"Be Aware of your impact downstream as the rainwater flows from your site!
It keeps you and everyone concerned out of hot water!" 
Assisting the NPDES Permittee
Community throughout the United States |
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US EPA to "Strengthen Federal Oversight" for Water Quality Standards (NPDES Permits & TMDL Regulations) by 2011
 WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold two public listening sessions on potential changes to the water quality standards regulation before proposing a national rule. The current regulation, which has been in place since 1983, governs how states and authorized tribes adopt standards needed under the Clean Water Act to protect the quality of their rivers, streams, lakes, and estuaries. Potential revisions include strengthening protection for water bodies with water quality that already exceeds or meet the interim goals of the Clean Water Act; ensuring that standards reflect a continued commitment to these goals wherever attainable; improving transparency of regulatory decisions; and strengthening federal oversight.
Water quality standards are the foundation of the water quality-based approach to pollution control, including Total Maximum Daily Loads and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits. Standards are also a fundamental component of watershed management.
The public listening sessions will be held via audio teleconferences on August 24 and 26, 2010, from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. EDT. At the sessions, EPA will provide a review of the current regulation and a summary of the revisions the agency is considering. Clarifying questions and brief oral comments (three minutes or less) from the public will be accepted at the sessions, as time permits. EPA will consider the comments received as it develops the proposed rulemaking.
EPA will also hold separate listening sessions for state, tribal and local government. |
Unthoughtfull human impacts to the environment have a direct impact on our quality of life as well as the habitat that live in our streams, rivers, lakes and coastal areas. Construction is good for us, we all need jobs! However, let's use our head when we work outside! If we are thoughtfull of downstream recipients of our activity, it makes life easier on every human and creature concerned!
 Many of us are aware that long term wear of coal tar sealant in stormwater runoff has been linked to high polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in sediments, but there are also less common impacts associated with large scale washoff. The link below shows a 10-minute video documenting the results of heavy sealant runoff. In a case like this the sealant was probably applied shortly before a rainstorm before the sealant had fully dried. Education and oversight can help to reduce these episodes, which occur more frequently than many people realize, but are rarely documented. Note that mothballs contain naphthalene, a semi-volatile polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, and the strong "mothball odor" likely indicates high concentrations of PAHs. |
CONCRETE MANUFACTURING OPERATIONS under increased federal and state enforcement
We have too many people to think that "Solution by Dilution" will work. Somebody or something is living downstream in the US. WE must step up to the plate and take responsibility for our water quality impacts.
 The Clean Water Act requires that many industrial operations, such as ready-mix concrete plants and asphalt batching plants, have controls in place to prevent pollutants from being discharged with stormwater into nearby waterways. Each site must have a stormwater pollution prevention plan (SWPPP) that establishes and implements best management practices (BMPs) that the company will follow to prevent runoff from being contaminated by pollutants.
Without onsite controls, as stormwater flows over these sites, it can pick up pollutants, and carry them to nearby waterways where they contribute to water quality impairments that can harm or kill fish and wildlife, and impair or degrade uses, such as swimming, fishing and drinking.
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 THENPDES TRAINING INSTITUTE IS A STRONG SUPPORTER OF CONSTRUCTION in methods that sustain and PROTECT OUR WATER RESOURCES and show respect for future generations! Common Sense has to speak louder than a schedule and/or budget, and should tell us that our rapidly growing population REQUIRES that we do a better job of protecting our streams, creeks, lakes and coastal areas.
Let's face it. When our own government fails to respect the very NPDES laws it is supposed to enforce, there is no way for the program intended to protect our waterways to be respected by the industril and/or construction community as a whole. The end result is a contractor completely confused about his requirements because of the inconsistancy he/she sees all around regarding compliance with their NPDES General Permit. In prior editions of the newsletter (see our NPDES Training Newsletter Archives), we have discussed the horrible conditions that other countries like China face now with their water quality. We must learn from their mistakes if any of this stuff is going to work! |
