Summary of Week 5

Functional Equivalence

• A judicially created NEPA "exemption"
• No EIS required for certain EPA actions otherwise subject to NEPA
• Justification:
  • standards ensure full and adequate consideration of environmental issues
  • EPA's purpose is environmental protection
  • Enables emergency situations to be addressed
• No EIS required for Eg. cleanup of Superfund sites
• Remedial actions aren't delayed
  But will EPA always be the "good guy" ?

Clean Water Act

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• Overall Approach
  • Prohibit discharges expect under the Act
  • Permit proram established
  • Limits on regulated discharges
  • Cooperative Federal-State implementation
  • Spill prevention, reporting & response
  • Enforcement
• Historical Background
• General Overview of Clean Water Act

NPDES

• NPDES is the "heart" of the CWA
• Prohibits discharges of pollutantsfrom any point source except under permit
  into the waters of the U.S.
• General Procedure ( 7 steps)
  • File application (180 days prior to discharge) signed by "responsible corporate officer"
  • State certification that proposed permit will meet Federal & state effluent limitations and water quality standards
  • Fact Sheet or Statement of Basis
    • Draft Permit
      or
    • Intent to Deny
  • Public comment + informal public hearing
  • Permit issuance (usually effective 30 days later)
  • Permit may be contested
    • Evidentiary hearing @ administrative level
    • Appeal to EPA Administrator
    • Judicial Review (challengeable within 120 days of issuance)
• Typical permit limitations:
  • Mass (Eg. x mg/ y Ton)
  • Concentration (Eg. x ppm)
  • Visible (Eg. sheen, foam, floating solids)
  • Monitoring: regularly test for specific items (Eg fecal coliform); sometimes continuous monitoring
  • Indicators (Eg. BOD, TOC, pH)
  • Flow
  • Temperature
  • Limits (Eg daily maximums, monthly averages)