Court Says Environmental Protection Agency Went too Far With Clean Water Act Enforcement in Virginia

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Federal District Court in Alexandria, Va., found the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guilty of exceeding its authority to enforce the Clean Water Act by trying to regulate water as a pollutant. In 2011, the EPA’s Region III assigned a total maximum daily load for Fairfax County, Va.’s Accotink Creek, reducing the amount of stormwater allowed into the stream by nearly half. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and state Department of Transportation sued the agency on the grounds that water is not a pollutant, and that the Clean Water Act does not count surrogates of pollutants as pollutants. Since stormwater is ubiquitous, every homeowner, business and decentralized wastewater system with a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System discharge permit would have been regulated on how to deal with it.

Alabama

Residents in Cherokee County, Ala., have been ignoring a new county ordinance covering sewage holding tanks, so authorities began issuing fines. As of July 2012, residents around Weiss Lake have been required to hook up to a sewage system if available, or to have their holding tanks permitted. Only 100 permits have been issued, and about 1,000 violation notices have been sent. After a final warning to violators, officials began issuing citations on March 1. The fine is $150 per day, up to a total of $5,000.

Hawaii

After a trial period, the Hawaii Department of Health is rolling out its new online permitting system this year. Its e-Permitting Portal is intended to make it easer to apply for permits, pay fees and stay updated on the status of permit applications. “The e-Permitting Portal benefits both DOH staff and the regulated community,” Gary Gill, deputy director for environmental health, said in a news release. “We hope to reduce the average permit processing time by about 30 percent. Making wise use of technology will keep our work efficient and transparent to the industry and the public. It helps us do our job better.”

Last year, the system received more than 700 online permit applications during the trial period. Nearly 30 permit applications are now available electronically, including septic system permits. The rest of the paper-based permits will be converted by the end of 2013.

The information is also available to the public through the Environmental Health Warehouse, including maps of all permitted septic systems in the state. Go to http://hawaii.gov/health/about/pr/2013/13-008.pdf.

Idaho

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality is revising guidance on designing, building and operating subsurface sewage systems. The changes will address the use of holding tanks, seepage pits and beds; design of pressure distribution systems and recreational vehicle dump stations; and other disposal system procedures. For more information, see http://www.deq.idaho.gov/news-archives/water-technical-guidance-manual-revisions-comment-021413.aspx.

Ohio

A survey of the state’s 130 county and city health departments by the state Department of Health found 194,000 onsite systems experiencing some degree of failure. The failure rate in 2012 was 31 percent, up from 23 percent in 2008. The report is compiled every four years. Newly proposed changes in the septic code would require evaluations of the property and available soil, establish minimum soil depths needed to treat sewage, and specify alternative technology to treat sewage when soils are insufficient.

Oregon

Last November, Oregon voters passed Ballot Measure 79 prohibiting the Department of Environmental Quality from charging a tax, fee or other assessment for filing time-of-transfer inspection reports. The agency planned to use the revenue to fund a staff position to implement the inspection program.

Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection proposed best management practices with denitrification for onsite systems and large setbacks from streams and rivers. In most cases, ditches would be considered streams, forcing lot sizes up to 11 acres to establish permanent riparian buffers.



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