Continuing Education Requirements for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors and Geologists
On May 12, 2010, the legislature enacted and the Governor signed into law Act 25 which amended the Engineer, Land Surveyor and Geologists Registration Law to clarify the requirements for mandatory continuing education (CE) and to make it easier to meet your requirements and provide more choice in CE courses, seminars, work shops and conferences. Click here for more information.
DEP’s Final Rulemaking for Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)
On May 17, 2010, the Environmental Quality Board (EQB) considered and approved DEP’s final-form rulemaking for control of TDS from various types of wastewater dischargers. The PA Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) approved this rulemaking on June 16, 2010. The PA House and Senate Environnmental Resources and Energy Committees have each deemed their approval. It will become fully final once published in the PA Bulletin.
The final rulemaking amends 25 PA Code, Chapter 95 and was originally published in the PA Bulletin November 2009 requiring changes for discharges of municipal and industrial wastewaters containing high levels of total dissolved solids (TDS), sulfates (SO4) and chlorides (Cl). Click here for PMAA’s submitted comments. In addition, click here for PMAA’s testimony related to these regulations presented to the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy committee.
DEP Proposed Rulemaking for Chloride
At the March 16, 2010 Environmental Quality Board meeting, DEP’s proposed revision to the instream water quality criterion for Chloride (one of the major constituents of gas well development wastewater) was approved for public review and comment. The rulemaking proposal was published in the May 1, 2010 PA Bulletin with a comment deadline of June 15, 2010. This revision is aimed at protecting fish and aquatic life in rivers and streams below the point of wastewater discharge. DEP is proposing a 4-day instream average not to exceed 230 mg/l and a 1-hr average not to exceed 860 mg/l. Click here for PMAA’s submitted comments.
Drinking Water Consumer Confidence Reports
The Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) or annual Drinking Water Quality Report includes information on public water suppliers’ source water, the levels of any detected contaminants, and compliance with drinking water rules, plus some educational material. Water suppliers must mail or deliver a copy of their water quality report to each customer by July 1, 2010.
DEP recently revised the CCR template and instruction documents (one for groundwater and one for surface water) and the CCR Water Supplier Checklist to include the new mandatory statement for lead. This mandatory lead statement is required on all CCRs. The special educational language when exceeding lead is no longer necessary. Click here for all the information on CCRs.
NPDES Fee Increases Proposed
In November the Environmental Quality Board approved DEP’s proposed rulemaking to reorganize the NPDES program regulations, Chapter 92a. The proposal includes two notable provisions: 1) major increases in permit fees and new annual fees for NPDES permittees (see Sections 92a.28 and 92a.62 and Preamble discussion), and 2) revised (tighter) definition of Secondary Treatment and a new requirement for Tertiary Treatment for sewage dischargers in certain circumstances (see 92a.47 and related Preamble discussion). Comments were due by March 15, 2010. Click here for PMAA’s submitted comments. The proposed regulation has now reached final rulemaking stage (scroll down to July 13th meeting agenda) and the EQB approved the final-form reg at their July 13, 2010 meeting. IRRC will review them on August 19th. Following this, they will be published in the PA Bulletin as final.
Proposed Regulations for the Water Quality Trading Program
DEP’s final rulemaking (scroll down to July 13th meeting agenda to Chapter 96) will codify DEP’s water quality trading program for nutrients and sediment. Click here for PMAA’s submitted comments. The EQB approved the final-form reg at their July 13, 2010 meeting. IRRC will review them on August 19th. Following this, they will be published in the PA Bulletin as final.
Water and Wastewater Operator Certification Proposed Final Regulations
DEP has decided to employ the optional Advanced Notice of Final Rulemaking procedure for the proposed Water and Wastewater Operator Certification regulations. This allows them to solicit comments on actual draft final-form rulemaking prior to presenting a final rulemaking to the Environmental Quality Board (EQB). While there is no legal requirement to provide an opportunity to comment upon DEP’s recommendations for final rulemaking, DEP believes further discussion would serve the public interest in this instance.
Following recent various DEP advisory board meetings that reviewed the proposed regs of which PMAA has representatives, DEP incorporated some of the comments from those advisory boards and prepared a draft final-form rulemaking published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin (40 PaB.560) on January 23, 2010. Public comments were due by February 26, 2010. The draft rulemaking contains significant changes in several areas.
· Published PA Bulletin Notice
· Draft Final-Form Rulemaking
· Comment/Response Document
Final Regulations
Amendments to DEP’s drinking water regulations (25 PA Code, Ch 109) relating to public notification were published in final form on May 9, 2009 PA Bulletin 25 PA. Code Chapter 109 Safe Drinking Water Act; Public Notification Revisions.
The purpose of the amendments is to strengthen the public notice requirements for imminent threat violations and situations (also known as Tier 1). The rulemaking enhances the requirements for delivery of Tier 1 public notices for community water systems, while allowing until May 10, 2010 for systems to implement certain “rapid response” delivery methods (such as email and automated phone dialing systems). The rulemaking enhances the existing planning requirements of both the Operation and Maintenance Plan and the Emergency Response Plan sections that relate to public notification and provides additional examples of situations that community water suppliers must report to the Department within one hour of discovery
Technical Guidance Documents
Two guidance documents are currently under development that accompany the public notification regulation (links below).
Policy for Responding to Loss of Positive Pressure Situations in the Distribution System
Policy for Issuing and Removing Water Supply Warnings
Regulations/Regulatory Process
Municipal authorities, as well as other units of local government, are subject to numerous regulations, which form the basis for a wide variety of permitting, record-keeping and reporting, compliance monitoring and assessment and, in some cases, enforcement activities. Most of these activities center on environmental and public health protection.
The following information is intended to enhance PMAA members’ understanding of how regulations are developed and how to keep abreast of regulatory changes.
Environmental Regulatory Programs in Pennsylvania
The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is the primary environmental regulatory agency in Pennsylvania. Information on DEP’s organization and regulatory responsibilities can be accessed at www.dep.state.pa.us and then by clicking on various links, such as “About DEP”
For your convenience, the following links provide more direct access to specific DEP program areas:
Development of Environmental Regulations in Pennsylvania
Information on how DEP develops and updates its regulations can be found on the Public Participation section of DEP’s website. There you will find information on regulations in process, and historical information on regulations that have been developed.
All regulations must be reviewed and approved, both as proposed and final rule making, by the Environmental Quality Board (EQB) which normally meets in Harrisburg on the third Tuesday of each month.
Prior to developing, or revising, a regulation DEP programs typically discuss such changes with one or more Advisory Committees PMAA has member representatives on several of DEP’s Advisory Committees.
The entire process by which any DEP regulation is proposed, reviewed and finalized is quite lengthy and complex and is governed by the PA Regulatory Review Act. It is not unusual for this process to take up to two years. The Regulatory Process flowchart outlines the procedure.
On-line access to all state environmental regulations is available at PA Code Online and are listed as various Articles and Chapters under Title 25: Environmental Protection. On-line access to all state environmental regulations being proposed are available at PA Bulletin.
Technical Guidance
While Pennsylvania’s environmental regulations are numerous and complex, DEP has found it necessary to further clarify the intent of many regulations through development of supplemental technical guidance documents. Like regulations, development of a technical guidance generally involves going through a public participation process (including use of advisory committees).
The status of technical guidance development can be viewed on DEP’s public participation , and clicking on Draft Technical Guidance Documents Available
Information on final technical guidance documents can be found in DEP’s E-Library and clicking on the appropriate program area.
