The NACWA Pretreatment & Pollution Prevention Committee will be holding a meeting on Tuesday, October 5, 2:00-3:00 pm ET to discuss EPA’s Preliminary Effluent Guidelines Program Plan 15 and NACWA’s comment on the Plan, which are due October 14.

The Plan announced rulemakings to control discharges of PFAS from two industrial categories: the Organic Chemicals, Plastics, and Synthetic Fibers (OCPSF) category and the Metal Finishing category.  EPA also asked for comment on how environmental justice can be considered in the Effluent Guidelines program.  (See the previous story in the Clean Water Current for more information about the Plan.)

The Committee also has a workgroup that will be developing recommendations for how pretreatment standards can be created for PFAS discharges.  Although these recommendations will be developed to apply to any industry, they are particularly important now as EPA begins the process for the OCPSF and Metal Finishing categories.  This workgroup will have its first meeting on October 4.

Another workgroup of the Committee, the Pretreatment/Reuse workgroup, is continuing its work on the pretreatment action item in EPA's Water Reuse Action Plan.  This action is to "enhance wastewater source control through local pretreatment programs to support water reuse opportunities for municipal wastewater." The workgroup met on September 27 to hear a case study from El Paso Water, the first in a series of case studies that will be used to build a resource library for utilities working on water reuse. 

Please contact Cynthia Finley, NACWA’s Director of Regulatory Affairs, for more information about the Committee meeting or either of these workgroups.