ACWA Weekly Wrap Vol. XIII, Issue 30 (Week of October 3, 2022)

News

New ECHO Tools – Benzene Fenceline Monitoring and Environmental Justice

This week EPA announced two new tools available to states and the public intended to provide additional information on environmental enforcement and compliance. EPA’s press release indicates that “[t]hrough improved transparency, advanced technologies and community participation, these tools empower the public to help EPA assure compliance nationwide and protect public health and the environment.”

Benzene Fenceline Monitoring

As of 2015, petroleum refineries are required to install air monitors around the perimeter of their facilities and must monitor and report benzene concentrations to EPA on a quarterly basis. Those results are now accessible to the public on EPA’s Benzene Fenceline Monitoring Dashboard. There is a short video tutorial about the dashboard to help users get started.

Environmental Justice Metrics

The Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) website now provides EJ information associated with facilities. This information allows users to:

Search for Facilities in Areas with Possible EJ Concerns
Investigate Pollution Sources in Areas with Possible EJ Concerns
Examine and Create EJ Enforcement-Related Maps
Analyze Trends in Compliance & Enforcement EJ Data

EPA Releases Final Climate Adaptation Implementation Plans

This week, EPA’s major offices, including the National Program and Regional Offices and the Office of Policy, each released a final Climate Adaption Implementation Plan. These plans describe how each program and region intends to integrate climate adaptation into its programs, policies, and operations to enable EPA to achieve its mission under changing climate conditions, including program-focused impacts (i.e., heat or HABs affecting staff capacity to conduct field sampling of water quality, etc.). The Plans also describe how EPA offices will partner with states, tribes, territories, local governments, and communities to strengthen their ability to anticipate, prepare for, adapt to, and recover from the impacts of climate change.

Office of Water’s Plan describes core climate vulnerabilities and identifies which EPA or EPA/state water programs are most impacted by each, serving as a prioritizing guide for relevant actions. It also notes outreach conducted on the Plan to date. It identifies goals, objectives, and actions denoting partners, timeframes, and supporting resources. Example actions include:

Incorporate climate considerations into EPA’s Water Quality Standards (WQS) program and handbook;
Develop an agency-wide strategic plan to address HABs in fresh and coastal marine waters that will include an objective to evaluate the impacts of climate change on their occurrence, magnitude, and spatial extent; and,
Develop CWA Water Quality Criteria recommendations that protect aquatic life from an imbalance of salts in water due to climate change (i.e., ion criteria).

Additionally, a Foreward by Assistant Administrator for Water Radhika Fox notes operating definitions for Climate Change, Climate Change Adaptation/Climate Adaptation, Climate Change Mitigation , Adaptive Capacity, Climate Resilience , Climate Risk, Climate Vulnerability, Vulnerability, Natural Hazards, Environmental Justice, Overburdened Communities, Climate Justice, Indian Country, Indigenous Peoples, Tribes, and Meaningful Involvement.

You can find each plan at the following links:

USGS Announces Availability of National-scale Estimates of Wetland Soil Carbon

Wetland soils are discontinuous and difficult to characterize based on mappable characteristics, such as trees, grasses, or ecoregions. Moreover, drought and land use effects on wetland soils alter the physical properties of these carbon-rich soils, which can change their elevation relative to surrounding land and water, affecting plant growth, water ponding, and other processes. A reliance on a single sampling approach to characterize these soils across a landscape can affect estimates of soil carbon content and interpretation of spatial patterns. This in turn can lead to biases in ecosystem vulnerability assessments across the landscape and at depth.

For the first time, national-scale maps of carbon stored in wetland soil across all interior and coastal settings were created from harmonized public datasets of carbon concentration and bulk density (a measure of the compactness of the soil). These subsurface maps can improve projections of hydrologic and biogeochemical computer models at national and regional scales. The maps also reveal that carbon storage in wetland soils is predictable from percent organic carbon alone until organic carbon concentrations reach 6 percent carbon content, at which point an increase in percent organic matter alone has no effect on carbon storage. This finding suggests that more attention is needed to characterize the relation between carbon content and bulk density in soils dominated by organic material. For more details see the associated publication.

For more information, see the data release or contact Lisamarie Windham-Myers.

EPA Releases Information on Offsite Stormwater Management

This week EPA announced the launch of a new section of their website dedicated to off-site stormwater management. Many local and state governments have established performance and/or design standards to manage post-construction stormwater discharges for certain new development and redevelopment projects. In some instances, these standards may not be achievable within the boundaries of the new development or redevelopment site itself. Off-site stormwater management provides a way for operators of these projects to meet these performance standards at a location outside the right-of-way (ROW) or limit of the area of development. EPA has collect information about this practice and it is being shared with the public. Some new resources are also in development at EPA, and EPA anticipates linking them to this page in the future.

EPA Awards $6.4 Million for Two Water Reuse Research Projects

This week, EPA awarded $6.4 million in total funding to two research projects addressing multiple water reuse sources and applications, with the aim of reducing technological and institutional barriers to water reuse.

Iowa State University (Ames, Iowa) was awarded $3,246,000 to conduct the project, “Accelerating Technical and Community Readiness for Water Reuse in Small Systems”. The work will occur in Iowa, Rhode Island, California, and Colorado, with the objective of increasing rural communities’ technical and community readiness. Intended outputs include modular decision support tools such as water inventories, technology databases, and cost and demand curves for reuse. These would be available for integration into institutional and regulatory decision-making processes in small, rural, underserved communities. Results would be made available to communities through workshops, outreach events, and publications.

The Water Research Foundation (Denver, Colorado) was awarded $3,245,999 to conduct the project, “Unlocking the Nationwide Potential of Water Reuse.” The work will occur across the country, with the objective of using wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) and surveillance to understand pathogen loading and enable rapid identification and response in reuse systems, develop quantitative microbial risk assessment tools for certain reuse applications, and identify opportunities for chemical health risk reduction. The project is intended to (1) develop a comprehensive model for reuse treatment processes that includes predictive algorithms to evaluate microbial and chemical water quality goals, incorporating pilot demonstration and techno-economic analysis to support real-time monitoring and risk mitigation, (2) quantify water reuse potential across the nation and identify barriers, drivers and pathways to successful operations through a rigorous case study evaluation process and partner with community leaders to synthesize and address organizational and social barriers to advancing reuse across diverse contexts and for traditional marginalized communities, and (3) evaluate planned and potential reuse projects through a quantitative sustainable design process to identify strategies for water reuse capacity building efforts across contexts. The expected results of this work will provide interested groups of diverse backgrounds with user friendly tools and materials to advance water reuse in their community.

Association Updates

National Member Survey – ACWA Resources and Priorities

Over the next couple of weeks States and Interstates are being asked to complete a short survey to assist ACWA Staff and Leadership with better understanding membership needs and priorities. This survey is 15 questions long and should take no more than 10 minutes to complete. This survey is being sent to the main ACWA member from each state/interstate and all state water staff that might participate on our committees and workgroups. This year we are giving out a prize to the state/interstate that gets the most survey responses in (only one response per state/interstate staff person please) by Friday, October 28, 2022, 5:00pm eastern. The prize for the state will be Breakfast/Lunch on ACWA (up to $500). Thank you for your assistance! We greatly appreciate your feedback. You can access the survey here.

Meetings and Webinars

Registration Open – 2022 National Stormwater Roundtable

October 19 – 21, 2022
Boston, Massachusetts

Purpose: The 2022 National Stormwater Roundtable supports implementation of federal and state municipal, industrial, and construction stormwater programs nationwide by sharing best management practices, showcasing innovative federal and state programs and initiatives, highlighting new technologies, facilitating discussion on national program enhancements and improvements, identifying state resource needs including tools, training and guidance, and proposing solutions to challenges and barriers faced by the regulators and other stakeholders.

Attendees: The Stormwater Roundtable is national face to face meeting specifically organized by state and federal regulators for EPA and state program staff representatives. This is a closed meeting. Attendees include:

State managers, permit writers, inspectors, and compliance staff involved in regulating stormwater
EPA Headquarter and Regional staff involved in stormwater regulation
Partnering state and federal agency staff that provide technical and/or regulatory assistance to the stormwater program
Invited guests

Website: 2022 National Stormwater Roundtable – Boston, Massachusetts

Registration Open: National Virtual Symposium: Improving Small Municipalities WWTP Compliance

Dates: October 25-27, 2022
Times: Daily 11:00am – 5:00pm eastern
Participants: NPDES Program Authorities and Related Contractors/Grantees
Registration: Meeting Registration – Zoom (zoomgov.com)
Cost: Free

Compliance with NPDES permits is imperative for limiting pollution in WWTP discharges, and in turn, for protecting public health and the environment. As part of EPA’s National Compliance Initiative to address NPDES SNC, focus is being given to municipal WWTPs, which are the leading sector contributing to the SNC rate. Small WWTPs (discharging < 1 MGD) can be particularly burdened by aging infrastructure, financial, and workforce challenges. Presenters in this symposium will thus cover eight different topic areas (see below) that detail different tools and approaches regulators can take to help improve compliance with NPDES permitting requirements and reduce SNC at small municipal WWTP facilities. In this context, focus will also be given to environmental justice considerations and solutions.

Symposium Topics to include:

Technical Assistance and Resources
WWTP Infrastructure Financial Assistance, Resources and Sustainability
System Sustainability/Resiliency (including Climate Change)
The Keys to Sustained Compliance: Workforce and Operation & Maintenance
Water System Partnerships (including Regionalization)
WWTP Technology
Effective Use of Enforcement to Enhance Municipal WWTP Compliance
Regulatory Support Tools for Achieving Water Quality Standards/Goals

Save the Date – 2023 National NPDES Meeting

February 28 – March 2, 2023
Washington, DC

Purpose: This meeting is intended to help support states and EPA to build staff capacity, identify challenges & barriers to NPDES program implementation, highlight opportunities for permitting authority program improvement & enhancement, showcase NPDES program innovations, assist with analysis of training, guidance, tools, and other support material needs, improve administrative efficiencies, clarify roles and responsibilities, build stronger linkages to other programs, modernize permit terms, improve data management, discuss program performance measures, identify program areas where targeted technical assistance would be most beneficial, and attempt to solve some of the most intractable NPDES Program issues.

Attendees: The National NPDES Meeting is a national coregulator event specifically organized by state and federal regulators for EPA and state program staff representatives. Attendees include:

State and EPA staff involved in managing and overseeing NPDES programs
State and EPA staff involved with drafting and overseeing NPDES permits
Partnering state and federal agency staff that provide technical and/or regulatory assistance to the NPDES programs
Invited guests as appropriate

Website: 2023 National NPDES Meeting – Washington, DC

EPA WEBINAR: Providing Process Control Technical Assistance to Small Mechanical WWTPs

Date: Thursday, October 20, 2022

Time: 1:00pm – 3:00pm eastern

Registration:
REGISTER HERE

Cost: Free

Audience: This series it is specifically geared toward plant owners and operators of smaller systems with flow of less than 1 million gallons per day. Others include: WWTP owners and operators, design engineers, municipal leaders, NPDES technical assistance providers, permit writers, compliance staff from state, local, tribal, and federal governments.

Agenda:

EPA’s Office of Compliance invites you to a free webinar on Thursday, October 20, 2022, as part of EPA’s ongoing Technical Assistance Webinar Series: Improving CWA-NPDES Permit Compliance at Small Wastewater
Treatment Systems. The first part of this webinar will discuss the Ammonia Removal Best Practices Excel-Based Tool. This tool provides a systematic approach for wastewater operators to guide their efforts when
optimizing their system for Ammonia removal or attempting to return to compliance for Effluent Ammonia. The second part of the webinar will review a video series where Ohio EPA engineer, Jon VanDommelen, demonstrates the use of process control tools to help small wastewater treatment systems either return
to compliance or maintain compliance. Jon walks through each treatment unit with the audience, identifies tools and equipment that can help operators diagnose operational problems, and then demonstrates how to use the tools in a troubleshooting exercise.

*Please note that registration for this event will be capped at 1,000 attendees. The first 1,000 people to log on will be admitted to the webinar. If you are unable to view the webinar live due to capacity restrictions, the webinar will be recorded and archived on our website.

National Partnership for Environmental Technology Education (PETE) Environmental Cybersecurity

October 28, 12:00-2:00 EST | Registration Open

WICRD Cybersecurity Branch will be providing an Overview of Cybersecurity in the Water Sector to include common cyber vulnerabilities, countermeasures, challenges utilities face in building a cybersecurity program,
and current/upcoming steps the Federal Government will be taking to improve cybersecurity across Critical Infrastructure. The audience will be community college environmental staff/instructors and the goal is for these staff members to take the information learned in the event and incorporate this information
into their instruction for the future environmental workforce.

Job Opportunities

Public Works Director | City of Troutdale, Oregon

Location: Troutdale, OR
Closing Date: October 23, 2022

Working under the direction of the City Manager, the Public Works Director plans, organizes, directs, and evaluates, through subordinate supervisors, the delivery of public work services, including construction, operation, maintenance, and repair of streets, water systems, sanitary sewer systems, storm drainage infrastructure systems and utility services, and parks maintenance.