Good morning Mr. Chairman. I am David Paris, Water Supply Administrator of the Manchester Water Treatment Plant, Manchester, New Hampshire. The Manchester Water Treatment Plant provides drinking water to 128,000 people in Manchester and the surrounding communities of Derry, Londonderry, Grassmere, Goffstown, Bedford and Auburn, NH. I serve on the American Water Works Association (AWWA) Water Utility Council and am here today on behalf of AWWA. AWWA appreciates the opportunity to present its view on the proposed rulemaking regarding Total Maximum Daily Loads.
Founded in 1881, AWWA is the world's largest and oldest scientific and educational association representing drinking water supply professionals. The association's 56,000-plus members are comprised of administrators, utility operators, professional engineers, contractors, manufacturers, scientists, professors and health professionals. The association's membership includes over 4,000 utilities that provide over 80 percent of the nation's drinking water. AWWA and its members are dedicated to providing safe, reliable drinking water to the American people.
AWWA utility members are regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and other statutes. AWWA believes few environmental activities are more important to the health of this country than assuring the protection of water supply sources, and the treatment, distribution and consumption of a safe and healthful adequate supply of drinking water. We strongly support effective clean water pollution prevention programs.
AWWA supports the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) concept with the inclusion of effective nonpoint source controls. AWWA has several concerns about implementation of the TMDL proposal as published in the Federal Register on August 23, 1999. AWWA's concern stems from our member's responsibility to protect the American public through the provision of safe and affordable drinking water. AWWA agrees with a number of stakeholders that the TMDL proposal as proposed in the August 23, 1999, Federal Register is flawed, and AWWA does not currently endorse any specific TMDL rule proposal.
AWWA is disappointed by recent indications from U.S. EPA that the final TMDL rule will not address critical components contained in the August 23, 1999, proposal. It now appears that U.S. EPA will be removing key provisions:
-- Identification of drinking water supplies as high priority watersheds for TMDL development, and
-- Management of nonpoint pollution within the TMDL process.
Drinking Water Supplies as High Priority Watersheds
Much of the current TMDL debate focuses on the Clean Water Act efforts to control point sources of pollutants so that receiving waters are "fishable and swimmable." While important goals, the Clean Water Act is also a critical component of protecting drinking water supplies. Public water systems serve 271.3 million Americans. More than 161.7 million American drinking water consumers rely on drinking water drawn from surface water supplies. Few of these drinking water systems have access to protected, pristine supplies and as a consequence must invest in treatment to remove contaminants introduced by point and nonpoint sources of pollution.
Taking reasonable measures to identify and manage pollutant loading on a watershed basis is important to ensuring that drinking water can be provided with reasonable treatment, and therefore, at a reasonable price. Local consumer expectations and regulatory pressures have set high expectations for the safety of America's drinking water. The job of ensuring that safe, affordable water can be provided to the nation's citizens begins with reducing the pollutants entering the water treatment plant's source of supply. Protecting the 161.7 million Americans whose drinking water is drawn from surface water supplies is clearly one of the highest and best uses to which Clean Water Act resources should be applied.
Nonpoint Source Pollution
AWWA believes it is critically important that all levels of government address nonpoint source pollution seriously and aggressively.
Numerous studies have shown that nonpoint sources of pollution are the largest and most significant sources of water pollution in most of the nation's impaired rivers and lakes. If the TMDL process does not address nonpoint pollution, it will simply be a paper tiger of little value in improving water quality.
As a matter of law, nonpoint pollution is clearly within the U.S. EPA's purview under the Clean Water Act. Citing the comprehensive approach envisioned under the Clean Water Act, a federal district judge ruled March 30 that plans to clean up impaired waters can apply to a river polluted solely by nonpoint sources, in this case sediment runoff (Pronsolino v. EPA, N.D. Cal., No. C99-1828, 3/30/00). "TMDLs had to be set at levels that would `implement' the applicable water quality standards," U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup wrote. "It would have been impossible to do so without taking any nonpoint sources into account as well as any point sources." The court suggested that the TMDL process could be used to "help states evaluate and develop land-management practices to mitigate nonpoint-source pollution."
Realities of Implementing TMDLs
Implementation of the Clean Water Act is a delegated responsibility. That is, individual States take responsibility for developing and implementing programs that achieve the Clean Water Act's goals. The States have overwhelmingly stated that they do not have the resources to implement the August 1999, TMDL proposal. AWWA's members understand that federal requirements in the proposed TMDL rule would challenge States financially and technically. The Water Pollution Program Enhancement Act of 2000 (S. 2417), introduced by Senators Crapo and Smith, recognizes that challenge and authorizes needed financial resources for several programs related to implementation of TMDLs. AWWA supports additional funds for administration, monitoring, Section 319 grants, and remediation of nonpoint sources of waterbody impairment. Once authorized it will be critical to ensure that the authorized funds are appropriated in each fiscal year; this second hurdle in the budget process has historically been a challenge for the programs affected by S. 2417.
S. 2417 also recommends the initiation of a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) study on key TMDL technical implementation issues. AWWA believes strongly that federal policies and regulations should be based on sound science and supports involving independent scientific input on technical issues surrounding TMDL implementation. We would caution that the NAS study process and regulatory processes can be quite slow. AWWA strongly urges that S. 2417 be amended to provide strong assurance that the NAS study will be completed and that the rulemaking can proceed in a reasonable period of time. We believe it critical that a final TMDL regulation which includes an effective nonpoint source pollution component based on the current proposal, comments received during the formal comment period, and the NAS report be completed as soon as possible.
Under no circumstances should the NAS study process delay promulgation of the final rule beyond 24 months from enactment into law. Drinking water utilities across America are facing pathogen, nitrate, and other pollutant loadings that could be addressed through nonpoint source controls. Timely action to incorporate nonpoint source management within the nation's TMDL process is critical to protecting the nation's health from acute and chronic contaminants being introduced to the nation's surface and groundwater drinking water supplies by nonpoint source pollution.
This concludes the AWWA statement on the proposed rulemaking regarding Total Maximum Daily Loads. I would be pleased to answer any questions or provide additional material for the committee.