Water Online's EPA Update: March 2, 2013

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 Issues Revised Total Coliform Rule
  • March 7 Webinar On Consumer Confidence Report Rule Electronic Delivery Framework
  • Climate Ready Water Utilities Workshop Planner Available For Download
  • WaterSense Releases Draft Specification For Commercial Pre-Rinse Spray Valves
  • Receive The Latest News From EPA's Office of Water Through Twitter And Facebook
• Success Spotlight
  • Success Spotlight: Monroe City Route J Lake in Missouri
• Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) Program
  • ETV Verified Technologies
  • Vendor Solicitations
• Other EPA News
  • EPA Calls For 2013 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award Nominations
  • EPA Makes Public Comprehensive Information On Use Of Chemicals In The U.S.
  • Transocean Pleads Guilty, Is Sentenced To Pay $400 Million In Criminal Penalties For Criminal Conduct Leading To Deepwater Horizon Disaster
  • EPA Reaches $1.6 Million Settlement At Operating Industries Superfund Site

Office of Water (OW)

EPA Issues Revised Total Coliform Rule
On February 13, EPA published in the Federal Register the revisions to the 1989 Total Coliform Rule. The Revised Total Coliform Rule, which applies to all public water systems (approximately 154,000 public water systems), offers an opportunity for greater public health protection against waterborne pathogens while at the same time reducing implementation burden for water systems. The rule is based on the Agency's consideration of public comments and recommendations from the total coliform distribution system advisory committee, which consisted of a broad range of stakeholder groups, including States, environmental groups, utilities, and public health and public interest groups. Public water systems and primacy agencies must comply with the revised requirements by April 2016. For more information please visit: http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/rulesregs/sdwa/tcr/regulation_revisions.cfm

March 7 Webinar On Consumer Confidence Report Rule Electronic Delivery Framework
On March 7, 2013, 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. EST, EPA will hold a webinar to explain the consumer confidence report electronic delivery framework. Panelists will discuss electronic delivery methods and approaches appropriate to meet consumer confidence report rule requirements to "mail or otherwise directly deliver" the report to customers. The webinar is intended for community water systems, state and federal drinking water regulators and other interested parties. The webinar will also provide an opportunity for attendees to ask questions of the EPA representatives regarding delivery requirements. Space is limited. Reserve your webinar seat now at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/217178782

Climate Ready Water Utilities Workshop Planner Available For Download
Extreme weather events such as hurricanes and continuing drought can have devastating impacts to utilities. It's important that utilities identify actions they can be taking to better prepare for these events. EPA's Climate Ready Water Utilities initiative has released a workshop planner to help utilities plan for extreme events. The workshop planner provides all of the materials needed to plan, conduct, and facilitate an adaptation planning workshop on five extreme event scenarios: floods, drought, wildfire, sea level rise, and reduced snowpack. Download the workshop planner at http://epa.gov/climatereadyutilities.

WaterSense Releases Draft Specification For Commercial Pre-Rinse Spray Valves
On February 7, 2013, EPA released a draft specification for commercial pre-rinse spray valves to earn the WaterSense label. Pre-rinse spray valves are often used in commercial and institutional kitchens to remove food waste from dishes prior to dishwashing. EPA's draft specification would set the maximum flow rate for WaterSense-labeled pre-rinse spray valve at 1.28 gallons per minute, or 20 percent less water than the federal standard, while spray force performance criteria would ensure that these valves operate as expected in commercial kitchens. In the future, a commercial kitchen could save more than $115 per year in water and energy costs from installing a WaterSense-labeled pre-rinse spray valve-meaning the valve would pay for itself in as little as eight months. As with all WaterSense specifications, EPA worked collaboratively with a variety of stakeholders to develop the draft specification, and welcomes public comment via its website: http://epa.gov/watersense/products/prsv.html

Receive The Latest News From EPA's Office of Water Through Twitter And Facebook
EPA's Office of Water is on Twitter and Facebook. Be sure to follow @EPAwater on Twitter and visit our Water is Worth It Facebook page for the latest water news, activities, opportunities and resources. Share your thoughts and experiences as we explore the many ways that water is worth it at http://twitter.com/epawater and http://www.facebook.com/EPAWaterIsWorthIt

TOP

Success Spotlight

Success Spotlight: Monroe City Route J Lake in Missouri

EPA's Clean Water Act Section 319 Program provides funding for restoration of nonpoint source-impaired water bodies. This week's success spotlight shines on Monroe City Route J Lake in Missouri. Herbicides applied to row crops, combined with subsequent stormwater runoff, led to periodic high concentrations of atrazine and cyanazine in the Monroe City Route J Lake, a drinking water source in northeastern Missouri. As a result, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources placed the lake on the state's list of impaired waters for atrazine and cyanazine in 1996 and 1998, respectively. Farmers were encouraged to apply herbicides more carefully and implement best management practices, such as installing filter strips, planting buffer zones, moving tile outlets and improving terrace/outlet construction practice. Herbicide concentrations in the lake declined and the state to removed the lake from its list of impaired waters in 2006. Click here for more information.

TOP

Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) Program

ETV Verified Technologies
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.

Vendor Solicitations
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).

For more information on the ETV, visit www.epa.gov/etv.

TOP

Other EPA News

EPA Calls For 2013 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award Nominations 
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced the nominations for the 2013 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards for companies and institutions that can design chemicals or a new product that help protect public health and the environment.

“The Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge is an opportunity for EPA to recognize green chemistry innovations that are having real time results in making manufacturing processes and products that we use every day safer,” said Jim Jones, acting assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. “Increasingly, environmental benefits can result in reduced costs or increased market opportunities for new products, or both. In 2012, EPA launched an effort to complement the award program by providing a forum for winners and nominees to focus on maximizing their investments in green chemistry.” Click here for the news release.

EPA Makes Public Comprehensive Information On Use Of Chemicals In The U.S.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released the 2012 Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) information on more than 7,600 chemicals in commerce. The CDR database contains comprehensive use and exposure information on the most widely used chemicals in the United States. 

Companies are now required to provide information on chemicals used in children’s and other consumer products, along with reports on commercial applications and industrial uses of chemicals. For the first time ever, EPA also required companies to substantiate confidentiality claims in order to ensure that as much information as possible is made available to the public. Click here for the news release.

Transocean Pleads Guilty, Is Sentenced To Pay $400 Million In Criminal Penalties For Criminal Conduct Leading To Deepwater Horizon Disaster
Transocean Deepwater Inc. pleaded guilty today to a violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA) for its illegal conduct leading to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, and was sentenced to pay $400 million in criminal fines and penalties, Attorney General Holder announced today. 

In total, the amount of fines and other criminal penalties imposed on Transocean are the second-largest environmental crime recovery in U.S. history – following the historic $4 billion criminal sentence imposed on BP Exploration and Production Inc. in connection with the same disaster. Click here for the news release.

EPA Reaches $1.6 Million Settlement At Operating Industries Superfund Site
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached a $1.62 million settlement with 47 parties for contamination at the Operating Industries, Inc. (OII) Superfund Site in Monterey Park, Calif. Each of these parties was responsible for sending a relatively small volume, between 4,200 and 110,000 gallons, of liquid hazardous waste to the OII landfill during decades of operation.

This is the last settlement EPA expects to sign for the OII site, paving the way for the community to restore this site to productive use. Over the last 25 years, EPA has secured $600 million worth of cash and commitments for cleanup work from the parties responsible for contamination at the site. Environmental problems included toxic gas emissions, contaminated surface water runoff, and pollution of the local groundwater. Click here for the news release.

TOP

SOURCE: EPA