Stormwater "Red Flags"
Many years ago, I interned for the local County Health Department and assisted them with water quality monitoring. The department monitored the water quality from twelve points along the rivers and streams in the county. Rain or shine, I headed out every Wednesday morning to collect samples. At each location, I pulled on the hip waders and walked a few meters from the shore to measure oxygen levels and collect a sample for the lab. Every week I plated petri dishes and counted E. coli colonies. Some days the water quality of the river was excellent and other days the bacteria levels (E. coli) in the river were dangerously high. What spiked the levels of bacteria levels in a body of water that moved over 30,000 cubic feet per minute? Rainfall, or more accurately: the pollution that the rainfall carried.
I later found out that some of the sampling locations were near animal farms, hence the E. coli. Water is often called the ‘universal solvent’ because more substances dissolve in water than in any other liquid. The Clean Water Act defines the term “pollutant” broadly.
“[A pollutant] includes any type of industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste discharged into water. Some examples are dredged soil, solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials, radioactive materials, heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt and industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste.”
The Environmental Protection Agency and state governments work hard to protect waters through the implementation of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program. Many industries obtain NPDES general stormwater permit coverage if they discharge into water of the United States. Sampling from a site’s discharge point(s) is an important part of the general NPDES permit. The data is compared with benchmark thresholds as an indicator of the effectiveness of the permit and stormwater control measures. Unlike an air permit, a stormwater sample result that exceeds one of the benchmark thresholds is often considered a “red flag” as opposed to a violation.
No one wants to have a “red flag” when they submit their stormwater results, but it may point to a problem with an exposed pollutant source at your site or a stormwater control measure that is not working correctly. Stormwater regulations protect our waters and, ultimately, protect our drinking water and health. As cliché as this sounds, our actions upstream impact our water downstream. Whether it’s general housekeeping at your facility or making sure a driver safely transfers material from your site, every action matters. Monitoring the exterior of your facility weekly is a great activity to ensure your site is not unintentionally polluting. Atypical events such as a leak or spill that was not cleaned up can be caught in time before the rainfall.
Remember that rivers, despite their size and capacity, can be significantly impacted by our actions. Let’s minimize the pollution the rain carries to keep the rivers healthy.
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Proposed Changes to CWA Discharge Planning
In late March, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed the “Clean Water Act Hazardous Substance Worst Case Discharge Planning Regulations.” The proposed rule will require all non-transportation related onshore facilities that store hazardous substances with potential to cause substantial environmental harm above Clean Water Act (CWA) threshold amounts to prepare and submit a Facility Response Plan (FRP) to the EPA. The response plans will address potential worst-case discharges into or on navigable waters or conveyances to navigable water under adverse weather conditions.
The rule will apply to facilities meeting the following criteria:
Capacity to store certain substances: facilities with a maximum capacity above 10,000 times the Reportable Quantity (RQ) of CWA hazardous chemical such as sulfuric acid, ammonia, benzene, sodium hydroxide, hydrochloric acid, etc.
Location: facilities within a half mile of navigable waters or conveyances to navigable waters.
Potential harm (based on past chemical releases or modeled worst case discharges): facilities which meet the first two criteria will have to evaluate whether a discharge could cause harm to public water system receptors or to fish, wildlife, and sensitive environments. A facility will also be required to submit an FRP if they have met the capacity and location criteria and have had a reportable discharge of a CWA hazardous substance within the last five years.
Even if a facility did not meet all three criteria, an EPA Regional Administrator could still require the facility to complete an FRP based on site-specific factors.
The response plans will include identification of qualified individuals and key response resources, hazard evaluations, drills and exercises, release detection, response actions, and communication plans with Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPC).
EPA enacted regulations for worst case discharges of oil under 40 CFR Part 112, subpart D in 1994. It has not proposed any regulations for CWA hazardous substances until this rule, which could affect a variety of industries and manufacturers. The proposed rule considers the impact of climate change on increased discharge risks as well as impacts to communities with environmental justice concerns.
Recently, the EPA extended the comment time for the proposed rule to July 26, 2022. When the final rule is issued, facilities will be required to determine if they are subject, and if so, prepare and submit an FRP within twelve months of the effective date of the rule. Newly constructed facilities will be required to submit a FRP before starting operations. In addition, updates to the FRP will be required every 5 years or within 60 days of a change that impacts the facility’s potential to cause substantial harm to the environment.
Catherine Nies is a Chemical Data Management Specialist. Her responsibility focus on the output end of our Foundation system verifying the information and deciding what reports to produce, including Tier II, permit summaries, EPCRA reports, and any other high priority needs of our clients. A second responsibility for Catherine is tracking EPA, OSHA, CDC, state and local regulatory updates.