The past two months saw the publication of three water-related EPA rules. The first out the door, on May 1, was the third Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Regulation (UCMR3). As widely anticipated, hexavalent chromium (Cr-VI), along with total chromium, made the final list of contaminants to be monitored. Because of the 30-contaminant limit for UCMR3, two contaminants, sec- butylbenzene and n-propylbenzene, were removed to make room for Cr-VI and total chromium on the final list. Additional changes from the proposed UCMR3 include: the movement of hormone monitoring from assessment monitoring to the screening survey; longer reporting times for laboratories (from 60 to 120 days) and public water systems (from 30 to 60 days); and several other small definitional, procedural and reporting modifications.
Large water systems (serving >100,000 people) are required to provide location and inventory information to EPA by October 1, 2012 in preparation for UCMR3 monitoring beginning in 2013. The full list of the final UCMR3 contaminants, analytical requirements and detailed schedules, as well as a summary and explanation of all changes from the proposal, are included in the Federal Register notice, available at http://amwa.net/UCMR3FR.
Utilities with major airports located within their watersheds could be seeing some water quality improvements due to EPA’s new rule requiring airports to better control fluids used in pavement deicing operations. Under new effluent guidelines, both existing and new primary airports—those with at least 1,000 annual jet departures—will be required to either use deicers that do not contain urea or meet a numeric effluent limit for ammonia.
In addition to the effluent standards for pavement deicer application, the new rule also establishes performance standards for airplane deicing operations at qualifying new airports. Under the new source standards, large airports—those with at least 10,000 annual departures—in certain cold climate zones are required to collect 60 percent of deicing fluids, and if discharging the collected fluids directly to U.S. waterways, meet chemical oxygen demand discharge limits. Existing airports are not subject to the aircraft deicing provisions of the new rule, but will continue to be subject to requirements set out in general or individual permits.
EPA analysis of the new deicing requirements, which went into effect on June 15, predicts pollutant discharges from deicing operations will decrease by a minimum of 16 million pounds annually. Additional information on EPA’s new airport deicing guidelines, including links to a fact sheet and the May 16 Federal Register notice announcing the new requirements, are available at http://amwa.net/airportdeicing.
Lastly, EPA published a new rule in the June 28 Federal Register that establishes 10 additional methods for analyzing drinking water samples for contaminants under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The rule, “Expedited Approval of Alternative Test Procedures for the Analysis of Contaminants Under the Safe Drinking Water Act; Analysis and Sampling Procedures” was promulgated as a direct final rule and was not subject to the usual administrative procedures (proposal, consultations, etc.) of a normal rulemaking process since implementation of the new analytical methods is not required—it only provides alternative options for analyses.
The method revisions include revisions to EPA Methods for analysis of atrazine and simazine (two methods), semivolatile organic compounds and Cryptosporidium; Standard Methods for uranium and mercury; and ASTM International Methods for silica, fluoride, and uranium (two methods). Changes to the methods range from simple editorial changes to more substantial procedural modifications. Additional information on the analytical method changes is available in the Federal Register notice at http://amwa.net/DWMethodRevs.