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) Rule

Communities with separate sanitary sewer systems, which carry wastewater only, have not historically been required to obtain an NPDES permit because the permitting program is designed for entities that discharge pollutants from a "point source." Any overflow from a sanitary sewer system is illegal under the Clean Water Act; therefore the system should not have any discharge pipes or point sources from which pollutants can contaminate the waterways.

However, EPA estimates that at least 40,000 overflows occur nationwide from sanitary sewers every year. These overflows may occur through manholes, deteriorated pipes throughout the system or through basement backups into people’s homes. Thus, the EPA has developed the SSO Rule, which would require separate sanitary sewer communities to obtain an NPDES permit for their collection systems. The goal of the regulation is to improve the operation of municipal sanitary sewer collection systems, reduce the frequency and occurrence of sanitary sewer overflows and provide more effective public notification if overflows do occur.

While the SSO Rule is not yet finalized, it is expected to be published in the Federal Register soon for public comment.

The proposed rule includes four major elements:

1. Permit coverage of satellite systems.
   All municipalities with satellite sewer collection systems would be required to obtain an NPDES permit. A satellite collection system is defined as a system whose owner or operator is different than the owner or operator of the treatment facility.
2. Capacity Assurance, Management, Operation and Maintenance (CMOM) Program.
   The goals of a CMOM program focus on collection system operation and maintenance, capacity assurance, elimination and mitigation of SSOs, and public notification when overflows occur.
3. Prohibition of overflows.
   The Clean Water Act prohibits all sanitary sewer overflows. This section of the SSO Rule would provide communities with limited protection from enforcement in cases where overflows are caused by factors beyond their reasonable control or severe natural conditions.
4. Notifying the public and health authorities.
   Municipalities must develop a program that notifies the public of overflows according to the risk associated with the overflow events. They must also develop an annual summary of sewer overflows to be made available to the public.

For more information about the Proposed SSO Rule, click here.

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Stormwater Phase II Program

While sewage overflows have a major impact on our water resources, stormwater runoff has also been identified as a major pollutant to the nation’s waterways. To protect and improve water resources, the EPA developed the Stormwater Phase II program. Phase II expands the Phase I program, which relies on the NPDES permit program to address the runoff issue.

Common pollutants carried by stormwater include: pesticides, fertilizers, oils, salt, litter and other debris, and sediment. In addition, in many cases, parts of a sanitary sewage collection system are illegally connected to a separate stormwater system, which results in untreated sewage flowing into the rivers and streams.

The Phase II Program requires operators of municipal separate storm sewer Systems (MS4s) to develop, implement and enforce a stormwater management program based on "best management practices" (BMPs) to reduce the discharge of pollutants, protect water quality and satisfy the water quality requirements of the Clean Water Act.

The stormwater management program must include "six minimum controls:"

1. Public education and outreach
2. Public participation/involvement
3. Illicit discharge detection and elimination
4. Construction site runoff control
5. Post-construction runoff control
6. Pollution prevention/good housekeeping

When implemented together, these six elements are expected to significantly reduce the amount of pollutants discharged into waterways through stormwater runoff.

For more information about the Stormwater Phase II Program, click here.

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