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FYI
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A recent evaluation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Permit Compliance
System data revealed that 56 % of major facilities in Texas were in Significant Non-Compliance (SNC) of their wastewater discharge permits for at least one quarter
during the 15 months beginning January 1, 2000 and ending March 31, 2001. This was nearly twice the national average of 30 % of major facilities in violation, and
Texas ranked 2nd in the nation for percentage of major facilities in violation.
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(Source: EPA, Permit Compliance System Database as reported in
Texas Center for Policy Studies, Environmental Enforcement in Texas: A Review of Trends and Issues, February 2003.)
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Since the 1977 Clean Water Act, all municipal and industrial
dischargers have been required to obtain from the EPA a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NPDES, permit. Despite its name, the NPDES permit does not eliminate pollution;
it instead is designed to control pollution by setting limits on the quality of the discharged wastewater. In 1998, the EPA awarded the NPDES program to the TCEQ (then called the TNRCC).
Previously, most industrial and municipal discharges had to obtain both a state and a federal wastewater permit. Under the NPDES
program, the state establishes basic effluent limits for all facilities to protect surface water quality standards. These wastewater
permits regulate the quality of wastewater that is discharged into a stream, river, lake, or bay. The permit levels are also a reflection of the state water quality standards that need to be
met for specific waterbodies; thus, a discharge permit into a water body protected by an "exceptional" aquatic life use standard will be more stringent than a discharge permit to a
water body with a "low" aquatic life use.
There are three types of wastewater permits issued by the TNRCC:
- municipal,
- industrial, and
- confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) such as feedlots, dairies, and poultry operations.
Permits may be either to discharge wastewaters into a stream, river, lake, or bay or "no-discharge" permits.
No-discharge permits relate to the disposal of wastewater by irrigation or evaporation. For example, all CAFOs of a
certain size must obtain no-discharge permits. Permits normally expire after five years, at which time they must be
renewed. The TCEQ attempts to renew, amend, and issue new permits on a watershed basis as part of its watershed
management strategy. Eventually all permits within a watershed will be on the same schedule and come up for renewal at the same time.
While most permits are based on site-specific water quality standards and reviews, some discharge limitations have
been issued by rule pertaining to a specific class of wastewater treatment facility. In 1997, the Texas legislature
amended Section 26 of the Water Code, allowing the TNRCC to issue "general permits" by rule for specific classes of
users, providing that discharges of wastewater did not exceed 500,000 gallons in any 24-hour period and that the discharge would not cause significant adverse effects to water quality.* In 1999, legislation eliminated the 500,000
gallon limit, allowing the TNRCC to issue general permits for a wide variety of discharges. The Railroad Commission of
Texas issues wastewater discharge permits related to oil and gas activities.
Compliance and Enforcement
Among all states, Texas has one of the highest number of point source discharges, due to its large population,
economy and the many individual water utilities that have proliferated around urban areas. As of September, 2002,
Texas had 841 industrial, 2401 municipal and 578 confined animal feeding operations (CAFO) permits issued
throughout the state. Facilities that discharge wastewater directly into surface waters are required to submit to the
state monthly effluent reports that show whether or not they meet their permit limits. Currently, for example, about
2600 municipal and industrial facilities discharge directly into surface waters and are thus required to submit monthly reports.*
In addition to these effluent reports, 128 of the largest municipalities and industrial permit holders must maintain a
pretreatment program to control of wastewater to prevent pass-through of large amounts of toxics and other pollutnats that could interfere with treatment plants.* In additiion, large municipalities and industries whose permits contain
numerical limits on toxics are required to perform total toxicity testing, or biomonitoring, to determine whether their
effluent is adversely affecting aquatic life. If biomonitoring reports—and two retests—show the effluent to be lethal to
certain species, municipalities and industries must perform what's known as a TRE, or toxicity reduction evaluation, to
identify which toxics are affecting the species and adopt a plan to reduce the toxicity of their effluent.
Where self-reports or inspections show violations, the TCEQ may begin enforcement action against a permittee. A
municipal or industrial discharger must be noncompliant for four months for enforcement actions to be undertaken
automatically. Besides these self-reporting requirements, permittees are subject to compliance inspections by
wastewater inspectors employed by the TCEQ. There was significant problems with inspections in the mid-1990s due to a lack of funding, and only 65 inspectors covered the entire state.* These inspectors conduct annual inspections on a
selected number of facilities. Due to cuts in funding for inspections, the number of facilities inspected has decreased
substantially, from 100 percent of facilities in 1990 to approximately 30 percent in 1995, even as the number of
violations or deficiencies has increased from 20 percent to nearly 60 percent of all systems.* The number of inspectors
and inspections has increased in recent years as the agency has received delegation of the CLean Water Act program
and received more funding. For example, the total number of both routine inspections and inspections due to
complaints increased from roughly 2000 to 4000 between 1998 and 2001 (by fiscal year).*
In FY 2001, nearly 40 percent of those inspections led to Notices of Violations, a significant increase from previous
years. Between 1994 and 2001, the TNRCC issued over 900 enforcement orders with penalties due totaling over $10
million for municipal and industrial wastewater discharge and water quality violations.* In addition, during those same
years, the agency issued over 100 enforcement orders against agricultural facilities, most of which were related to violations of water quality statutes.
Finally, the self-reporting data are utilized by the TCEQ to determine if daily maximum flow is 75 percent or more of the
permitted daily maximum flow for more than three consecutive months. If so, dischargers must begin engineering and
financial planning to construct additional facilities. If daily flows equal 90 percent or more of the maximum permitted
daily flow, the plant operators must authorize the construction of additional facilities. Between 1988 and 1996, some
880 facilities were required to take corrective action, either by reducing flows or expanding facilities.*
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