Document ID: EPA-HQ-OW-2002-0007-0100
Agency: epa
Document Type: Supporting & Related Material
Title: 
Posted Date: 2005-09-21T04:00Z

1
July
11,
2005
Pretreatment
Streamlining
Rule
STATUS
REPORT
Removal
credits
Current
Rule
Removal
credits
are
available
for
specific
pollutants
thoroughly
studied
by
EPA
for
potential
sludge
regulation
A
removal
credit
gives
a
CIU
permission
to
discharge
more
of
a
pollutant
than
allowed
by
a
categorical
standard
when
the
POTW
can
consistently
treat
the
pollutant
Final
Rule
(
as
formally
submitted
to
OMB
on
June
22)
The
final
rule
includes
preamble
discussion
of
EPA
future
actions
to
address
Thompson
Report
removal
credit
issues,
including
requests
for
comment
on:
­
whether
the
addition
of
25
chemicals
for
which
EPA
has
sufficient
toxicological
and
exposure
data
to
the
list
of
chemicals
eligible
for
removal
credits
in
Appendix
G
of
the
pretreatment
regulations
would
be
helpful
to
those
seeking
removal
credits;
EPA
will
specify
date
for
proposal
to
amend
Appendix
G
­
whether
there
are
any
options
to
amend
the
"
consistent
removal"
provision
that
would
be
consistent
with
restrictions
established
in
court
decisions.

OMB
Issues
There
are
no
significant
outstanding
issues
at
this
point.
OMB
is
generally
looking
for
options
to
increase
the
availability
of
removal
credits.
The
proposal
did
not
include
any
regulatory
revisions
that
would
accomplish
this,
so
it
is
not
possible
to
make
such
changes
in
this
final
rule.
The
requests
for
comments
described
above
are
based
on
discussions
with
OMB.

Non­
Significant
Categorical
Industrial
User
(
NSCIU)

Current
Rule
SIUs
include
all
dischargers
subject
to
categorical
pretreatment
standards

SIUs
must
be
permitted

SIUs
must
conduct
sampling
and
report
results
2
times
per
year
No
flexibility
currently
to
exclude
categorical
dischargers
(
CIUs)
from
SIU
status
Final
Rule
(
as
formally
submitted
to
OMB
on
June
22)
Establish
a
new
category
of
non­
significant
CIU
(
NSCIU)
that
discharge
<
100
gpd

Control
Authority
may
exempt
NSCIUs
from
permitting

Control
Authority
can
set
appropriate
inspection
and
sampling
frequencies

NSCIU
still
must
comply
with
federal
discharge
standards
2
Outstanding
OMB
Issues
OMB
wants
EPA
to
consider
a
NACWA
proposal
to
include
reduced
monitoring
requirements
for
CIUs
that
discharge
more
than
100gpd
and
less
than
0.01%
of
the
POTWs
design
flow
up
to
10,000
gpd.
This
"
middle
tier"
would
be
required
to
monitor
and
report
annually
instead
of
semi­
annually,
as
required
by
existing
regulations.
For
this
"
middle
tier,"
Control
Authorities
will
monitor
and
conduct
inspections
once
every
other
year,
instead
of
once
per
year,
as
required
by
the
existing
regulations.

EPA
Analysis
Inconsistencies
between
data
collected
by
EPA
and
by
NACWA
concerning
numbers
of
CIUs
affected
and
how
to
define
universe.

Burden
­
Based
on
data
from
annual
reports,
award
applications,
public
comments,
and
other
EPA
sources,
9.3%
of
existing
CIUs
discharge
more
than
0
gpd,
but
less
than
100
gpd.
An
additional
5.7%
of
existing
CIUs
are
zero
dischargers.
­
NACWA,
as
requested
by
SBA,
found
in
38
programs/
cities
far
fewer
CIUs
that
discharge
no
more
than
100
gpd
(
without
counting
zero
dischargers).
­
There
were
discrepancies
between
some
of
the
data
that
EPA
had
from
annual
reports
and
other
sources
and
information
reported
by
NACWA.
­
EPA
estimates
that
the
burden
reduction
for
CIUs
discharging
more
than
0
gpd,
but
less
than
100
gpd
(
including
zero
dischargers)
will
be
61,986
hours.
­
EPA
estimates
that
if
NACWA's
proposal
is
adopted,
then
the
burden
reduction
for
"
middle
tier"
CIUs
will
be
44,650
hours
(
making
the
total
for
this
provision
106,636
hours).

Impacts
­
No
data
on
potential
cumulative
impacts
on
POTWs
or
basis
for
numbers
for
any
options.
­
100
gpd
is
a
small
amount,
but
there
is
no
data
to
justify
anything
higher
­
Chicago
XL
pilot
project
(
applying
the
NACWA
approach)
was
terminated
before
there
was
an
opportunity
to
review
the
application
of
this
approach
to
all
pretreatment
programs
nationally
o
project
terminated
in
January
2005
because
Chicago
did
not
meet
its
commitment
to
develop
a
Toxic
Reduction
Action
Plan
for
nonregulated
pollutants
o
Region
5
noted
that
an
audit
of
Chicago's
Project
XL
found
that
the
POTW
had
erroneously
identified
15
CIUs
in
the
0.01%
category,
pointing
to
the
complexity
of
implementing
this
approach
­
Need
to
reduce
risk
of
litigation
o
NRDC
has
expressed
concern
and
interest
in
Thompson
Report
Follow
up
­
To
refine
numbers
of
CIUs
that
would
make
use
of
the
NACWA
option
for
100
to
10,000
gpd
dischargers,
EPA
collected
data
on
current
monitoring
3
frequencies
to
determine
the
likelihood
of
reducing
monitoring
to
once
per
year
and
data
on
compliance
to
determine
eligibility.
­
For
8
of
the
POTWs
that
EPA
studied,
the
monitoring
frequencies
varied
from
2
to
8
for
all
CIUs.
EPA
found
that
71%
of
CIUs
currently
monitor
more
frequently
than
the
minimum
requirement
of
twice
per
year.
EPA
assumes
monitoring
frequency
will
not
change
for
these
IUs.
In
addition,
Control
Authorities
will
not
reduce
the
frequency
with
which
they
monitor
or
conduct
inspections
for
this
71%.
­
The
8
POTWs
also
reported
around
20%
of
CIUs
in
SNC.
­
EPA
talked
to
five
states
who
all
indicated
that
they
wanted
as
much
flexibility
as
possible.

Equivalent
mass
limits
Current
Rule
Current
rules
do
not
allow
use
of
an
equivalent
mass
limit
in
lieu
of
the
federally­
required
concentration
limit
Final
Rule
(
as
formally
submitted
to
OMB
on
June
22)
Allows
Control
Authority
to
develop
equivalent
mass
limits
in
lieu
of
concentration
limits
for
water
conservation
Outstanding
OMB
issue
Rule
language
included
requirement
for
the
Control
Authority
to
recalculate
the
daily
maximum
and
monthly
average
equivalent
mass
limit
prior
to
the
reissuance
of
the
Industrial
User's
control
mechanism.
This
means
that
flow
reduction
will
result
in
a
more
stringent
mass
limit
at
the
time
the
control
mechanism
is
reissued
after
the
first
term.
This
is
standard
procedure
for
NPDES
permits.
EPA
data
shows
that
flow
reduction
also
results
in
pollutant
reduction.

EPA
has
agreed
to
remove
this
provision.

SNC
­
Late
Reports
Current
Rule
SIUs
are
considered
in
SNC
if
required
reports
are
submitted
more
than
30
days
after
the
deadline.

Final
Rule
(
as
formally
submitted
to
OMB
on
June
22)
EPA
changed
the
timeframe
to
45
days,
instead
of
30
days.

Outstanding
OMB
Issues
There
are
no
outstanding
issues
at
this
point.
4
Pretreatment
Streamlining
Rule
Expected
Timeframes
for
Completion
The
time
required
to
finalize
the
rule
depends
on
the
scope
of
the
issues
decided
upon.

Option
1
If
the
scope
of
the
final
rule
included
the
existing
equivalent
mass
limits
provisions,
and
the
existing
100
gpd
NSCIU
provisions,
the
rule
could
be
finalized
in
2
weeks.

Option
2
If
the
scope
of
the
final
rule
included
the
existing
equivalent
mass
limits
provisions,
the
100
gpd
NSCIU
provisions,
and
a
proposal
of
the
NACWA
0.01%/
10,000
gpd
approach,
the
rule
could
be
finalized
in
3
weeks.

Option
3
If
the
scope
of
the
final
rule
included
the
existing
equivalent
mass
limits
provisions,
the
100
gpd
NSCIU
provisions,
and
the
NACWA
0.01%/
10,000
gpd
approach,
the
rule
could
be
finalized
in
4
weeks.
Additional
time
would
be
necessary
to
account
for
the
lack
of
administrative
record
supporting
the
NACWA
approach.