Article | March 23, 2012
Water Online's EPA Update: March 26, 2012
Welcome to Water Online's 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) EPA Initiates Website To Mark 40 Years Of The Clean Water Act
EPA Releases Document For Identifying And Protecting Healthy Watersheds
Template For Construction Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans Available Online EPA Unveils New Website On Nutrient Pollution
Adaptation Strategies Guide For Water Utilities
EPA Provides $15 Million To Help Small Drinking Water And Wastewater Systems Across The Country
Urban Waters Federal Partnership Launches Ambassadors Program To Support Revitalizing Urban Waterways In U.S. Communities EPA Launches New Green Infrastructure Website
Blog Spotlight: The Water Sector Workforce Needs Skills Of American Workers National Risk Management Research Laboratory
(NRMRL) Crystal Ball Technology: Visualizing Land-Use Futures EPA land management specialists are helping to generate virtual landscape scenarios for communities in the Farmington Bay Wetlands area of the Great Salt Lake that will enable residents to 'see' the ecological consequences of current land use practices, projected over the next 20 years. The scenarios — which include alternative sustainable views of the same landscape — are created by the Alternative Futures Analysis, a computerized assessment tool that combines with Geographic Information Systems to visually portray the long-term impacts of varying developmental decisions on a
community's ecosystem and quality of life. The answers to these questions formed a set of ecological endpoints or outcomes focusing on the two selected indicators of water quality and avian habitat use. In addition, the four optional scenarios factored in beneficial conservation, restoration and development activities as the bases of a more sustainable ecological future for the area.
Potential Outcomes Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) Program ETV Verified Technologies
Vendor Solicitations For more information on the ETV, visit www.epa.gov/etv. Other EPA News EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson Testimony Before The U.S. Senate, Committee On Environment And Public Works
EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson Announces Creation Of Anacostia River Revitalization Fund
EPA Adds Nine Hazardous Waste Sites To Superfund's National Priorities List, Proposing An Additional 10 Sites For the full press release, go to: http://www.wateronline.com/article.mvc/EPA-Adds-Nine-Hazardous-Waste-Sites-To-0001
SOURCE: EPA
2012 is the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, the nation's law for protecting our most irreplaceable resource. This year EPA and others will highlight the tremendous progress in reducing pollution since 1972, the many milestones along the way, the ways that the job is far from over and the tough challenges we face today and in the future. EPA has set up a webpage —
www.epa.gov/cleanwater40 — as the central location for information, activities, news and networking. You can also find the Office of Water on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EPAWaterIsWorthIt.
EPA recently released a new technical document titled "Identifying and Protecting Healthy Watersheds: Concepts, Assessments, and Management Approaches." This document provides state water quality and aquatic resource scientists and managers with an overview of the key concepts behind the Healthy Watersheds Initiative. The initiative is intended to preserve and maintain natural ecosystems by protecting our remaining healthy watersheds, preventing them from becoming impaired and accelerating our restoration successes. The initiative encourages states to take a strategic, systems approach to protecting healthy watersheds and preventing future water quality impairments.
This document provides examples of approaches for assessing components of healthy watersheds, integrated assessment options for identifying healthy watersheds, examples of management approaches and assessment tools and sources of data. The document is available at
http://water.epa.gov/polwaste/nps/watershed/index.cfm.
EPA has posted a new template for construction operators to use in developing stormwater pollution prevention plans, which are site-specific documents required as part of EPA's new 2012 Construction General Permit. The template is designed to help construction operators develop a stormwater pollution prevention plan that is compliant with the minimum requirements of the new permit. The template allows operators to customize the document to the needs of the site, and includes tables and other fields that are easy to fill out. For questions about the template, or the permit in general, please send inquiries to
CGP@epa.gov.
For additional information on stormwater pollution prevention plans for construction activities and to view a copy of the template:
http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/stormwater/swppp.cfm.
For additional information on EPA's 2012 CGP: http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/stormwater/cgp.cfm.
EPA is pleased to unveil a new website on nutrient pollution policy and data to help individuals access information on EPA actions to reduce nutrient pollution, state efforts to develop numeric nutrient criteria, and EPA tools, data, research, and reports related to nutrient pollution. Visit the website at
http://epa.gov/nandppolicy. Nutrient pollution is one of America's most widespread, costly and challenging environmental problems, and is caused by excess nitrogen and phosphorus in the air and water. EPA is also pleased to unveil a new website on nutrient pollution for homeowners, students, and educators. The site features information explaining the problem of nutrient pollution; the sources of the pollution; how it affects the environment, economy, and public health; and what people can do to reduce the problem. The site also features an interactive map of local case studies in reducing nutrient pollution. Visit the website at
http://epa.gov/nutrientpollution.
The Adaptation Strategies Guide for Water Utilities is now available on EPA's website. The guide was developed under EPA's Climate Ready Water Utilities initiative to assist drinking water and wastewater utilities in gaining a better understanding of what climate change-related impacts they may face in their region and what adaptation strategies can be used to prepare their system for those impacts. The guide contains easy-to-understand climate science and information, utility adaptation case studies, as well as an adaptation planning worksheet.
The information provided in the guide will help jump start the adaptation planning process at drinking water and wastewater utilities that may not have started to consider climate change impacts or adaptation. It can also be used by any group or organization that is interested in water sector climate challenges. To read the guide, please visit
http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/watersecurity/climate/. For questions or feedback, email
CRWUhelp@epa.gov.
EPA announced that it will provide up to $15 million in funding for training and technical assistance to small drinking and wastewater systems, defined as systems that serve fewer than 10,000 people, and private well owners. The funding will help provide water system staff with training and tools to enhance system operations and management practices, and supports EPA's continuing efforts to protect public health, restore watersheds and promote sustainability in small communities.
EPA expects to make available up to $500,000 to provide training and technical assistance to tribally-owned and operated public water systems.
Applications must be received by EPA by April 9, 2012. EPA expects to award these cooperative agreements by Summer 2012. For more information about these competitive announcements, visit:
http://water.epa.gov/grants_funding/sdwa/smallsystemsrfa.cfm.
For more information on EPA's programs and tools to help small water systems, visit:
http://water.epa.gov/type/drink/pws/smallsystems/index.cfm.
The Urban Waters Federal Partnership, made up of 11 federal agencies, announced a program in seven cities that will accelerate and coordinate on-the-ground projects that are critical to improving water quality and public health, restoring forest resources and fostering community stewardship in urban watersheds. Sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Urban Waters Ambassadors program will work with state and local governments, non-governmental organizations and other local partners. The Urban Waters Federal Partnership is an effort to help urban and metropolitan areas, particularly those that are underserved or economically distressed, connect with their waterways and work to improve them.
The first Urban Waters Ambassador has been selected for the Los Angeles River watershed pilot project with additional ambassadors to follow for the Anacostia River watershed (Washington, D.C. and Maryland), the Patapsco River watershed (Baltimore, Maryland), the Bronx and Harlem River watersheds (New York City), the South Platte River (Denver, Colorado), Lake Pontchartrain (New Orleans, Louisiana) and Northwest Indiana. Each of the pilot locations was selected due to the strong local and community leadership spearheading restoration efforts underway. Lessons learned from these pilot locations will benefit communities across the country.
For the full press release, go to: http://www.wateronline.com/article.mvc/Urban-Waters-Federal-Partnership-Launches-0001
EPA's Office of Water is pleased to announce the release of its new Green Infrastructure website to better communicate the "what, why, and how" of green infrastructure to municipalities, developers, and the general public. Green infrastructure uses vegetation, soils and natural processes to manage water and create healthier urban environments. The new Green Infrastructure website is a one-stop shop for resources on green infrastructure that features improved navigability and up-to-date content.
The site offers a wealth of publications and tools developed by EPA, state and local governments, the private sector, nonprofit organizations, and academic institutions. The new green infrastructure website emphasizes the multiple environmental, social, and economic benefits associated with green infrastructure. The new site also provides access to the latest research developed by EPA's Office of Research and Development. To start exploring EPA's new green infrastructure website, visit:
http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/greeninfrastructure.
Nancy Stoner, acting Assistant Administrator for EPA's Office of Water, blogged about her roundtable attendance with utility managers and leaders to discuss developing the next generation of the workforce in the water sector. In the blog, Ms. Stoner cites examples across the country of organizations building on American skills and EPA's efforts to promote water sector careers. To read the blog, visit:
http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2012/02/28/the-water-sector-workforce-needs-skills-of-american-workers/
Background
History richly demonstrates the unforeseen consequences (groundwater pollution, soil erosion, urban blight) of misguided community land-use decisions. Political and economic pressures play a role, but an important factor has been lack of information. Until recently, it has not been technologically possible for community planners to forecast the long-term ecological consequences of project-by-project decisions. But the maturing of the specialties of
Landscape Ecology and Information Technology is providing new tools to actually visualize the environmental and quality-of-life impacts of community land-use decisions. Two examples of new landscape technology are: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the Alternative Futures Analysis (AFA), a computerized evaluation framework. Working in tandem, these two technologies are enabling resource managers and residents to virtually see (from a bird's eye or satellite view) how a community and the ecosystem that support it will look in a specified number of years, given current land-use practices. The systems also design alternative scenarios using sustainable land-use practices.
The Alternative Futures Analysis
The Alternative Futures Analysis (AFA), developed in 1990 by Harvard professor Carl Steinitz, integrates GIS maps to display multiple layers of information such as soils, terrain shape, hydrology, species diversity, proposed development, and other factors impacting the biodiversity of a given area. A recent EPA cooperative project using the AFA, selected two ecological
outcomes — water quality and diversity of avian habitat--as indicators of ecosystem health in the Farmington Bay Wetlands near the Great Salt Lake. Water quality in the area is currently under threat from encroaching commercial development and an annual
two-percent population increase. Bird habitat in the area is also threatened: The wetlands provide essential habitat for waterfowl, as well as migratory shorebirds and water birds from both the Pacific and Central flyways of North America. The Farmington Bay research goal was to develop a series of AFA landscape scenarios to allow residents to visualize how the regional landscape will look by 2030 if current land-use development continues, along with some alternative scenarios based on sustainable land-use practices.
Research Questions
Researchers constructed the AFA scenarios by posing the following fundamental questions:
Project Action
Using satellite imagery (the same type used by Google-Earth), combined with ground-level GIS evaluations of wetlands and land use of the surrounding community, the project researchers constructed a current land-use scenario, plus four alternative visions of land use projected out to the year 2030. Some notable elements of the scenarios:
The GIS/AFA system is a transparent way of organizing and communicating complex scientific information to a diverse group of stakeholders. Explicit community-wide ecosystem management goals can be more readily achieved through an open community process that illustrates a set of plausible and visible alternative futures. The technology is flexible enough to deal with the potential challenges revealed in the AFA optional scenarios. And the two basic indicators (water quality and avian habitat use) selected for this study can be expanded for more elaborate conservation planning models.
"Seeing" the future through AFA models can help communities determine whether the quality of life they want for themselves is sustainable, given their present land-use practices. Best of all, it can also show them a vision of an achievable future.
For more detailed information on the AFA analysis of the Farmington Bay Wetlands, visit:
Alternative Futures Analysis of Farmington Bay Wetlands in the Great Salt Lake Ecosystem (PDF) (106 pp, 31. MB) (EPA/600/R-10/032) March 2010
The ETV Program has verified the performance of 465 innovative environmental
technologies that can be used to monitor, prevent, control, and clean up
pollution. For a full list of ETV verifications, visit
http://www.epa.gov/etv/verifiedtechnologies.html.
ETV centers issue periodic solicitations for vendors and collaborators
interested in verification. For a list of active ETV vendor solicitations,
please visit www.epa.gov/etv/vendorswanted.html,
or contact the appropriate ETV center (see www.epa.gov/etv/contacts.html).
As prepared for delivery.
Thank you for inviting me to testify on the President's Fiscal Year 2013 budget for the Environmental Protection Agency. I'm joined by the agency's Chief Financial Officer, Barbara Bennett.
EPA's budget request of $8.344 billion focuses on fulfilling EPA's core mission of protecting public health and the environment, while making the sacrifices and tough decisions that Americans across the country are making every day.
EPA's budget request fully reflects the President's commitment to reducing government spending and finding cost savings in a responsible manner while supporting clean air, clean water and the innovative safe guards that are essential to an America that's built to last. In some cases we have had to take a step back from programs —
this budget reflects a savings of $50 million through the elimination of several EPA programs and activities that have either met their goals, or can be achieved at the state or local level or by other federal agencies.
Let me spend a moment discussing major elements of EPA's budget request. This budget recognizes the importance of our partners at the state, local and tribal level. As you know, they are at the front lines of implementing our environmental laws like the Clean Water Act, and the Clean Air Act. In fact, the largest portion —
40 percent of EPA's funding request — is directed to the state and tribal assistance grants appropriation to support their efforts.
Specifically, this budget proposes that $1.2 billion — nearly 15 percent of EPA's overall request —
be allocated back to the states and tribes, through categorical grants. This includes funding for state and local air quality management grants, pollution control grants and the tribal general assistance program.
The budget also proposes that a combined $2 billion — another 25 percent of EPA's budget request —
also goes directly to the states for the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds. This funding will help support efficient system wide investments and development of water infrastructure in our communities. We are working collaboratively to identify opportunities to fund green infrastructure - projects that can reduce pollution efficiently and less expensively than traditional grey infrastructure.
Additionally, EPA's budget request would fund the protection of the nation's land and water in local communities. Reflecting the President's commitment to restoring and protecting the Great Lakes, this budget requests that Congress maintain the current funding level of $300 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. This support will continue to be used for collaborative work with partners at the state, local and tribal level, and also with non-profit and municipal groups. The budget also requests support for protection of the Chesapeake Bay, and several other treasured and economically significant water bodies. The budget reflects the importance of cleaning up contaminated land sites in our communities by requesting $755 million for continued support of the Superfund cleanup programs and maintains the agency's emergency preparedness and response capabilities.
EPA's budget request makes major investments in its science and technology account of $807 million, or almost 10 percent of the total request. This request includes $576 million for research, including $81 million in research grants and fellowships to scientists and universities throughout the country for targeted research as part of the Science to Achieve Results —
or STAR — program, including children's health, endocrine disruption, and air monitoring research. Also, as part of this request, EPA includes funding increases into key areas that include green infrastructure and hydraulic fracturing.
As I've mentioned before, natural gas is an important resource which is abundant in the United States, but we must make sure that the ways we extract it do not risk the safety of public water supplies. This budget continues EPA's ongoing congressionally directed hydraulic fracturing study, which we have taken great steps to ensure is independent, peer reviewed and based on strong and scientifically defensible data. Building on these ongoing efforts, this budget requests $14 million in total to work collaboratively with the United States Geological Survey, the Department of Energy and other partners to assess questions regarding hydraulic fracturing. Strong science means finding the answers to tough questions, and EPA's request does that.
We are making investments to support standards for clean energy and efficiency in this budget. Specifically, this budget supports EPA's efforts to introduce cleaner vehicles and fuels and to expand the use of home-grown renewable fuels. This includes funding for EPA's Federal Vehicle and Fuel Standards and Certification program to support certification, and compliance testing for all emissions standards. This also includes implementation of the President's historic agreement with the auto industry for carbon pollution and fuel economy standards through 2025 for cars and light duty vehicles, including testing support for NHTSA's fuel economy standards.
Taken together, the Administration's standards for cars and light trucks are projected to result in $1.7 trillion dollars of fuel savings, and 12 billion fewer barrels of oil consumed. This funding will also help support implementation of the first ever carbon pollution and fuel economy standards for heavy duty trucks.
Stepping back from EPA's budget request, let me spend a moment discussing the impact of a sequester. Madam Chairwoman, as you know, as part of the Budget Control Act, through a sequestration, spending may be forced to be slashed in an irresponsible manner that can endanger the public health protections that we rely on and not invest in an America that's built to last. By design the sequester is bad policy, bringing about deep cuts in defense and non-defense spending to act as an incentive for congressional action on deficit reduction.
Even without the sequester, discretionary spending has already been cut in nominal terms for two straight years. Under the Budget Control Act, it is on a path to reach its lowest level as a share of GDP since the Eisenhower Administration.
If the sequester were to happen, it would bring another round of deep cuts in discretionary spending. Although the Administration is continuing to analyze the impact of the sequester, the Congressional Budget Office has said that in 2013, the sequester would result in a 7.8 percent cut in nonsecurity discretionary accounts that are not exempt from the sequester. It would be impossible for us to manage cuts of that magnitude and still achieve our fundamental mission to protect human health and the environment.
The sequester would thus have a devastating effect on our country's ability to conduct the following activities over the long haul: A sequester would result in deep cuts to EPA's Operating Budget, which includes funds for the enforcement of public health and environmental protections. It would significantly harm our ability to help state and local governments finance needed drinking water and wastewater projects that provide communities clean and safe water. A sequester also would slash EPA grants that help states carry out basic functions that protect human health and the environment like water quality permitting and air quality monitoring. The sequester would impair progress on the country's ability to clean up the nation's hazardous waste sites over the long haul.
The President has been clear that Congress needs to avoid a sequester by passing a balanced deficit reduction —
at least as much as the Budget Control Act required of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to avoid sequestration. The President's Budget reflects such a balanced proposal, and we believe Congress should enact it and cancel the sequester.
Madam Chairwoman, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. While my testimony reflects only some of the highlights of EPA's budget request, I look forward to answering your questions.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson and David O'Neill of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) joined Mayor Vincent C. Gray and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes-Norton of the District of Columbia this morning at Marvin Gaye Park to announce the creation of The Anacostia River Revitalization Fund. The fund, which will invest $1 million in restoration activities this year, with a total goal of investing $5 million over the next three years, will be used protect and restore the Anacostia River and to create a national model for watershed conservation. NFWF, in partnership with EPA and the DC Department of the Environment and with funding from corporate sponsors, created the fund, which will award grants to local partnering organizations.
"Clean waters and outdoor recreation can boost urban communities' human, environmental and economic health," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. "Through the Anacostia River Revitalization Fund, we're able to partner with state and local government agencies, private foundations and corporate sponsors to make the most of our resources and ensure our restoration efforts are as effective as possible."
"We are proud to be a partnering with EPA, the DC government, and our corporate sponsors to help restore this important river —
for fish and wildlife, for clean water, for the residents of DC and for its neighborhoods where people live, work and play," said David O'Neill of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. "It is our goal to build this Fund so that it attracts new investments that will accelerate the restoration of the Anacostia and result in meaningful and measurable improvements to the river and to the communities that rest along its banks."
"I'm excited and pleased that the Environmental Protection Agency is joining the District of Columbia and regional partners in our ongoing efforts to revitalize the Anacostia River," D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray said. "This important natural resource was neglected for too many years —
but it is central to our city's geography and increasingly to its identity as a beautiful, sustainable, livable city with miles of waterfront ripe for public use and private development."
"This important funding comes at a critical time, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the District and Maryland in the early stages of implementation of the 10-year Anacostia River cleanup plan mandated by my bill, the Anacostia Watershed Initiative Act", said Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. These funds will move the District forward with the message that the city is serious about cleaning up the Anacostia River."
Specific grant selection criteria will be mutually agreed upon by NFWF, EPA, DDOE and other funding partners. Priority will be given to projects focused on key tenants of the fund —
improving water quality in the Anacostia River and its tributaries; achieving habitat restoration priorities for the Anacostia; engaging, employing and educating local residents and businesses; connecting the public to the Anacostia and its tributaries through enhanced outdoor recreation and volunteer opportunities; leveraging public and private funding to make the greatest conservation impact; and emphasizing the neighborhood benefits of watershed restoration to local economic development, public health, livability and as a neighborhood asset.
The establishment of the Anacostia River Restoration Fund is another step in advancing President Obama's America's Great Outdoors (AGO) Initiative. Through AGO, the administration is opening up access to millions of acres for recreation, designating thousands of miles of new land and water trails, increasing youth employment in conservation jobs, helping parks and green space become more accessible and clean in urban areas, and making historic investments in large landscapes such as the Everglades.
The Anacostia River is one of seven pilot locations as part of the Urban Waters Federal Partnership, an innovative union of 11 federal agencies, led by EPA, that focus on both natural resources and economic development and aims to use environmental restoration to protect people's health and maximize economic growth.
Today's announcement in Anacostia is one of several conservation announcements made nationwide over the past two weeks as part of the White House Conference on
Conservation — Growing America's Outdoor Heritage and Economy. Last Friday's conference convened hundreds of boaters, hunters, anglers, farmers, ranchers, land conservationists, historic preservationists, outdoor recreationists, small business owners, local governments, tribal leaders and other key stakeholders, strengthening partnerships and identifying next steps in tackling issues surrounding conservation and the great outdoors in urban cities and rural communities. During the conference, Washington, DC Mayor Vincent Gray participated in a panel discussion led by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley, highlighting the importance of rivers and clean water to our cities.
More information on President Obama's America's Great Outdoors Initiative: http://americasgreatoutdoors.gov/
More information on the Urban Waters Federal Partnership: http://urbanwaters.gov/
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is adding nine new hazardous waste sites that pose risks to people's health and the environment to the National Priorities List (NPL) of Superfund sites, and is proposing to include 10 additional sites. Superfund is the federal program that investigates and cleans up the most complex, uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country.
"Protecting human health and the environment and restoring contaminated properties to environmental and economic vitality are EPA priorities," said Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. "When property is cleaned up and revitalized, the reuse may result in new income to the community in the form of taxes, jobs to local residents, increases to the values of properties nearby cleaned up sites, or it may provide recreational or other services to make the community a better place to live."
Since 1983, 1,661 sites have been listed on the NPL. Of these sites, 359 sites have been cleaned up resulting in 1,302 sites currently on the NPL (including the nine sites added today). There are 62 proposed sites (including the 10 announced today) awaiting final agency action.
Contaminants found at the sites include arsenic, benzene, cadmium, chromium, copper, creosote, dichloroethene (DCE), lead, mercury, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), tetrachloroethylene (PCE), pentachlorophenol (PCP), trichloroethane (TCA), trichloroethylene (TCE), toluene, uranium and zinc.
With all NPL sites, EPA works to identify companies or people responsible for the contamination at a site, and require them to conduct or pay for the cleanup. For the newly listed sites without viable potentially responsible parties, EPA will investigate the full extent of the contamination before starting significant cleanup at the site. Therefore, it may be several years before significant EPA clean up funding is required for these
sites.