Marine Discharge Waivers for Publicly Owned Wastewater Treatment Facilities

The Clean Water Act allows the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to grant waivers to publicly owned wastewater treatment facilities so that they can discharge primary treated municipal wastes into the marine environment where it can be shown that costly secondary treatment is not necessary. Although 230 communities have submitted preliminary applications for secondary treatment waivers to EPA, only 70 have filed final applications. EPA has not yet made any waiver decisions. EPA estimates that $1.5 billion in federal, state, and local construction costs could be saved if all 70 of the final applicants were given waivers. GAO identified hundreds of additional potential waiver applicants, representing additional construction savings, which have been prevented from applying for waivers because of legislative constraints and restrictive EPA regulations. As a result, billions of dollars may be wasted on unneeded but federally required secondary treatment facilities. The federal government usually pays 75 percent of eligible construction costs. GAO recommended that Congress amend the Clean Water Act to allow for a continuous secondary discharge waiver process for all coastal communities where it has been shown that the risk of environmental damage is minimal. Congress should: (1) eliminate the requirement that treatment facilities must have an existing marine outfall to qualify for a waiver; (2) remove the statutory deadline for filing waiver applications and provide for a continuous waiver process; and (3) indicate that the waiver provision is not intended to preclude communities already achieving secondary treatment from obtaining waivers in cases where primary treatment is both cost effective and environmentally sound. If Congress takes action to allow for a continuous waiver process, the Administrator of EPA should: (1) require step 1 facilities planning grant applicants to consider discharging primary wastes into marine waters as an alternative to secondary treatment; (2) revise the waiver application process to differentiate between communities on the basis of population, type of waste, and amount of environmental threat; and (3) experiment with ways of providing technical help to small coastal communities so that they can apply for secondary treatment waivers.