Managing Wastewater in Coastal Urban Areas (1993) / Chapter Skim
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Pages 1-19
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Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at the direction of Congress, examines issues relevant to wastewater management in coastal urban areas.
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Some major factors that cause perturbations in the coastal zone include, in no special order, municipal wastewater and stormwater discharges; combined sewer overflows; other urban runoff; direct industrial wastewater discharges; agricultural runoff; atmospheric deposition; ground water flow; boating traffic; shipping; dredging and filling; leaching of contaminated sediments; oil and gas production; introduction of nonindigenous species; harvesting of fish and shellfish; freshwater impoundment and diversion; and land-use changes in coastal drainage bas~ns. THE CURRENT APPROACH TO WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT IN COASTAL AREAS While treatment plant and outfall technologies often dominate discussions of wastewater issues, they are only two of many important pieces that together make up a coastal wastewater management strategy.
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While the approach laid out in the 1972 act produced rapid and effective improvements in many areas, it has not always allowed a process that adequately addresses regional variations in environmental systems around the country or responds well to changing needs, improved science, and more complete information. A provision in the 1977 Clean Water Act attempted to recognize the differences in how municipal wastewater discharges affect marine waters versus freshwater rivers, lakes, and streams.
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Constituents of Concern Wastewater and stormwater management strategies focus on controlling the release of potentially harmful constituents to the environment. As with any activity that affects the environment, the potential for harm depends on the magnitude of the insult, where it occurs, and the characteristics of the stress.
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are dropping nationwide, while others such as petroleum hydrocarbons are apparently not declining. Urban runoff, combined sewer overflows and contaminated sediments due to past uncontrolled discharges are major continuing sources of toxic organic chemicals in many coastal urban areas.
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which occur daily in coastal urban areas and may add up to large chronic inputs of petroleum hydrocarbons. Toxic chemicals used in wastewater treatment (e.g., chlorine compounds)
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Then, based on its analysis of these and other issues, the Committee proposes a new framework for managing coastal waters integrated coastal management. Regional Differences Finding: Because of the wide variations encountered in coastal systems, it is not possible to prescribe a particular technology or approach at the national level that will address all water quality issues at all locations satisfactorily.
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Both the sources of nutrients to coastal waters and the associated effects occur at the regional scale making them difficult to measure, assess, and manage. Nutrient inputs to coastal waters come from both point and diffuse sources including wastewater treatment plants, agricultural runoff, urban runoff, ground water seepage, atmospheric deposition, and release of previously accumulated nutrients from bottom sediments.
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For example, industrial pretreatment and source control programs have already achieved significant reductions of trace metals, toxic organics, and oil and grease in the influent and thus in the effluent and sludge products from municipal wastewater treatment plants (AMSA 1990~. In the case of urban runoff, erosion controls at construction sites, street sweeping, storm drain warning signs, and public education efforts have led to improvements in some areas.
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Stormwater and Combined Sewer Overflows Finding: Urban runoff and CSOs are major contributors to water quality problems in coastal urban areas. Recommendation: Stormwater and CSO abatement requirements should be based to the greatest extent possible on an understanding of regional
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Wastewater treatment processes are designed to treat relatively constant and continuous flows, and perform poorly when subjected to the extreme variations in flow that are characteristic of stormwater flows. Currently, pollutant removal efficiencies of treatment facilities for CSOs and urban runoff cannot be stated with sufficient confidence to design a facility plan that will limit pollutant loads from these sources to a prescribed level.
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Levels of such pathogens present in treatment plant discharges vary as a function of the level of infection in the community that produces the wastewater and the type of treatment processes used. The traditional method for assessing the presence or potential presence of human pathogens in wastewater effluent, stormwater, and the ambient environment has been to use coliform bacteria as an indicator of diseasecausing organisms.
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The Committee therefore proposes a framework for managing coastal resources toward which coastal environmental quality management should evolve. This framework, integrated coastal management, should provide the opportunity to consider regional differences, multiple sources of perturbations, costs, and benefits in the development of management strategies.
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Integrated coastal management, as proposed here, is an approach that holds much promise for effective and efficient systematic management of the coastal environment. ICM is an ecologically based, iterative process for identifying, at a regional scale, environmental objectives and cost-effective strategies for achieving them.
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It is within the selection and implementation process that alternatives should be weighed in regard to objectives, fiscal, regulatory, legal, and institutional constraints, and one should be selected and implemented. Finally, the research and monitoring component should drive the system into the future, bringing new information into the dynamic planning process and developing new methods and techniques for managing coastal resources.
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Flexibility in the combination of management approaches for achieving environmental protection, including increased emphasis on pollution prevention, source control, and economic incentives, provides improved opportunity for achieving environmental objectives. An integrated assessment of the relative risks to the coastal environment and a clear display of management costs and tradeoffs should allow for the implementation of more cost-effective solutions and prevent the diversion of funding from other important activities.
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Specifically, existing regional initiatives including those in the National Estuary Program provide an opportunity for implementing the principles of integrated coastal management. The development of Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plans (CCMP)
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· Finally, some of the experience gained in implementing section 301(h) of the Clean Water Act, which provided the opportunity for waivers from secondary treatment for coastal dischargers, might be useful in the development of plans under the proposed National Coastal Quality Program.
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The lessons learned from the past twenty years of progress clearly point to integrated coastal management as the best direction for the future. REFERENCES APWA (American Public Works Association)
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