WaterNews for March 2, 2004

Benjamin Grumbles
Acting Assistant Administrator
Office of Water

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:

• Meat & Poultry Products Final Rule Signed
• Acting Assistant Administrator Testifies
• Still Time to Sign-up For Water Efficient Products Meeting
• Subscribe to WaterNews

Meat & Poultry Products Final Rule Signed

EPA's Administrator signed a final rule, on February 26th, establishing wastewater controls for the Meat and Poultry Products (MPP) industry. The regulation applies to about 170 facilities that generate wastewater from meat and poultry slaughtering, further processing, or rendering operations and discharge directly to waters of the U.S. When the rule is implemented through NPDES permits, the discharge of total nitrogen should be reduced by almost 27 million pounds per year. Discharge of conventional pollutants (e.g., biochemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids, oil and grease) will be reduced by about 4 million pounds per year. Water quality improvements will increase opportunities for swimming and fishing and will reduce stress on aquatic ecosystems. It will cost the industry about $58 million per year to comply with this rule. Until the rule is published in the Federal Register, you can find the Fact Sheet by visiting EPA’s web site at http://epa.gov/guide/mpp/final-fs.htm

Acting Assistant Administrator Grumbles Testifies

Acting Assistant Administrator Benjamin Grumbles testified on the budget last week before the Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Grumbles described the President’s request for EPA water program funding for fiscal year 2005, highlighting the goal of accelerated progress through collaboration and market-based, innovative approaches and identifying the priorities of monitoring, conservation, and restoration. To read the testimony please click here http://www.epa.gov/water/speeches/

Still Time to Sign-up For Water Efficient Products Meeting

The Office of Water is exploring activities and programs the Agency can undertake to promote water-efficient products. A series of meetings are being held to gain a broad perspective on EPA’s proposed program. The following meeting is scheduled for:

April 13-14, 2004 in Seattle, WA focusing on residential, commercial, and institutional products

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

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