Wet Weather and Water Quality - 30 Years Later and All the Same Questions Remain

摘要

The last set of significant changes to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA), the Water Quality Amendments, were made in 1987. Since that time, there have been a number of policy issues that have been raised and repeatedly left unresolved. This paper and presentation will describe the issues, the discussions that have taken place, and potential ways to resolve them. The outstanding issues include the misconception that sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) are illegal, blending of flows at wastewater treatment plants is not allowed, antidegradation studies must be a part of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits, and municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) discharges must comply with water quality standards. Each of these issues has been around for a long time and opinions regarding how to resolve them vary from state to state and region to region.