Header - March 2011 Newsletter
IN THIS ISSUE
FIELD MANUALs
POLYMERs for Turbidity!
COURSE REGISTRATION
FLORIDA's NUTRIENT DISCHARGE PROBLEM
COMPLIANCE TOOLs
SESWA....Get in the know!
CWA VIOLATIONS
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Greetings!

 

Were You Caught Off Guard With A Permit Violation, When You Thought You Were in Compliance?

 

For many construction sites in Georgia, compliance with the Local Land Disturbance Permit for years has been as Clear as Mud!  Now that 3rd party lawsuits are impacting more and more permittees, it's time to take away the confusion.

LIA Enforcement MUST meet NPDES requirements

In order to obey the law..and people fundamentally want to obey the law, a person must first understand the rules.  Question.....Have you ever been pulled over for speeding, just after the speed limit changed to a lower limit, but you missed seeing the lower speed limit sign? I have..and my angry reaction almost cost me my license.  I remember feeling tricked and consequently believed I was being treated UNfairly.  That same reaction is taking place today by Permittees who do not understand that they are operating under the requirements of 2 separate Permits....the Land Disturbance Permit (LDP) and the NPDES Permit  when land disturbance is 1-acre or greater.    

 

This is the point.....when a Local Issuing Authority (LIA) enforcement inspector (Level 1B Advanced Fundamentals certified Inspector) arrives on a site in response to a complaint or to perform a random inspection, but doesn't ask the Permittee for daily, weekly, monthly inspection records, erosion plan, or monitoring data (all of which are requirements found in the NPDES General Permit), he/she is not only breaking the requirement adopted by the municipality through the Model Local Ordinance, but he/she is also doing the Permittee a huge dis-service by keeping the Permittee in the dark about what it really means to be in compliance. 

 

To summarize, an LIA Inspector MUST ask the Permittee for these NPDES required records so that if the EPD or a third party ever requests these records, the Permittee will be aware and in compliance with both the Local and NPDES Permits.

VIDEO
Anionic Polyacrylamide (PAM) for Erosion Control
PAM Application
Adding polyacrylamide to a ground cover can significantly reduce turbidity in the runoff.  In this video, the dissolved PAM did not work as well as the granular PAM because the liquid was not applied evenly, missing some of the soil surface. The granular PAM was well distributed by mixing it with a handful of soil first. In practice, it could be mixed with fertilizer, seed, lime, or anything else being applied to the soil surface (and not incorporated, which fertilizer and lime should be but often are not).
We ALL Live Downstream, So Let's Work Together!"
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SOME IN FLORIDA BELIEVE IT'S JUST TOO MUCH....BUT IS IT? 

Florida USGS Header
READ the USGS Mission Statement above.....
When US EPA began the process of setting numeric limits for nutrients in Florida's waters, there was plenty of opposition throughout the state, and for a variety of reasons: some said jobs would be lost; others thought the cost of meeting the new limits was far to high. Some argued that EPA's basis for setting the limits was not scientifically sound, and others objected to EPA setting rules for a specific state and for a specific pollutant, which it had never done before. There were requests for a delay in setting the criteria so the economic impacts could be more fully explored. Nevertheless, EPA set the final numeric nutrient criteria in November.
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Letter from the Editor

There's no doubt that the economy is causing people discomfort and many of us are hurting! There is equally no doubt that polluting the water from which we drink, swim, boat, andNPDES Training Institute fish, will eventually kill a society. The examples of this fact are now easily observed from the comfort and safety of our well equipped homes that have pressurized purified clean fresh water piped directly into our sinks, bath tubs and toilets....The Internet and Discovery Channel to name a few sources, are now full of stories of millions of people who lack healthy clean water on a daily basis. It's time for Americans to not just be Proud Americans, but to be GRATEFUL AMERICANS. It's gratitude for our clean water, brought to us by the (Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act)  that will inspire our society to work hard and invest financially to protect it!  Take a look at the continent of Asia and the plethora of water quantity and quality issues they are facing because they FAILED to see the signs when there was time to react and do something about it.  When I served in the US Marine Corp over seas, many parts of Asia were void of a healthy waterfowl population.  It was easy to see that contaminated water was the reason!

 

It's during hard times that many of us get emotional and fail to really investigate our position on very important issues.  For instance, opponents of EPA's effluent limits for Florida have said that it will it cost a household $700 to implement the EPAs new water quality standards? There are ~19  Million people in Florida!  Where did $700 come from?  Were those numbers thrown out there by a passionate group to scare the living fire out of people so to gain more political support?  On the other side of the coin, where did the EPAs numbers come from that justified the new effluent discharge limits?  Are they based on good applicable science?  YOU NEED TO INVESTIGATE it for yourself!   

 

I agree that over regulation can damage the progress of a hurting economy, but considering our already over populated land surface, let's not put water regulation in the same pot!  We need a lot of water, we REQUIRE Clean Water!  It's not just our fish and animals, but us too....we need it and we need it clean!  Americans use on average 100 Gallons/Day.  We MUST be proactive with water regulation.  Both sides of this issue need to bring good, respectable facts to the table and not a bunch of fluff to prove their point!  Then a solution we can all live with can be negotiated (hopefully)! 

 

While the world continues to grow at a rate of 215,000/day, Florida grew by 16% from 2000 to 2009 to over ~19,000,000 presently.  WATER IS GETTING STRESSED!  We must understand that it's our children who will suffer for our lack of concern for their future water quantity and quality issues!

Compliance Toolbox

 

BUILDING & RENOVATING A POND in GEORGIA    

 

 

  
  
  
  
  

 

 SOUTHEAST STORMWATER ASSOCIASESWA LogoTION

 

SESWA Named to EPA Stormwater Rule Advisory Committee
Kurt Spitzer, SESWA's Executive Director, was selected as one of 30 individuals to serve on a Small Entity Advisory Committee to provide input to EPA on proposed revisions to stormwater regulations.  The Small Entity Advisory process has now been completed. SESWA's comments were submitted on January 5, 2011. EPA intends to propose draft regulations by September of 2011 and to adopt final regulations by the fall of 2012.

 

IF YOU ARE A MS4 UTILITY or STORMWATER CONSULTANT

You owe it to yourself to join this SESWA!

USEPA VIOLATIONS
EPA NPDESArch Coal Inc., the second largest supplier of coal in the United States, has agreed to pay a $4 million dollar penalty for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act in Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky.
  
Violations Alleged:
  • Discharge of pollutants without a permit pursuant to Section 301 of the Clean Water Act (CWA) 33 U.S.C. �� 1311.
  • Failure to comply with the conditions of permits issued pursuant to CWA Section 402, U.S.C. � 1342.  Violations of permit conditions include exceedances of certain pollutants, such as manganese, total suspended solids, selenium, aluminum, pH , and iron.
  • MORE

    Clear your mind for a moment and be GratefulLike many fishermen in our nation, where spring days are not long enough and the silence of the summer morning stills the air, I often drop my trolling motor before the early morning mist has risen. Then, and on the stilled glass surface of the lake, all existence fades to a being of my soul and memories of a morning song of a Carolina Wren and the sound of an open face real drag and the hope that a bass will strike.

    Eventually, all things merge into one, and our rivers run through it. Our rivers cut through centuries gone by and run over rocks since buried from the basement of time. On some of those rocks now forgotten and buried are timeless raindrops and the memories of netting fish with family and friends, both past and present. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.  I am haunted by waters.   

    Inspired from "A River Runs Through It"

    This Newsletter is intended to be a useful tool for all individuals involved stormwater management, especially those on construction sites.  There is a lot happening now with water regulations!  If you have areas of interest you would like to discuss, or areas of concern you would like included in this newsletter, please contact us at 678-469-5120.

     Sincerely,
    NPDES Logo  NPDES Training Institute - New Logo
     TLO Sig




     

    T. Luke Owen, PG
    Principal Trainer, NPDES Stormwater Training Institute