EPA 910/9-75-008
Toward
Cleaner
Water in the
Pacific Northwest
&Alaska
The National Water Permit Program
How it's working—How you can help
Region X - U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency
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Contents
Page
What's it all about? 5
Who's doing the job? 7
What's been done? 9
Some specific results 11
What's it costing?
How much more to be done? 13
How you can help 15
332?
Region X-U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency
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What's
it all
about?
What is the National Water Permit Program? Officially,
it has the title of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System.
NPDES. But let's call it the Permit Program. It means simply
—no discharge of any pollutant into any of the Nation's
waters is allowed without a permit spelling out terms and
corrective timetables to be followed.
The Permit Program is part of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act
Amendments which became Public Law on October 18,1972. It is the national
goal of the Act that the discharge of pollutants into navigable waters be
eliminated by 1985. Congress set two interim dates of July 1,1977 and July 1,
1983, by which different levels of waste treatment are to be reached.
The Permit Program is the muscle for us who live in the Region X area of
Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington and the rest of the United States. The
muscle is administered for us by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) and the separate state environmental agencies. (Nationally, only about
half the states had federally approved Permit Programs as of July 1975.)
There are only 6,500,000 of us living in these four states and the 833,000
square miles they cover. But why the Permit Program is so important to us is
that we have 7,157 miles of coastline and 38,340 miles of shoreline in our
area. Not to mention the thousands of lakes, rivers and streams. Fortunately,
there are not many of us, but there's a lot of water to protect. Unfortunately,
there have been and still are polluters. Some have been stopped, most are
attempting to meet federal and state effluent standards with the deadlines
and a few are resisting the state/federal attempts to clean up waters still
being polluted.
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wj In Oregon and Washington, with their respective
Department of Environmental Quality and Department
of Ecology, Permit Programs already were in effect
and received EPA approval. In Idaho, the Department
of Health and Welfare is that state's agency on environment
and in Alaska, it's the Department of Environmental
Conservation. EPA works with the latter two
state agencies in administering the Permit Program.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with its approximate staff of 250
for Region X, including EPA operations offices in the individual states,
completes the "official" team. The rest of the team is made up of concerned
citizenry—you.
Even before the Water Pollution Control Act and its accompanying Permit
Program became law, there were and still are nearly 500,000 residents in the
four states of Region X affiliated with 150 environmental organizations. That's
nearly 12 per cent of the four-state population.
The official team is a mix of scientists, engineers, technicians, lawyers and
administrative staff. They are supported by the various research laboratories
of the states and EPA's national laboratory in Corvallis, Oregon; a major
laboratory in the Puget Sound Basin scheduled for construction in
Manchester; the Arctic Environmental Research Laboratory in Fairbanks,
Alaska, and EPA national laboratories in Cincinnati and in North Carolina.
Who
doing
the job?
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Since the inception of the Federal Permit Program
in 1972, approximately 2,500 permits have been
issued to industrial, municipal and federal facilities
throughout the four states. That figure represents
flATIA f virtually every potential polluter in existence in Region X
0 through June 30, 1975.
Virtually all major facilities, such as pulp and paper manufacturers or large
city waste-water treatment plants, have been permitted. Nearly all these major
facilities, which number approximately 110 each, industrial and municipal,
have achieved or are on a schedule of compliance to meet federal and state
limits of effluent discharge by July 1,1977.
Permits issued to industrial, federal or municipal facilities which discharge
small amounts of pollutants into public waters, such as a fish hatchery, forest
service recreational area or small-town sewer system, are classified as minor
permitees. However, they are under the same compliance mandates as are the
major permitees. No permit (first generation) shall exceed a term of five years,
according to the law. They will be reviewed against new data bases before a
second generation permit is issued.
Sewage treatment and disposal is a problem familiar to all of us and it is in
this phase of cleaning up our waters where the federal government is
spending billions of dollars to help cities and towns build new plants or
upgrade existing ones.
What's
been
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The 36 pulp mills in Region X have been long-time
' £** polluters of the area waters. In 1974, they dumped
T1 m* 3,120,000 pounds of Biochemical Oxygen Demand
(BOD) pollutants daily. Add to that another 1,010,000
l*Ar
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si i y 11
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What's it
^ O invested $600 million for sewerage facilities,
i ilSr I JIM £ Replacement value, as of January 1973, was $1 A
-m Financing was arranged for another $145
How much
more to be
done ?
In the 20 years 1952-72, Region X communities
5 billion,
million
during 1973 and 1974. But in response
to a 1974 federal survey, Region X
states and communities indicated
a need to invest another $4.4 to $8.2 billion by 1983.
Although the federal government is and will bear
75 per cent of these capital investments ($231 million
allotted from 1973 through fiscal 1975; another $226
million for fiscal 1976 alone), the states, the communities, the taxpayers,
must pick up the balance. The annual cost of maintenance and operation of
sewerage facilities—currently $180 million and expected to rise to $1.1 billion
annually by 1983—will be borne entirely by the taxpayer.
Industrial costs are not so well defined. However, a 1972 EPA assessment
indicated Region X industries would have to spend $1 billion for capital
investment in waste treatment facilities and $250 million annually for
operation and maintenance. Fifty-four percent of those amounts would be
borne by the pulp and paper industry. {Nationally, pulp and paper
manufacturers account for 17 percent of total sewerage investment
requirements.)
For some industries, such as silviculture (development, reproduction and
care of forest trees), mining and agriculture, data is only now being compiled
to establish guidelines for pollution control through issuance of permits.
Although some industry may be granted extended periods of time to meet
federal standards of pollutant discharge, they must stay on a compliance
schedule. State and/or EPA staffs include field investigation units to monitor
performance of the permittees and to gather new data. Should there be
evidence of non-compliance, the enforcement division issues documented
notices of violation. Willful or negligence violations can bring fines of up to
$25,000 to $50,000 a day and one to two years imprisonment.
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How i
Requirements written into the Permit Program law give
the public an unprecedented opportunity to take part in a
Vrfl ill government regulatory program. The public involvement
J opportunities give us full access to all information
(except trade secrets) on proposed discharges
of pollutants. The law gives citizens who care enough
to take part, a chance to evaluate the information
and to make their views known.
J V | ^oppc
can help
As stated earlier in this writing, nearly all industrial, municipal, state and
federal facilities which discharge pollutants were under permit control by
July, 1975. However, after a permit has been issued, it is a public document;
you can learn exactly what a discharger may put into a water body and what
the discharger must do to reduce or eliminate the flow of pollutants. And you
have access to the monitoring and compliance reports that dischargers must
file with EPA or the state agency. Citizens can use those reports to measure
progress—or lack of it—toward cleaner water.
Going still further, you, under the law, have the right to file suit against
anyone violating a permit condition, an EPA or state order. In fact, you can
file suit against EPA itself if it fails to carry out any action required by the
1972 law.
Additional Copies Available From
Environmental Protection Agency, Public Affairs Office, Region 10
1200 Sixth Avenue
Seattle, WA 98101
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Living in the Pacific Northwest, or ta.&teska, offers some of the world's most
spectacular water-oriented recreationaractiVities^We must preserve our clean
waters for another reason, too. We live-Trt^^feaJesponsible for about half of
the nation's supply of softwood lumber, a quajter of the wood pulp and
twenty per cent of its paper. This regfon prewdes*haTf of the country's apples
and potatoes, a quarter of its beet suoar-sLxfo"bfrrcent of its peas, a quarter
of its green beans, most of the soft whea-Uaad-fiftegp-per cent of the seafood.
Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Sixth Avenue
Seattle, Washington 98101
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use, $300
Postage and Fees Paid
Environmental Protection Agency
EPA-335
AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER
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