How do we get areas into attainment

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• Announcements
• Homework 2 due next Friday
• Memo due March 6
• Powershift09 drawing

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Todays class

• Wrap up Clean Air Act
• We will cover mobile sources later
• Clean Water Act
• Safe Drinking Water Act and Benefit-Cost Analysis
  moved to after CWA.
• Readings OK?
• Possible Exam Q OK?

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• Sample Exam Q
• The Clean Air Interstate Rule sets a cap on SO2
  emissions in the eastern half of the U.S. What
  is the difference between having this policy
  issued as a rule rather than passed as a law (say
  as an amendment to the Clean Air Act)? (Check
  all that apply.)
• The cap in CAIR can be challenged by a lawsuit
  but could not be challenged if this were a law.
• b) The cap could be challenged by a lawsuit
  regardless of whether the cap was issued in CAIR
  or was part of a law.
• c) The cap could not be challenged by a lawsuit
  regardless of whether it was issued in the CAIR
  or was part of a law.

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• Possible Exam Q
• Congress intended New Source Performance
  Standards to be the heart of the Clean Air Act.
• a) What facts or beliefs led Congress to assume
  that NSPS would be the most important component
  of the Clean Air Act?
• b) What problems arose with the NSPS?  

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Clean Air Act

• Air quality has improved.
• EPA retrospective analysis in 2003

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• These decreases in emissions have occurred while
  U.S. population and aggregate output have grown
  substantially.
• Did we do it as efficiently, smoothly as
  possible? What can we learn?
• Lots of bright lines.
• Bright line A limit or other divide in a policy
  such that regulation is much different on one
  side of the divide than the other.
• CAA has at least three bright lines.

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• Remaining problems
• Transport problem
• Area sources
• Formerly small, now a major source of emissions.
• Consumer product manufacturing guidelines
• PM and Ozone still a problem.
• Can the Clean Air Act be used to regulate carbon
  dioxide and other GHG?

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Clean Water Act of 1972

• Second major pollution law
• Major amendments in 1977 and 1987.
• Like the Clean Air Act
• But water is different from air

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• Goals
• Pollutants
• Polluters
• Regulation Permitting approach

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Pollutants

• Conventional
• Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)
• Suspended solids
• Coliform counts
• pH
• Temperature
• Nutrients
• Nitrogen, Phosphorus, sediment
• Heavy metals, Toxics, etc.

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• 00177 Oxygen Demand, Dissolved
• 00184 Coagulants Added
• 00186 Particulates, Floating, Dry Weight
• 00188 Chlorinated Pesticides, Tot Pcb's
• 00189 Radioactivity
• 00300 Oxygen, Dissolved (Do)
• 00301 Oxygen, Dissolved Percent Saturation
• 00310 Bod, 5-day (20 Deg. C)
• 00319 Bod (Ult. All Stages)
• 00335 Oxygen Demand, Chem. (Low Level) (Cod)
• 00340 Oxygen Demand, Chem. (High Level) (Cod)
• 00341 Oxygen Demand, Chem. (Cod), Dissolved
• 00343 Oxygen Demand, Total (Tod)
• 00388 Oxygen Demand, Sum Product

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Polluters

• Point sources
• Indirect sources
• Nonpoint sources Agriculture, some sewers
• Hydromodification (dams, construction)
• GOALS

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• Sec. 1251.
• Congressional declaration of goals and policy
• It is the national goal that the discharge of
  pollutants into the navigable waters be
  eliminated by 1985
• (2) It is the national goal that wherever
  attainable, an interim goal of water quality
  which provides for the protection and propagation
  of fish, shellfish, and wildlife and provides for
  recreation in and on the water be achieved by
  July 1, 1983
• Exam q Why did Congress include (2) when they
  already had (1)?

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• (3) It is the national policy that the discharge
  of toxic pollutants in toxic amounts be
  prohibited
• (4) It is the national policy that Federal
  financial assistance be provided to construct
  publicly owned waste treatment works

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Goals

• Zero discharges by 1985
• To get there
• For each water body, states define a designated
  use.
• So, not exactly a uniform national standard.
• These started out as
• Swimmable gt Fishable gt Boatable.

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Goals

• Other designated uses
• Non-contact recreation
• Public water supply
• Contact recreation
• Fish consumption
• Intermediate aquatic life
• Fish, shellfish and wildlife protection and
  propagation
• Aesthetics
• Habitat/Hydrology
• Public bathing
• Many others

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• Designated uses for the Pocomoke.
• Next, states decide whether a bodys water
  quality is suitable for its designated use.
• Impaired vs. not impaired
• Assessment is an expensive, time-consuming
  process.
• Here is the site for Maryland. Notice
  similarities to Clean Air Act terminology.

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• States must also determine why water is impaired.
• Example Patuxent River

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• Lesson Nonpoint sources (NPS) are the main
  problem. Rule of thumb is NPS is responsible for
  about 80 percent of water pollution, point
  sources responsible for about 20 percent.
• This is both a consequence of and a problem for
  the Clean Water Act. (See if you can explain
  why.)

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• How the Clean Water Act deals with point sources.

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Permitting approach

• Polluting not allowed unless you have a permit.
• Clean Water Act Sec. 1311. Effluent
  limitations  (a) Except as in compliance with
  this section and sections 1312, 1316, 1317, 1328,
  1342, and 1344 of this title, the discharge of
  any pollutant by any person shall be unlawful. 
• Permits needed for
• Discharge of effluent
• Fill (Hydromodification)

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Effluent permits, cont.

• Water body not impaired
• Technology-based standards
• Best Practicable Technology
• Best Available Technology
• Water body is impaired
• Water-quality based standards
• Purpose is to bring water quality up to its
  designated use.

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Permitting

• Effluent Standards
• Example 30 µg/l BOD, monthly average
  concentration
• Permit could potentially cover 700 items!
• Performance standard, not technology.
• Both CAA and CWA are confusing about this.

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Questions

• Why no special regulation of new sources?
• Should the state or the Feds determine the
  designated use?
• Why give the states so much discretion? They
  might designate everything industrial.
• (Partial answer Remember that Congress thought
  we would have 0 discharges.)
• Why hasnt this been enough?

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Section 1311, cont.

• (b) Timetable for achievement of objectives
•  In order to carry out the objective of this
  chapter there shall be achieved     (1)(A) not
  later than July 1, 1977, effluent limitations for
  point sources, other than publicly owned
  treatment works,

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Water Quality Based Standards

• Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs)
• Total amount of each pollutant that watershed can
  handle.
• Each source is assigned a fraction of the TMDL.
• This becomes the WQBS for point sources.

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TMDLs for Back River (Baltimore)
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TMDL allocations for Back River (Balto.)
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TMDLs, cont.

• TMDLs are recent.
• Most Clean Water Act regulations still use
  technology-based standards for point sources.
• It is not clear how we will get Non-Point Sources
  to follow their TMDL allocation.
• These standards have turned out to be very
  expensive for point sources to meet.
• So, there has been pressure to allow trading.

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Water quality trading

• States are allowed to set up trading systems.
• Mostly focused on N and P.
• In a cap-and-trade scheme
• The TMDL would become the cap
• The TMDL allocations would become the initial
  allocation of pollution credits that could be
  traded.