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. ------- -2— 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 ------- -3— 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: ------- -4- 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. ------- -5- 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 ------- -6- 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. ------- —7— 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 . ------- 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. ------- |