EPA Urges Regions To Step Up Actions To Reduce NPDES Noncompliance

摘要

EPA enforcement chief Susan Bodine is urging the agency's regional offices to begin meeting regularly with states to develop plans to reduce significant noncompliance (SNC) with Clean Water Act discharge permit requirements, in order to meet a national goal of cutting in half the existing SNC rate of 29.4 percent by the end of fiscal year 2022. Bodine in a recent memorandum to EPA's 10 regional administrators lists four steps regions should take to implement the National Compliance Initiative (NCI) goal targeting the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) SNC rate. "Given that facilities in SNC are found across the country, we can only achieve this goal if each EPA Region fully participates in this NCI," Bodine says. The four steps are to begin meeting quarterly with each NPDES-authorized state; work with each authorized state that has incomplete or inaccurate compliance data; discuss findings of the EPA-State SNC Workgroup on effective approaches to reducing the SNC rate; and develop a written plan for how each region will reduce the SNC rate in each state where EPA is the permitting authority.