Complying with Stormwater Regulations And Ways to Meet the Challenge

Transcription

1 Complying with Stormwater Regulations And Ways to Meet the Challenge Scott Taylor, P. E. Sr. Vice President, RBF Consulting Chair, CASQA

2 What Specifically Are the Regulatory Trends? Low impact development (LID) Implementation, Capture and Use Hydromodification Programs Monitoring Receiving water Special studies Biological Sediment Pilot Studies Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELGs)

3 More Changes (and Costs) Reporting Legal Costs Oversight of other NPDES Permits Area of Special Biological Significance (ASBS) Research Education Pesticides Herbicides Pathogens

4 What Can be Done to Achieve Compliance and Bring Costs Under Control? Current Pathway is not Sustainable no clear program that will meet permit requirements, therefore, no clear final cost Adaptive stormwater program TMDLs Near Term Strategy Work with Boards - negotiation Long Term Strategy Work with EPA to implement true source control

5 Near Term: Negotiate MS4 NPDES Permits are on a 5-Year Cycle Permits Become More Prescriptive and Costly with each Cycle Develop your Report of Waste Discharge (ROWD) (i.e., permit application) carefully Insist on meeting with Board staff with sufficient time and frequency to fully vet concerns on draft NPDES Orders Testify at NPDES Adoption Hearings Staff technical issues Elected - cost and operational issues

6 Specific Items to Negotiate Draft NPDES Negotiation Items: Inspections Businesses Treatment BMPs Construction Site Requirements Industrial Site Requirements Retrofit Programs Dry Weather Flow Prohibition Numeric Action Levels (NALs) and SALs

7 Monitoring Programs Monitoring Programs can be the Single Biggest Budget Line Item Special Studies Pilot Studies Biological Monitoring Sediment Characterization/Mass Loading Hydromodification

8 Information Needed During Negotiation Good understanding of problems and sources Iterative plan to solve the problems Cost of programs Revenue sources to fund programs Alternative ways to achieve permit goals Understanding of NGO/regulator priorities Comment letters on major recent renewals EPA s Information Collection Request (ICR) Recent permits

9 TMDLs There are Three Basic Rules to TMDL Survival: 1. Participate Early in the Process Should you be named? TMDL technically sound Credit trading 2. Bring Good Data to the Process Fair Waste Load Allocations (WLAs) (i.e., discharge limits) 3. Develop Partnerships Economies of scale

10 Long-Term Strategy Stormwater dischargers must ultimately achieve receiving water quality standards, but there are compliance problems The true scope of the problem is unknown: Nearly 23 million organic and inorganic substances About 7 million of these substances are commercially available 1 Current system is not an efficient approach 1 Daughton (2004)

11 Change Required We are investing significant resources in the urbanizing fringe, but this area is not the problem The emphasis on treatment control or LID is not the answer for the built environment: Plumbing is wrong, grading is wrong Costs are too high Effectiveness is modest And,,pace of redevelopment is slow:

12 Consider About 110 million acres currently developed in the US (5.5% of land area) Redevelopment proceeds modestly. ABAG estimates 22,274 acres redeveloped from 1985 to 1995 This represents 0.5% of land area in the 8 counties sampled over the 10 year period. And, residential areas rarely redevelop

13 Meanwhile, Regulatory Pressure is Increasing. In 1998, there were about 21,749 waterbodies listed as impaired nationally. In 2008, the number rose to 43,446 waterbodies nationally. Leading Causes (US EPA): 1. Pathogens 2. Mercury 3. Metals 4. Nutrients 5. Sediment 6. PCBs

14 Also Consider: That many pollutants persist in the environment Many are very soluble Take years for problems to manifest Take years for us to recognize a problem About 4% of the land in the US is home to 75% of the population impairments should be limited to these areas Yet, problems occur far outside of urban areas

15 Need for Change The current regulatory system is reactive and based on proxies to achieve water quality standards: Best management practices (BMPs) Numeric sizing Action levels for individual constituents The system is not working TMDLs taking more program resources Litigation taking more program resources Municipal governments being asked to pay for programs with no clear pathway to the goal

16 True Source Control Source Control = keeping potential pollutants out of stormwater Operational More common Focused on physically keeping potential pollutants out of contact with rainfall and stormwater runoff through covering, berming, or cleaning True (or Original) Focuses on the original source of a potential pollutant or on runoff by eliminating or significantly reducing the existence of the potential pollutant or runoff thereby negating the need to physically prevent contact between the two

17 True Source Control Potential Pollutants Reduce the number potential pollutants Green chemistry (DTSC), Design with nature If you make it, you take care of it (Cradle-to-cradle) Product stewardship p( (CPSC), Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) (CIWMB) Runoff Start at the Source / Low Impact Development (LID)

18 True Source Control ( Potential Pollutants) Product-based Pollutants: Conceptual Relationships Manufacture Sale Use Release to urban runoff Urban runoff discharge True Source Control Source Control Treatment Control Effectiveness Receiving water Costs

19 An Example of Source Control Brake pads are the single largest source for copper in highly urbanized watersheds in California 19

20 Traditional Water Quality Treatment Cannot Solve Copper Problem Clean Water Act typically requires municipalities to solve problems BUT Treatment is technically and economically infeasible Regulation of brake pads by municipalities is an option, but impractical, leading to a potential patchwork regulatory environment for manufacturers 20

21 Brake Pad Partnership / SB Copper in brakes first identified as significant source 1996 Brake Pad Partnership forms R&D, Shared fact-finding, Consensus-based decision 2008 Decision triggered Reformulate brake pads to be low copper 2009 Legislation introduced SB On the Governors Desk

22 Costs / Benefits Chollas Creek watershed San Diego Without brake pad copper reduction = $1.4 B With = $10s M Los Angeles River watershed Los Angeles Without brake pad copper reduction = $15 B With = $10s M Reasonable opportunity to achieve TMDL Waste Load Allocations Avoided Cost

23 Cost / effectiveness Lessons Learned True Source Control Public versus private cost / benefits Control point with most power Wastewater POTW (treatment) Stormwater True source of pollutant Investment-based approach Slower development time; often needs time to pay off Often requires: Partnerships New learning Issues, Parties, Regulations, social change Leverage - Can have effect >>> control action

24 CASQA s Source Control Initiative Provide a home for True Source Control Forum for communication / advocacy Mechanism for coordinated action Partnerships / Coalitions Funding Activities Education Research Management (Practice, Regulation / Legislation) Management (Practice, Regulation / Legislation) The Future -

25 Thank you casqa.org