UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIO N AGENCY WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460



### Mr. RobenlGng Deputy Commissioner 

### SEP 

### 12 

## 2007

South 

### Carolina Department ofHealth and Environmeatal Control And President, Environmental Council ofthe States 

### 2600 Bull Street Columbia, SC 29201 

### Mr. Mike 

### Linder Director Nebraska Department ofEnvironmental Quality And Chair, ECOS Compliance Committee 1200 N Street, Suite 400 Lincoln, NE 68508 

### Dear Mr. King and 

### Mr. Linder, OF FICE OF ENFOACEM&NT AND COI.U'UANCI! AS SURANCE

This lencr is to update you and the Envi.roomental Council ofStates on the status of the three draft enforcement policies on which EPA requested state comments onApri130, 2007. We appreciate thetime

### and effort that states took to consider eachofthe policies and to articulate to EPA their thoughts and concerns. All three policies (the 

### Clean WaterAct National Pollutant Discharge Elimination 

### System lnspeaion 

### F reque ncy Guidance for the Core Program and 

### W et Weather Sources orthe CMS Ouidance; 

### EPA ' :t

### Interim SigniflcanJ

### Noncompliance Policy for Clean 

### WaterACl Violations Associatedwith CSOs, SSOs, CAFOs . and

### Storm Water Point Sources orthe WW SNC Policy; and the

### ICJS-NPDES Policy Stalenumt) will benefit from the robust and

**d~c** dialoaue EPA 

### and the states have had onthese topics . After carefully considcrin& the 

### breadth and scope ofstate and regional comments, OECA has determined that each of the three policies needs to Jbllow a different course. This letter is to briefly explain the genc:ral direction that OECA plans to take with each policy. Lynn Buhl, my Deputy Assistant Administrator tmd Lisa 

### Lund. my Deputy inthe Office ofCompliance, both plan 

### to 

### attend the Compliance Committee session 

### at the upcoming ECOS meeting in Idaho and will be 

### prepared to outline this approach and listen to the star.es' perspective. As EPA lwexplained, these policies are important in keeping the enforcement and information management compooenlll ofthe NPDES program in alignmc:11t with the eunent NPDES program regulatory 

### structorc. The fact that the NPDES program bas evolved to include important wet weather pollution so\UCCS has driven the need for the enforcement program to

**~e** its policies. EPA undcl'SUIDds the states' need for 

### maximum flexibility and has tried to balance that need with lolomol-=(URI.) e tq>:Nwww.opoo.g OY ,

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**r**the fedeTal need for consistency in how these 

### issues are handled on a national level. We believe the approaclt outlined below addresses that balance. The folloWing outlines EPA's approl!Ch to issuing the three polici es : CMS Gaidanee: Both thePemrittiog for

**Enviro~ental** Results and the State Review Framework reviews pinpointed the need to revisit the inspection frequency goals set in the Enforcement Management System (EMS) written 

### in 1989. OECA worked closely 

### with the Association ofState and 

### Interstate WaJtc Pollution Control Administrators (ASIWPCA) to develop a new set ofinspection goals that addresses the complete universe ofsources while allowing states flexibility needed to tailor inspection str4lc:J,lics to their unique circumstances. OECA 

### has accommodated many ofthe comments that states andregions have made in the review 

### peliods of this policy, which have improved the clarity ofthe documentand increased the flexibilities the CMS now offers. OECA will finalize 

### the CMS Guidance by the cod of 

### September, 2007. This 

### guidance may be 

### utilized 

### in 

### FY2008 if 

### a state 

### wishes to 

### negotiate the · flexlbilities available 

### in the 

### guidaDce with their region. but will be fully effective 

### in the FY2009 planning cycle. Regions will be asked to be open to begin implementation of the gui.daDce 

### in FY2008 Ifa state so requests. WW SNC Pollsy: The 

### Wet WeatMr SNC Policy supplements the 1986 

### NPDESSNC Policy by including

**cri~** for identifying significant violations related to CSOs, SSOs, CAFOs and stonn water, thus providing a more comprehensive enforcement management tool for today's NPDES program. A criticalpart ofimplementing 

### this policy includes the ability to 

### track and manage the identification of

**~lations** and follow--up actions by EPA and states on , a national level. The draft Policy, however , did not identify therelated data elc:mcnts 

### that are critical to tracldng and managing these activities, as it 

### relied on a 

### small subset ofthe dataelements set out 

### in the Requisite ICIS-NPDES 

### Data Elements (RIDE) iD, the draft ICIS-NPDES Policy Statement. Because of the multi--step approach EPA is taki.og to resolve ICIS.NPDES Policy Stat,cmcnt issues (see below), OECA will be initially issuing the 

### WWSNC Policy only at the 

### federal level by the end ofSeptember 2007. OECA will W<>rk with the EPA regions to detemline tracking and necessary data entry for 

### federal implementation. OECA welcomes any state's Interest in piloting the WWSNC

### Policy, aDd recommends that those states contact and work through their regions. OECA would be happy to woik with those interested states ondam and trackini issues for the pilots. EPA will continue to woxk with the ASIWPCA State-EPA Advisory Committee that helped to develop the WWSNC

### Policy on the appropriate data elements to track and manage the national implc:mcnta1ioo ofthis Policy prior to i$$uing the Policy to states . ICJS-NPDES PoUSY S!!tement: EPA 

### UI1dentands the states' concerns about the draft policy 

### statemcm and therefore bas developed 

### an approW1 that will allow us to provide the I)tcessary guidance to the direct user states already using ICIS-NPDES 

### while allowing us additional time to workon issues concerning 

### what new data to exchange and bow to exchange it. Because there are cuncntly 2 1 states, 2 Tn 'bc:s and 9 Territories that directly use

**IC NPDES;**  9 hybrid states (that 

### use ICIS-NPDES but 

### also 

### balch SOIDC data to P CS); 

### and 23 full batch stales (that use their own data syst em and send data to PCS), it is critical that whateverapproach is taken ensures &.ir and equal tmmnent of

### all st3teS, regardless ofwhat system they use. as well asthecontinuance ofa consistent national data 

### set. for the NPDES program.OECA's approach will be a mnlti-step process: 1.

**~A wil~ursue**  a

**~making a~roach**  that will identifY a full set ofRJDE that unplementmg agencLeS oftheNP 

### ES progtam wW be rtqabtd to ptovtde to 

### ffiCnational program. 2. Concum:ntly, EPA will 

### issue an interim revised

# scy s1atcment for direct 

### usgs that 

### requires those Stat.eii 

### tO 

### proVide the 

## WENDB eqUi ent of RIDE 

### to EPA. 

### thus simply extending the PCS Policy statement to ciurcnt users of

### !he newsystem. 3. EPA will continue to 

### w«kon the XML schema for DMRs with the

**In~** Projeyt team

**~** consisting ofstates and EPA, which should allow the 

### fitSi hybn"11 state to 

### bCgili moving to IClS-NPDES in the Springof200S. Atthat point, hybrid stat.cs will be required 

### to providelhe WENDB equivalent ofRIDE to EPA, simllar 

### to the 

### direct user 

### stat.es. EPA will atso·continue to 

### work with 

### Texas 

### 4nd the other 10 states to 

### complete NctDMR, the tool 

### that wm allow facilities 

### to submit DMR infonnation electronically through 

### the Exchange Network and the Central Data Exchange. 

### 4. For those 

### full

**batch~** that wantto begin datamapping 

### to ICIS-NPDES 

### before the fmallClS-NPDES Policy Srmement isavailable, an existing draft ICIS-NPDES XML 

### schema for 

### RIDE is available. If

### a 5t8le

### wants to

### prioritize which data

### elements to start


## - With1 EPA recomm:eoas theDMR data family and then the WENDB subset ofRIDE. 

### S. 

### EPA will continue to work with full batch states through 

### the 

### IPT to 

### resolve bow 

### da1a will be 

### electronically flowed to ICJS..NPDES. EPA invites · any interested full ba.tcll state to participate. The implememation ofthese policies 

### will depend upon continuing communicalion aod collaboration between

### the national programs, regions and states. OECA looks forward to this continuing dialogue andto the achievement ofa better environment through our 

### combined efforts.

eel Steven Brown, ECOS 

### Mazy Blakeslee,

## · ocos Lind& Eichmiller, 

### ASIWPCA Sean Rolland. ASIWPCA Sincerely,



# t;~ **t;./1~~·~**

**~** Y.



## ~ak.ayama Assistant 

## Administrator