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WaterNews for January 13, 2004Benjamin Grumbles WaterNews is a weekly on-line publication that announces publications, policies, and activities of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water. In This Week’s WaterNews:
EPA Grants Award for Water SecurityBenjamin Grumbles, Acting Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water, has announced the award of $400,000 to the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies (AMSA) to support water security efforts. The Association will continue its efforts to enhance their Vulnerability Self Assessment Tool (VSAT) for use by wastewater and water utilities in assessing vulnerabilities to terrorist attacks. The grant will be used to improve report functions, update and enhance countermeasures libraries, and include an emergency response function to help better secure the nation's drinking water and wastewater infrastructure. Office of Water to Hold Meetings Across the Country to Promote Water Efficient ProductsThe Office of Water is exploring activities and programs the Agency can undertake to promote water-efficient products to consumers. More widespread use of water-efficient products would conserve water supplies, reduce energy use, and help maintain aquatic ecosystems. Meetings are being held across the country over the next few months to gain a broad perspective on EPA’s proposed program. This is the second in a series of meetings to determine the best and most cost effective way of saving water nationwide. The first meeting was held on Oct. 9, 2003, in Washington, D.C. A broad range of stakeholders attended and provided input on program concepts, existing programs, potential pitfalls, and possible directions for this future program. Additional meetings are scheduled as follows:
For more information on this initiative or future meetings, please see EPA’s Water Efficiency Web Page at www.epa.gov/owm/water-efficiency/index.htm Preliminary Effluent Guidelines Plan for 2004/2005 PublishedEPA published on Dec. 31, 2003, its preliminary Effluent Guidelines Plan for 2004/2005 in the Federal Register. The preliminary Plan describes the current status of EPA's planning for the effluent guidelines program, presents the results of EPA's annual review of the effluent guidelines it has already promulgated for industrial categories, and identifies industrial categories that EPA expects to investigate further for the possible development or revision of effluent limitations guidelines. You can view or download the complete text of the Federal Register notice and major supporting documents on the Internet at www.epa.gov/guide/plan.html. The 45-day comment period closes on Feb. 17. Outreach to stakeholders includes a public meeting scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 28, at EPA Headquarters, EPA East, Room 1153, 9 a.m.- 12 p.m., Washington, DC. For further information please contact Carey Johnston at 202-566-1014. EPA Extends Comment Period on Proposed Blending PolicyEPA's Office of Water announces that it is extending the comment period for the proposed Blending Policy until February 9, 2004. The public is invited to submit comments until that date. The proposed Blending Policy and information on submitting comments can be found at www.epa.gov/npdes/blending Watershed-Based NPDES Permitting Implementation Guidance Now AvailableA guidance document describing EPA's recommendations for watershed-based permitting under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System(NPDES) program, is now available online. This approach is aimed at achieving new efficiencies and environmental results through the NPDES program. The watershed approach to permitting provides a process for considering all stressors within a hydrologically defined drainage basin, rather than addressing individual pollutant sources on a discharge-by-discharge basis. The Guidance is available online at: www.epa.gov/npdes/watersheds Subscribe to WaterNewsPlease forward this message to your friends and colleagues who share an interest in water-related issues and would like to hear from EPA's Office of Water. To subscribe to the WaterNews listserv: Send an email message, leave the subject line blank, and address it to: In the body of the message write: Subscribe WaterNews firstname lastname (Please leave one blank space between each word, do not include any other message, and use your actual name- i.e. Subscribe WaterNews Robert Jones) A welcome message will appear in your email box once you are officially subscribed.
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