Effort To Lift EPA Wastewater Blending Ban Dismissed

An an appeals court failed to lift a federal ban on a controversial wastewater management practice.

In the mid-2000s, the U.S. EPA banned a wastewater management technique known as blending as well as the use of mixing zones, arguing that they violate the Clean Water Act, according to Bloomberg BNA.

The practices are designed to protect wastewater plants during heavy storms. Blending means routing some wastewater “around the treatment process before being blended with treated flows and then discharged into areas in the receiving waters known as mixing zones,” the report said.

In 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit said EPA’s ban was not valid. The court said the blending rule exceeded statutory authority. For this reason, the ban does not apply to states in the court’s jurisdiction, including Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

Here’s what was at issue last month before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit: Was the ban lifted everywhere, or just those states? But the case was dismissed because the appeals court decided it did not have jurisdiction to determine that question, the report said.

Many wastewater utilities did not see the decision as a setback since the case was a dismissal rather than a loss, according to Bloomberg BNA:

The D.C. Circuit’s dismissal of the lawsuit on procedural grounds wasn’t seen as a loss among the publicly owned wastewater sector. The National Association of Clean Water Agencies, which represents nearly 300 publicly owned wastewater and stormwater utilities, filed a friend-of-the-court brief. Amanda Waters, the association’s general counsel, said the merits of the Eighth Circuit’s ruling still stand. The EPA has no legal authority to dictate what happens inside a wastewater treatment plant.

“The court did not reach the merits of the case; thus, EPA’s authority to regulate blending remains an open judicial question,” Waters said.

Blending proponents argue that the ban on this policy raises costs for wastewater utilities.

Allentown, PA, for instance, may “spend an estimated $37 million to reduce combined sewer overflows of wastewater and stormwater,” instead of using blending, Bloomberg BNA previously reported.

For similar stories visit Water Online’s Stormwater Management Solutions Center.