UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 


REGION IX 


75 Hawthorne Street 


San Francisco, CA 94105·3901 


Celeste Cantu 

Executive Director 

California State Water Resources Control Board 

P.O. Box 100 

Sacramento, CA 95812-0100 

Re: Application for Permission to Prohibit Sewage Discharges from Vessels in 

California's Waters Pursuant to Clean Water Act (Act) Section 312 (f)(4)(A) 

Dear Ms. Cantu: 

We received your application dated April 5, 2006 pursuant to section 31l(f)(4)(A) of the 

Clean Water Act, requesting USEP A issue a regulation to prohibit sewage discharges 

from large passenger vessels and other oceangoing ships wherever they may occur in 

State waters. The application provides a significant amount of information regarding the 

value of marine resources in California state coastal waters and their degraded condition. 

However, for us to proceed in our review,we need additional information to clarify what 

water bodies would be covered, and the justification for deviating from the statutory 

language related to geographic scope and vessel coverage. 

EPA's regulation at 40 CFR 140.4(b), which implements Section 312(f)(4)(A) of the Act, 

states that a State's application "shall specify with particularity the waters, or portions 

thereof, for which a complete prohibition is desired." However, the State's application 

proposes to prohibit sewage discharges in all State waters, and only from large passenger 

vessels and other oceangoing ships. All existing no-discharge zones that have been 

designated under Section 312 ofthe CWA contain prohibitions that apply to specific 

geographic locations and apply to all vessels. Additional justification and documentation 

is needed to support the full geographic extent as well as the absence of application for 

smaller vessels in the State's request. The application is unclear why a prohibition is 

necessary for all waters, and why/how a prohibition addressing only large vessels would 

be most effective. Furthermore, "all State waters" include inland and estuarine waters, 

even though the application focuses on coastal waters. Therefore, we request that the 

application be clarified to indicate the particular waters included in the request. 

Our staffs have discussed this application, including the types of information we 

recommend be provided, for example information relative to quantification of bacterial 

pollution from different sources (e.g., yessel versus stationary), and expected dispersal 

patterns by source type including concentrations and loading patterns. In particular, it is 

critical that the State include comparisons ofthe contributions of total bacterial loadings 

and concentrations from the types of large vessels (subject to the prohibition) to other 

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types of vessels and stationary sources (not subject to the prohibition) to support the 

contention that prohibition of sewage only from large vessels will provide adequate 

protection. Furthermore, additional documentation should be provided to demonstrate 

the value of establishing the prohibition throughout all State marine waters. 

We look forward to working with you on this effort and appreciate the commitment by 

the State to protect valuable marine resources. If you have any questions concerning the 

information requested, please call Allan Ota at 415-972-3476. 

Sincerely yours, 

~d'~Y:i 

Alexis Strauss ;:<.~ 'Z ~b 

Director, Water Division 

Cc: Darrin Polhemus~ Chief, DWQ