MADISON – State environmental officials are in the early stage of proposing changes to how the state processes and issues wastewater discharge permits and are seeking comments on potential economic impacts.
The Department of Natural Resources is beginning the process of making major revisions to a dozen administrative rules governing the permits that set conditions and limits for the wastewater discharges allowed to lakes and rivers and groundwater.
The first set of changes, known as rule package 6, is underway and the public can comment on possible economic impacts of these changes through Dec. 4, 2013.
The overall effort addresses issues the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency raised in a July 2011 letter to the about inconsistencies in Wisconsin's rules, statutes and policies with federal wastewater regulations and the Clean Water Act, according to Tom Mugan, who leads DNR's wastewater section.
"We are committed to updating rule language to be consistent with the federal requirements and tackling the other housekeeping issues EPA identified," says Mugan. "Those issues have only minor or no environmental impact, but it's important for us to address them as we carry out our responsibility to protect Wisconsin lakes, rivers and groundwater."
Dischargers including municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants, as well as large-scale livestock operations, must get wastewater discharge permits, known as Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (WPDES) permits. DNR was among the first states to receive authority from the federal government to issue permits in 1974, and was the first state to meet the interim goals of the Clean Water Act in 1983. Wisconsin has made significant progress in cleaning up and restoring lakes and rivers in the last 40 years and remains in the forefront in carrying out the national wastewater permit system, Mugan says.
To address other issues identified by EPA, seven other rule packages are in various stages of development under the state's administrative rule process, which takes about two-and-a-half years from start to finish.
One rule package already has been adopted and took effect this August governing overflows from sanitary sewers and preventative maintenance for wastewater systems; work on that particular package, however, was well underway before the 2011 letter from EPA.
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