News

EPA Press Release: $14.1 Million to Fund Environmental Justice Grants

This week EPA announced they are providing $14.1 million in environmental justice grant funding for 133 grants. 99 recipients have been selected to receive up to $75,000 each, and 34 grant recipients have been selected to receive up to $200,000 each. EPA has indicated that the “2021 Environmental Justice Small Grants program selections will benefit communities in 37 states, as well as Washington DC and Puerto Rico.” These projects cover a number of topics including “impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, air monitoring, indoor/outdoor air quality, food access, community planning, water treatment training, community agriculture, green jobs and infrastructure, emergency preparedness and planning, toxic exposures, water quality, and healthy homes projects.” To see the full listing of 99 organizations receiving funding and to learn more about the Environmental Justice Small Grants program please click here.

The 34 larger grants, as part of the 2021 EJ Collaborative Problem-Solving program, will benefit communities in 24 states, as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. These projects will also address number of topics similar topics. To see the full listing of all the selected 34 projects and to learn more about EJ Collaborative Problem-Solving program please click here.

More details can be found in EPA’s press release.

Lead and Copper Rule Update

EPA announced plans to let the Trump Administration Lead and Copper Rule take effect on December 16 after determining the rule will improve public health protections. The agency also revealed plans to propose a new rule that will consider ways of strengthening the agency’s current “action” level of 15 parts per billion, which when exceeded requires utilities to take steps to control for corrosion and eventually replace pipes. The plan also includes details about how the $3 billion in funding under the bipartisan infrastructure law will be allocated to states for lead line replacements and clarification from the Department of Treasury that $350 billion in funding provided in the American Rescue Plan which can be used for line replacement and lead faucet and fixture replacement, according to a White House fact sheet. The Federal Register notice is available here.

EPA Launches Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Webpage

EPA launched an implementation webpage for the bipartisan Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The EPA received over $50 billion for various programs, and the implementation webpage features an interactive breakdown of funding allocations for various EPA programs and funding categories.

EPA ICIS Update #1: Inactivation of No Data Indicator Code Z

It has been over one year since the Temporary NPDES Advisory was terminated, and there has been a sharp decline in the use of Code Z. As of December 10, 2021, the Office of Compliance will inactivate Code Z in both NetDMR and the Integrated Compliance Information System (ICIS). Permittees and authorized NPDES programs will no longer be able to select Code Z on the data entry screen or submit new instances of Code Z to ICIS through electronic data transfer.

When a NODI code is inactivated in NetDMR, it is no longer available for selection at the form or parameter level. However, if NODI code Z is on a form that a permittee is trying to modify or update, they only will be able to update and submit the form with the existing NODI code Z if the updated value is on a different parameter row. If the updated value is on the same parameter row, they will get an error in response when the form is processed in ICIS (because of the inactive NODI code) and they will need to change the NODI code.

Other NODI codes are available for use by permittees where no data are available for them to report. Permittees can continue to include a comment on their DMR form to claim ongoing impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic.

EPA ICIS Update #2: Scanned Signatures and Scanned Subscriber Agreements No Longer Processed

As of December 7, 2021 the Office of Compliance will no longer process scanned paper signature agreements or scanned subscriber agreements received. We encourage the use of electronic signatures for NetDMR and the NPDES eReporting Tool. Permittees may continue to mail a paper hard copy signature agreement with wet-ink signature or subscriber agreement with wet-ink signature to the address on the agreement for processing.

Please direct specific questions about this memorandum to the ICIS Help Desk using ICIS@epa.gov.

Call for Nominations: Community Wastewater-Based Infectious Disease Surveillance

Deadline: December 20, 2021

Via National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine: Nearly 80 percent of U.S. households are connected to municipal wastewater collection systems. These sewer systems contain the biological waste, including discharged pathogens, of the human populations they serve. During the COVID-19 pandemic, wastewater surveillance studies successfully tracked the virus shed in feces and provided advanced indications of outbreaks, sometimes weeks ahead of other public health data. This study will examine the value of wastewater surveillance as a tool to trace, prevent, and control the spread of infectious diseases beyond COVID-19.

An ad hoc committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will review community-level wastewater-based disease surveillance and its potential value toward prevention and control of infectious diseases in the United States. The committee will:

Describe wastewater-based disease surveillance and how it differs from other approaches to disease surveillance and other wastewater monitoring for contaminants.
Review how wastewater-based surveillance has been useful in understanding COVID-19 in communities and informing local public health decisions.
Examine the potential value of specific applications of wastewater-based disease surveillance for understanding and preventing disease and illness beyond COVID-19 and factors that may limit its application in the United States.
Describe the general characteristics of a robust, integrated approach for national use of wastewater-based disease surveillance.
Discuss broad approaches to increase the public health impact of wastewater surveillance in the United States and the most effective strategies for federal, state, and local coordination to achieve national implementation of wastewater surveillance for an array of diverse infectious disease health indicators.

A second phase is expected to conduct an in-depth study of opportunities and barriers relevant to increasing the use and utility of wastewater surveillance for the prevention and control of infectious diseases in the United States. The study will be carried out by a committee of approximately 14 volunteer experts in the fields of wastewater engineering, environmental microbiology, fate and transport modeling, public health, molecular epidemiology, genomics, infectious disease, bioinformatics, and biostatistics.

For more information, visit this webpage.

Call for Nominations: International Joint Commission Health Advisory Board

The International Joint Commission (IJC) is seeking talented and dedicated volunteers to join its Health Professionals Advisory Board. This volunteer expert advisory board helps the IJC develop advice to the governments on transboundary environmental health issues and the implementation of the binational Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The IJC is accepting self-nominations for its Health Professionals Advisory Board. Submit your nomination package by January 15, 2022 here.

Member nominations are encouraged from a variety of career stages and sectors, including medical practitioners, and researchers from academia and nonprofit organizations in the areas of human, animal and ecosystem health. Board members are not paid but may receive reimbursement for travel to board meetings according to government policies.

The IJC established the Health Professionals Advisory Board in 2011 to provide advice to the Commission and its Boards about current and emergent clinical, public and environmental health issues in Canada-US transboundary waters. More information on the Health Professionals Advisory Board’s mandate and activities can be found here. For more information on the nomination and selection process, please visit the IJC website here.

FWS Great Lakes Restoration Proposals Requested by January 5th

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is now accepting project proposals to protect, restore and enhance Great Lakes fish and wildlife habitat under the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act (GLFWRA).FWS has requested those interested to submit restoration, research, and Regional Project proposals. GLFWRA aims to assist States, Tribes, and other interested entities to encourage cooperative conservation, restoration and management of Great Lakes resources. Supported by the GLRI, FWS expects to award about $1.8 million to support proposals. The deadline for proposal submissions is Wednesday, January 5, 2022 by 5:00 PM EST.

View the FWS announcement. For more information, see the Notice of Funding Opportunity F22AS00056 for details or contact Rick Westerhof at rick_westerhof@fws.gov or 231-282-2736.

2022 Request for Applications for the Great Lakes Biology Monitoring Program: Phytoplankton and Chlorophyll-a Components

Funding Opportunity Number: EPA-R5-GL2022-PC | For more information about this RFA, visit the RFA web page.

The EPA’s Great Lakes National Program Office has issued a request for applications (RFA) to implement the Great Lakes Biology Monitoring Program (GLBMP): Phytoplankton and Chlorophyll-a Components.

The GLBMP was established in 1983 to assess the ecological health of the Great Lakes. The program benefits federal, state, and tribal fisheries and water quality managers by focusing on whole lake biotic responses to changes in loads of anthropogenic substances and aquatic invasive species. Sampling is typically focused on the relatively homogeneous offshore waters of each lake. Phytoplankton and chlorophyll-a monitoring have been integral parts of the program since its inception. Offshore chlorophyll-a concentrations and the community structure of the biota have been rapidly changing in many areas of the Great Lakes in recent decades. More information on the GLBMP can be found at EPA’s Great Lakes Biology Monitoring Program site.

Applications are requested to undertake and implement a project consisting of sample collection and analyses in support of the phytoplankton and chlorophyll-a components of the GLBMP. EPA expects to provide funding for one cooperative agreement of up to $3,000,000 under this RFA over approximately five years.

Qualified non-federal entities eligible to apply for grants include non-federal governmental entities, nonprofit organizations, and institutions. This includes state agencies; any agency or instrumentality of local government; interstate agencies; federally recognized tribes and tribal organizations; colleges and universities; non-profit organizations; and other public or non-profit private agencies, institutions, and organizations.

EPA recognizes that it is important to engage all available minds to address the environmental challenges the nation faces. At the same time, EPA seeks to expand the environmental conversation by including members of communities which may have not previously participated in such dialogues to participate in EPA programs. For this reason, EPA strongly encourages all eligible applicants identified in Section III of the RFA, including minority serving institutions (MSIs), to apply under this opportunity.

For general and technical questions: Anne Scofield (scofield.anne@epa.gov; 312-886-6533)

Application Timeline
December 10, 2021: Request for Applications (RFA) posted
February 8, 2022: Applications must be submitted to EPA through Grants.gov by 10:59pm CT / 11:59pm EST in order to be considered for funding.
March 2022: EPA notifies finalist.
March 2022: EPA issues award.

Association Updates

Environmental Justice Survey Extension

ACWA is collecting information from states regarding any existing or future Environmental Justice programs. Primary Members have received an email linking to the survey. Please take a moment to complete the survey at your earliest convenience.

ACWA Call for CWA/NPDES SNC National Compliance Initiative Travel Applications from States

Through a cooperative agreement with U.S. EPA and funds provided by EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA), ACWA is inviting states to submit applications for travel support that will in some way further the goals of the EPA-State National Compliance Initiative (NCI) to reduce the rate of SNC in the NPDES program (the “SNC NCI”). ACWA has money for state travel in its budget that must be spent by the end of May 2022. Applications from states will be accepted and considered if they meet the following criteria:

The travel must in some way support the goals of the SNC NCI.

- Goal #1: Reduce the national SNC rate by 50% by the end of FY 2022 (to 10.1% from an FY 2018 baseline of 20.3%).
- Goal #2: Assure that the high priority SNC facilities with the most significant violations are timely and appropriately resolved.
- Goal #3: Provide compliance and technical assistance, conduct studies, and provide support to States and Regions for reducing the SNC rate.
- Goal #4: Take action through the NPDES SNC NCI to further environmental justice efforts.

The travel must support activities that are not standard state day-to-day activities.
The travel must be completed by mid-May 2022.
State travel expenses cannot be paid in advance of travel. Travelers or the State will be reimbursed for travel expenses after.

Examples of ideas for state travel that would be supported by the available funds are:

Travel by state personnel to visit another state to learn more about an approach, innovation, solution, etc. used to reduce or address NPDES noncompliance.
Travel by a state inspector or state compliance assistance provider to accompany an EPA or another state’s inspector or compliance assistance provider on a site inspection/visit to learn more about how EPA or that state does this work.
Travel to a national/regional meeting, conference, or training that relates to improving the state’s SNC rate.

Please contact Sean Rolland (srolland@acwa-us.org) for a copy of the application. Applications may be submitted any time but must be submitted no later than April 30, 2022.

Meetings and Webinars

Smart Tools for Field Inspectors

U.S. EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance will offer several upcoming training classes on the E-Enterprise Smart Mobile Tools for Field Inspectors, for clean water (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) basic training as well as advanced training on new features in the latest software release.

On January 12 at 2-4 p.m. Eastern, EPA will offer Smart Tools: Advanced Training, focusing on the latest Smart Tools features now available, including accessing EPA and state EJ information directly from Smart Tools, accessing compliance history for NPDES users, merging and tagging third-party photos and updated photo log dashboards, updating final field notes and inspection reports to accommodate late confidential business information claims, bulking upload of permit conditions/requirements, and other features.

On January 26 at 2-4 p.m. Eastern, EPA will offer introductory training for state and EPA staff on Smart Tools: Basic Training for NPDES Users.

For more information or to receive the Zoom link information, contact Cassandra Rice of EPA.

EPA Webinar: ECHO Detailed Facility Report Training Webinar

Date: January 11, 2022
Time: 3:00 – 4:30PM EST
Register here

Join U.S. EPA for an Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) webinar on Tuesday, January 11, 2022, 2:30-4:00 PM Eastern. This is an advanced water webinar that will explore CWA violations on the ECHO Detailed Facility Report (DFR) and the mapping from the source data system, ICIS-NPDES.

The demonstration will focus on the DFR’s Three-Year Compliance History table’s Facility-Level Status, QNCR History, and violation details for the four violation types. We will explain how the four RNC statuses on the NPDES Permits Basic Info screen of ICIS-NPDES roll-up to display a single quarterly status on the DFR. Where applicable, we will walk through examples of non-RNC, RNC, and SNC/Cat. 1 violations displayed and how these map back to the RNC detection and resolution codes in ICIS-NPDES. We will also describe the timing of data refreshes, quarter 13 status and violations, and the timeline to shift quarters after the official QNCR run.

Please register using your EPA, state, or local government email address – this webinar is for governmental employees only, please only share with those in your organization. If you need any special accommodations for this webinar, please email Madeline LaPatra (lapatra.madeline@epa.gov) by 1/3/2022.

Job Opportunities

Water Resources Professional III | New Mexico Department of Environment

Location: Santa Fe, NM

Closing Date: Open until filled

This position serves as an in-house produced water expert and Water Protection Division representatives to ensure the protection of groundwater and surface water quality in New Mexico. This position provides technical review and expertise related to produced water treatment technologies, pilot projects, water quality research, data analysis, and related publications. The position interacts with several entities outside of NMED, including universities, water research institutes, non-governmental organizations, stakeholders, land owners, industry, and various state and federal agencies regarding produced water and related treatment technologies. The position drafts proposed regulations, prepares written testimony, and serves as expert witnesses for produced water regulation and permit actions or certifications using technical knowledge and applicable rules, regulations, and statutes. The position will prepare, review, and deliver presentations, guidance documents, and other produced water outreach and education tools for the regulated community, stakeholders, and staff.