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Welcome to Water Online's weekly review of the latest U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations, resources, and activities related to the water, wastewater, and stormwater industries. EPA offices and programs covered in this installment are listed below. Click on an office or program name to go directly to that section of the article.

• Office of Water (OW)
  • New Guidance on Drinking Water Contamination Warning Systems
  • Green Scene: Tap Water vs. Bottled Water
  • WaterSense Factoid
• Office of Research and Development (ORD)
• External Peer Review Meeting Announcement: IRIS Toxicological Review of Tetrachloroethylene (Perchloroethylene)
• Other EPA News
  • EPA Announces 2008 National Clean Water Act Recognition Award Winners
  • Documentary Tells Story of America's Water Infrastructure
  • EPA, Indiana Announce $33 Million Cleanup of Grand Cal River
  • EPA Authorizes Navajo Nation Program to Protect Underground Sources of Drinking Water
  • EPA Administrator Seeks Greater Environmental Cooperation in Visits to Jordan, Israel
  • Organizations Honored for Environmental Justice Achievements

Office of Water (OW)

New Guidance on Drinking Water Contamination Warning Systems
EPA's Water Security Initiative has released two interim guidance documents on drinking water contamination warning systems. The Interim Guidance on Developing an Operational Strategy for Contamination Warning Systems will assist utilities with developing standard operating procedures for the monitoring and surveillance components of a contamination warning system. The Interim Guidance on Developing Consequence Management Plans for Drinking Water Utilities will aid utilities with developing plans for validating, responding to, and recovering from a contamination incident in the drinking water distribution system. These guidance documents reflect lessons learned from EPA's implementation of a comprehensive drinking water contamination warning system pilot in Cincinnati. Further, EPA is releasing a detailed report, Cincinnati Pilot Post-Implementation System Status, which describes enhancements associated with the pilot in the areas of online water quality monitoring, consumer complaint surveillance, public health surveillance, contaminant sampling and analysis, physical security, and consequence management. These documents, along with additional information about the Water Security Initiative, are available at cfpub.epa.gov/safewater/watersecurity/initiative.cfm.

Green Scene: Tap Water vs. Bottled Water
Benjamin H. Grumbles, EPA's assistant administrator for water, discusses the issues surrounding the tap vs. bottled water debate, including the health, economic, and environmental impact of both. To watch the interview, visit www.epa.gov.

WaterSense Factoid
If every home in the United States installed WaterSense-labeled faucets or faucet aerators in the bathrooms, it would save 60 billion gallons of water annually — saving households more than $350 million in water bills and about $600 million in energy costs to heat their water. Additionally, water and waste water utilities would save 200 million kilowatt-hours of electricity normally used for supplying and treating that water. The WaterSense website has a complete list of WaterSense labeled products: www.epa.gov/watersense/pp/index.htm.

For more information on the EPA Office of Water, visit www.epa.gov/ow.

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Office of Research and Development (ORD)

External Peer Review Meeting Announcement: IRIS
Toxicological Review of Tetrachloroethylene (Perchloroethylene) EPA is announcing an independent external peer review to be hosted by the National Academy of Sciences on November 13, 2008, for the draft document entitled, Toxicological Review of Tetrachloroethylene (Perchloroethylene): In Support of Summary Information on the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS). For more information, see cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/cfm/recordisplay.cfm?deid=192423.

For more information on the EPA Office of Research and Development, visit www.epa.gov/ord.

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Other EPA News

EPA Announces 2008 National Clean Water Act Recognition Award Winners
EPA has honored 24 municipalities and industries with 2008 National Clean Water Act Recognition Awards, for their outstanding and creative technological achievements in wastewater treatment and pollution abatement programs this past year.

The organizations were recognized for demonstrating outstanding water quality achievements for projects and programs in five award categories: operations and maintenance, exemplary biosolids management, implementation and enforcement of local pretreatment programs, cost-effective stormwater controls, and combined sewer overflow controls.

A list of the winners can be found at www.epa.gov/owm/mtb/2008-ncwa-winners.htm.

The awards program, sponsored by the EPA, is in its 23rd year. It recognizes wastewater treatment facilities and their contributions to protecting the public's health and safety and the nation's water quality.

Documentary Tells Story of America's Water Infrastructure
A new documentary, Liquid Assets, examines the state of our nation's essential infrastructure systems: drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater. These complex and aging systems, some in the ground for more than 100 years, are critical for basic sanitation, public safety, economic development, and a host of other necessities of life. The documentary highlights communities from across the United States, providing an understanding of hidden water infrastructure assets, demonstrating watershed protection approaches, and illustrating twenty-first century solutions.

Produced by Penn State Public Broadcasting, Liquid Assets will air around the country starting in October. A four-minute trailer is available for viewing at liquidassets.psu.edu.

Additional information on water infrastructure is available at www.epa.gov/waterinfrastructure.

EPA, Indiana Announce $33 Million Cleanup of Grand Cal River
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, the EPA, and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and Department of Natural Resources have announced a joint $33.1 million effort to continue restoration of the Grand Calumet River area. The dredging project, the seventh such effort funded by the Great Lakes Legacy Act, will remove contaminated sediment in a 1.1-mile segment of the west branch of the river.

The plan calls for the clean-up of 91,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment from a 1.1 mile stretch of the river between Columbia and Hohman Avenues in Hammond. Work will be coordinated with a combined sewer overflow removal by the Hammond Sanitary District that will also result in contaminated sediment being removed from the river.

The Great Lakes Legacy Act will provide $21.5 million, with the remaining $11.6 million coming from a fund managed by the Natural Resource Trustees, which includes the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Trustees are authorized to use non-federal restoration funds from the Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration program to restore natural resources injured by environmental contaminants. The non-federal sponsors to this agreement are state trustees, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.

The river runs through one of the most heavily industrialized areas in the nation and as a result the sediment contains elevated levels of heavy metals, PCBs, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and pesticides such as DDT. The river, canal and harbor have been identified as an "Area of Concern" on the Great Lakes by the International Joint Commission.

Congress passed and the president signed the Great Lakes Legacy Act of 2002 to address the problem of contaminated sediment in American areas of concern on the Great Lakes. So far, EPA has completed five sediment cleanups under the Legacy Act and in the last three months has announced two additional cleanups including this one. More information about this project and other Great Lakes Legacy Act projects is available at epa.gov/glla.

EPA Authorizes Navajo Nation Program to Protect Underground Sources of Drinking Water
EPA is approving the Navajo Nation's application to administer the underground injection control (UIC) program for oil and gas-related injection wells. The UIC program authorizes specific waste streams to be injected, and prescribes operating measures to ensure that underground sources of drinking water are protected. Under the Navajo Nation's UIC program, the tribe will have authority to issue permits, conduct inspections, participate in enforcement actions, and support the EPA's annual reporting.

The program will apply to roughly 400 existing oil and gas-related injection wells, known as class II wells, and any future wells located within the exterior boundaries of the formal Navajo Reservation, and on Navajo Nation tribal trust lands and trust allotments in the Eastern Agency — an area of Navajo Indian land located outside the boundaries of the formal reservation.

The EPA determined that the Navajo Nation's class II UIC program is at least as stringent as the federal program. The Navajo Nation, which assisted the EPA in implementing and enforcing federal regulations on Navajo lands, modeled its program after the EPA's program.

The Navajo Nation has worked diligently over the past several years to develop an effective program by enacting the Navajo Nation Safe Drinking Water Act — putting into law UIC regulations, and developing the technical, permitting, and enforcement capacity to fully implement the injection well program.

The oil and gas production industry accounts for a large proportion of the fluids injected into the subsurface. When oil and gas are extracted, large amounts of oily salt water, or brine, are also brought to the surface. Contaminated salt water can be very damaging when discharged into surface water, thus it is typically injected into similar formations from which it was extracted.

The federal UIC program is responsible for the permitting, construction, operation, and safe closure of injection wells that place fluids underground for storage, enhanced oil/gas recovery, or disposal. The program ensures safe operations of injection wells to prevent contamination of underground sources of drinking water.

The final rule will publish in the Federal Register. Additional information about this action is available at www.epa.gov/region09/water/groundwater/navajonation.

EPA Administrator Seeks Greater Environmental Cooperation in Visits to Jordan, Israel
EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson is visiting the Middle East to enhance environmental cooperation with key regional partners of the United States, Israel, and Jordan. Johnson will promote improved environmental management and enforcement in Jordan, and advance two-way sharing of information between the U.S. and Israel on homeland security and the environment.

While in Jordan, Johnson will have policy discussions on cooperative activities with Khaled Irani, Jordan's minister of environment. These activities are part of environmental capacity-building efforts under the U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement, and are conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Agency for International Development. EPA assistance includes remediating a hazardous waste landfill near Amman, collaborative work with the Jordanian environmental police on enforcement of environmental laws, and broader efforts to build good environmental governance in Jordan through effective laws, regulations, and enforcement. Johnson will also address the Eco-Cities of the Mediterranean Forum at the Dead Sea in Jordan, followed by meetings with regional environment ministers attending the forum.

Israeli Minister of Environment Gideon Ezra invited Johnson to visit Israel with the express purpose of enhancing collaboration on approaches to effective environmental protection. Johnson believes EPA can benefit from Israel's water security, emergency response, and risk communication programs, widely regarded as some of the most innovative in the world. Johnson will also meet with Israeli Minister of National Infrastructures Binyamin Ben Eliezer to promote sharing of information between Israel and the U.S. on water security and water quality monitoring.

For more information on EPA International Programs, please visit www.epa.gov/international.

Organizations Honored for Environmental Justice Achievements
Projects that include empowering residents to clean up New Orleans East for a safe return after Hurricane Katrina and developing a tool to target high-risk homes with lead contamination in Durham, NC, are winners of EPA's first Environmental Achievement Awards. Twelve award recipients include community-based organizations, universities, and state and local governments from nine states.

The awards recognize organizations for their distinguished accomplishments in addressing environmental justice issues. EPA received dozens of nominations from across the United States.

The following organizations received awards:

• Anahola Homesteaders Council (Anahola, Kauai, HI)
• Center for Environmental and Economic Justice (Biloxi, MS)
• Citizens for Environmental Justice (Savannah, GA)
• Communities for a Better Environment (Huntington Park, CA)
• Dillard University, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (New Orleans)
• Duke University, Children's Environmental Health Initiative (Durham, NC)
• Medical University of South Carolina (Charleston, SC)
• Negocio Verde Environmental Justice Task Force (County of San Diego, CA)
• New Mexico Environment Department (Santa Fe, NM)
• Safer Pest Control Project (Chicago)
• South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (Columbia, SC)
• West End Revitalization Association (Mebane, NC)

For information on recipients of the Environmental Justice Achievement Awards, visit www.epa.gov/compliance/environmentaljustice/awards.

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SOURCE: EPA