Indiana Regional Sewer District Association Annual Meeting

1. Indiana Regional Sewer District Association Annual Meeting October 28, 2013 Ritz Charles Carmel, Indiana Thomas W. Easterly, P.E., BCEE, Commissioner Indiana Department of Environmental Management

2. IDEM’s Mission Protecting Hoosiers and Our Environment While Becoming the Most Customer-Friendly Environmental Agency IDEM’s mission is to implement federal and state regulations to protect human health and the environment while allowing the environmentally sound operations of industrial, agricultural, commercial and government activities vital to a prosperous economy.

3. How Does IDEM Protect Hoosiers and Our Environment? • Develop regulations and issue permits to restrict discharges to environmentally safe levels. • Inspect and monitor permitted facilities to ensure compliance with the permits.

4. How Does IDEM Protect Hoosiers and Our Environment? • Use compliance assistance and/or enforcement when people exceed their permit levels or violate regulations. • Educate people on their environmental responsibilities. • Clean up contaminated sites to eliminate public exposure to toxics and return properties to productive use.

5. Performance Metrics September 2013

6. Performance Metrics June 2005

7. Permits--Percent of Statutory Days

8. Best in NPDES Permitting

9. Water Quality Indiana Combined Sewer Overflow Status

10. Initiatives Impacting RSDs • District Plan updates • Stationary internal combustion engines initiative • Nutrients • eDMRs

11. District Plan Updates • With the exception of five grandfathered districts, each district is required to file a district plan in accordance with IC 13-26-6. • A search of IDEM’s files could not locate required plans for 81 of the 103 RSDs. • On September 8, 2013, Lynne Newlon sent requests to these 81 districts requesting copies of their district plans.

12. District Plan Updates • As of October 18, 2013, the status of the updates were: • 29 District Plans at IDEM • 5 District Plans promised in the near future • 30 District Plans promised later • 30 Districts not yet responding • 5 Grandfathered districts • 4 Dormant districts. • 103 total districts

13. Stationary Internal Combustion Engine Initiative • Recent changes in federal regulations have lowered the air pollution permitting threshold for some stationary engines that are smaller than those in our cars and trucks. • Emergency generators at water and wastewater plants sometimes exceed the permitting threshold.

14. Stationary Internal Combustion Engine Initiative • On March 28, 2013, IDEM initiated a limited liability program for water and wastewater utilities that had constructed and operated these devices but did not have the proper permits. • While the limited liability program has ended, IDEM will work with utilities that self-disclose unpermitted sources.

15. Nutrients • Reported algae problems in the world’s surface waters are increasing. • In addition to being a nuisance, some forms of algae generate potent toxins and decaying algae can lower the oxygen content of the water killing aquatic life. • U.S. EPA has identified Lake Erie and the Gulf of Mexico as having serious problems.

16. Nutrients • The exact cause of the increasing algae issue is unknown, but excessive nutrients have been identified as a contributing factor. • These excessive nutrient levels are well below safe drinking water standards. • Fresh water lakes seem to be phosphorous limited while the oceans seem to be nitrogen limited.

17. Nutrients • The levels of nutrients in surface waters that scientists indicate will prevent algae issues are below the levels that can be achieved by wastewater treatment plants. • Unregulated nonpoint sources of nutrients often cause waters to exceed the nutrient levels recommended by scientists.

18. Nutrients • U.S. EPA is conducting research on affordable wastewater treatment technologies for nutrients. • This issue will likely result in the need for additional treatment at existing wastewater facilities in the future. • There is no current regulatory requirement or deadline for this additional treatment.

19. eDMRs • IDEM currently accepts Discharge Monitoring Reports on paper forms and manually enters the data into the federal computer system. • On July, 30, 2013, U.S. EPA proposed to require that DMRs be submitted electronically by the permit holder. • The comment deadline is December 12, 2013.

20. Questions? Tom Easterly Commissioner Indiana Department of Environmental Management (317) 232-8611 teasterly@idem.IN.gov