208 bulletin
NUMBER 8
WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT
APRIL 5, 1976
New Castle
County Pre-
treatment
Ordinance
The areawide 208 agency in New Cajrtje
County! Delaware, has he! ped develop a Tew
industrial pretreatment ordinance in that
iLy Industrialized area. Public ofTTcials
and industry worked together to write the
ordinance, which requires every significant
non-domestic discharger Into the county sewer
to have a permit.
The City of Wilmington, Delaware, which
operates the wastewater treatment plant serving
the county, recently passed a waste ordinance
controlling the strength of county wastes
flowing to'the plant. The.New Castle County
208 agency and the County Department of Public
Works acted quickly to meet this requirement,
with the help of the 208 agency's Subcommittee
on Industrial Waste Management.
The Subcommittee is part of the Citizen
Advisory Committee, and consists of representatives
from most of the companies in the study area.
The ordinance prohibits discharges into
the sewer system of excessive amounts of h¥at,
fats, grease, hydrogen sulfide. petroleum
residue, solids, or viscous substances. Also
prohibited are substances which would cause an
obstruction or explosion hazard, substances with
high or low pH, wastewaters with high inorganic
dissolvedl_ s oj ids, and unpolluted inflow.
In addition, the ordinance sets maximum
allowable concentrations for certain wastewater
constituents both at the point of discharge into
the sewer, and in the sewer system itself.
These constituents are arsenic, chromium,
copper, lead, iron, mercury, cj/anide^J3ho 1-1
phates. BOD, suspended solids, and others.
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Although the County Council has already
passed the ordinance, the 208 agency and the
county must still work out the details of its
administration before permits can be issued.
The next step will be to incorporate into the
ordinances of the City of Wilmington and
New Castle County a system of user charges
cost recovery, and standards for pretreatment
and toxic substances.
The METRO-APEX The Water Planninq Division recently
Game held a two-day session on a computerized
role-playing game called METRO—APEX. The
sponsors of the game, the University of
Southern California, were trying to demon-
strate the possibility of using this simulated
“ real world” as a training for 208 State and
areawide planning . The game has previously
been used to train and acquaint the role-
players with urban air quality management.
Real-life community leaders played the
game with representatives from EPA and other
government agencies. During the session it
became clear that introducing 208 planning
into a community is no easy matter. The most
difficult hurdle to overcome was setting
community-wide goals. Only from these goals
could the 208 agency proceed with specific
planning tasks .
The Water Planning Division is now con-
sidering how this type of computer role-playing
can be used to further train planning officials
and community leaders in the intricacies of
208 planning.
Letter to Several EPA Regional Offices and areawide
Local agencies have taken steps to involve local
Officials officials in the water quality management
planning process . Local elected officials
represent and communicate with wide constit-
uencies, and are often involved in the final
approval of a plan. Both elected and appointed
officials will have implementation responsi-
bility and are key people for the accomplish-
ment of that end.
A letter describing the 208 program, its
potentTal impact on the local community, its
provisions for citizen participation and its
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emphasis on local direction for the planning
is a good way to encourage involvement by
local officials .
It is important to give officials some
realistic suggestions on how to get involved.
Any letter should be a joint effort between
local and/or State agencies and the EPA
Regional Office. A sample letter follows :
A few months ago your community indicated
its desire to join with neiahboring cities
and towns in the effort to improve water
quality under the auspices of the Metropol i tan
Area Planning Council. In response to your
initiative EPA has made a sizable grant to
the Council for the development of a water
quality management process. The objective of
this effort is to identify and recommend specific
actions by Federal, State and local govern-
ments necessary to restore and protect the
waters of your community so that they can be
used by the public for all beneficial uses.
The Environmental Protection Agency is
committed to implementing these recommended
actions and will use theni to guide the programs
which we administer such as wastewater treatment
facility grants and permits issued under the
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System.
Federal law requires us to adhere to these
recommendations once they are prepared and
adopted.
I urge you to fully recognize the potential
impact which the water quality management process
can have on your community, including future
growth and development, land use, natural
environment, water resources, and water pollution
control systems. I believe it is imperative
that your community actively participate in
the development of the plan so that, when
completed, it will represent the views and
objectives of the community. Specifically I
would recommend that:
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1. Your community invite the regional
planning agency staff to meet with various
community boards. Advise the agency staff
of your community’s short-term and long-term
water quality needs and problems. Discuss
ways that they can help your community meet
its clean water program responsibilities.
2. Your community representative actively
participate in water quality management process
from its beginning and ensure that other
community boards are advised of progress and
impending decisions.
3. An internal community coordinating
group might be considered to aid community
decision-making relating to the study.
A great deal of the water quality planning
that was done in the past has been “from the
top, down” by Federal or State agencies. This
areawide water pollution control planning
effort stresses planning by groups of local
governments. It represents one of our initiaL
attempts at “from the bottom, up” planning.
Specifically, it calls upon local governments
to work together through designated agencies
to develop and implement programs for dealing
with community water quality needs. I sincerely
believe it can be most effective and I urge
you to help us make it so.
Success Story We have been trying everything to get
from people out to our 201, 208, 303, and EIS
Region IX hearings and workshops. We have had good
results by us ng newspaper supplements to
spread the word .
Our experience tells us that the following
are necessary for success: Get an advertising
firm to do the layout and writing. Supply them
with data and do the editing. This is a must
because we all write like bureaucrats, and the
supplement needs flair in order to reach people.
Don’t make it over four pages long (infor-
mation overload and into the trash). Don’t use
any technical or buzz words (over my head and
into the trash). Use a lot of graphics in pro-
portion to the text, for immediacy. The supple-
ment should only try to do a minimum of educating.
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It will get best circulation by coming out
in the Sunday paper preceding the hearing
date and should generally blanket the area.
This technique has brought us much better
attendance. Total cost, including production,
printing and distribution have run from $15,000
to $25,000 . For a copy of the supplement,
write to:
Water Division
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Region IX
100 California Street
San Francisco, California 94111
Planning Aids Conservation and Environment
You Can
Write For The Soil Conservation Service and Soil
Conservation Districts will play vital roles
in providing technical assistance to 208 areas.
The National Association of Conservation
Districts (NACD) has adopted a resolution
stating, .“Be it resolved that NACD go all the
way in using their influence for securing the
leading role for our districts and State soil
and water conservation agencies in non-point
pollution control programs....”
NACD has produced a booklet titled
Conservati on Districts and Non-point Poll uti on
Control . The booklet discusses the goals of
PL 92-500, describes NACD’s role and explains
its non-point program . It includes specific
steps for conservation districts to take to get
involved.
The Soil Conservation Service has produced
a pamphlet titled SCS and 208 . This publication
describes the services SCS offers to State and
areawide agencies; data on local natural resources
and on-site technical assistance.
Both pamphlets can be obtained from the
EPA Regional Office in your area.
Resource Recovery Information
EPA is publishing a two-volume set of
companion reports titled Resource Recovery
Information for Municipal Officials . The reports
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present an overview of institutional, admin-
istrative and technical solutions for recovery
of useful elements from municipal solid wastes
through a central processing facility and/or
source separation approach.
Volume I will be available in April.
To get a copy, write to:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
208 Bulletin (WH-554)
401 M Street, S.W.
Washington, D. C. 20460
208 Growth The Central Iowa Regional Association of
Management Local Governments, a 208 agency, has produced
Pamphlet a fold-out pamphlet, Water Quality and Its
Relationship to Land Uses .
The pamphlet states, “ The interaction of
our daily lives; the number of people who
reside in the area, where they live and how
they use the available land all have a potential
effect on the quality of water in our rivers
and streams . And it is this relationship in
the 208 planning process that becomes the basis
for developing a Preliminary Intensity Develop-
ment Pattern that will mark the starting point
for defining solutions to our water quality
problems.”
It uses the year 2000 as the focal point
for coordinating population and employment
projects. A color-keyed map of the Des Moines
area gives a good indication of projected
growth and land use.
To obtain a copy of the pamphlet, write to:
CIRALG
do 208 Program
104-1/2 E. Locust
Des Moines, Iowa 50309
Capsule View The January 1976 issue of Environmental
of 208 Comment, put out by the Urban Land Institute,
is devoted to a capsule view of the 208 program.
The eight articles include an overview of the
areawide planning process by Mark Pisano, and
articles about citizen participation, State role,
Congressional profile, and 208 planning in high
Qrowth and urban regions.
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Individual copies are free. To get one,
write to:
Dallas Miner
Urban Land Institute
1200 18th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
Texas Holds 208 EPA’s Region VI is making a concerted
Briefings effort in Texas to assist State and local
208 agencies by conducting a series of seminars,
workshops and briefings on various topics of
importance to the 208 studies .
The first seminar was held in Dallas last
November 6 and 7. It covered technical matters
and was presented by the University of Texas at
Dallas under contract to Region VI. Topics
covered included point and non-point source
inventories, problem identification and socio-
economic projections.
The second technical seminar was presented
by the University on February 2 and 3, in Dallas .
Representatives of each of the nine designated
208 agencies in the Region attended, along with
staff members of the Oklahoma Department of
Pollution Control, Texas Division of Planning
Coordination, and the Texas Water Quality Board.
Topics included refinement of wasteload allocation
and infiltration/inflow analyses, as well as
the environmental impact statement piggyback
approach to a 208 environmental assessment. The
piggyback approach involves basing the assess—
ment on the impact statement.
Synergy Consulting Services was retained
to present a seminar dealin with the effective
use of public participation in the planning
process. This seminar was held in the Dallas
Regional Office November 25 and was attended by
37 State and local representatives . Following
the seminar a briefing on the new Statewide 208
regulations was held for State planning office
officials.
On January 23, a workshop was held in
Dallas for representatives from all Federal
and State agencies with potential for involve-
ment in statewide 208 planning in Region VI.
The purpose of the workshop was to provide
an exchange o information and ideas and to
initiate the interagency cooperation vital
to the success of the statewide 208 program .
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Some 85 persons attended the meeting,
with about 25 State and 25 Federal agencies
represented. Participants heard speakers
from the Texas Water Quality Board, the
Oklahoma Department of Pollution Control and
EPA.
A Region VI briefing/workshop on the
statewide 208 regulations was conducted
January 29 in Dallas. The object was to bring
representatives of all Federal and State
agencies jjjrtential 1y involved inimplementing
the new regulations. They exchanged ideas on
delegation of tasks and how to make the required
changes to the States' water quality management
planning process. Seventy-five agencies were
invited to participate.
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