[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 105 (Tuesday, June 3, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23527-23528]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-10034]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[EPA-R08-OW-2025-0010; FRL-12704-01-R8]
Proposed Re-Issuance of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System General Permit for Wastewater Discharges Associated With
Drinking Water Production Located in the EPA Region 8 Indian Country
and Lands of Exclusive Federal Jurisdiction
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice of availability for comment.
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SUMMARY: The EPA Region 8 is requesting comments on the draft 2025
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) drinking water
general permit (DWGP) for wastewater discharges associated with
drinking water treatment plants. The DWGP will authorize wastewater
discharges from drinking water facilities located in Indian country in
the EPA Region 8 in accordance with the terms and conditions described
therein. This is the first reissuance of the DWGP. EPA proposes to
issue the permit for five (5) years and is seeking comment on the draft
permit.
DATES: Comments must be received, in writing, on or before July 18,
2025.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-R08-
OW-2025-0010 by the following method: https://www.regulations.gov.
Follow the on-line instructions for submitting comments. Once
submitted, comments cannot be edited or removed from https://www.regulations.gov. The EPA may publish any comment received. Do not
submit information you consider to be Confidential Business Information
(CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute.
Multimedia submissions (audio, video, etc.) must be accompanied by a
written comment. The written comment is considered the official comment
and should include discussion of all points you wish to make. The EPA
will generally not consider comments or comment contents located
outside of the primary submission (i.e., on the web, cloud, or other
file sharing system). For additional submission methods, the full EPA
public comment policy, information about CBI or multimedia submissions,
and general guidance on making effective comments, please visit https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.
Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the https://www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some
information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other information
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such
as copyrighted material, will be publicly available only in hard copy.
Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically
in https://www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the Wastewater
Program, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 8, 1595 Wynkoop
Street, Denver, Colorado 80202-1129. The EPA requests that if at all
possible, you contact the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT section to view the hard copy of the docket. You
may view the hard copy of the docket Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m.
to 4:00 p.m., excluding federal holidays.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Paul Garrison, Wastewater Program,
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 8, Mailcode 8WD-CWW, 1595
Wynkoop Street, Denver, Colorado 80202-1129, telephone number: (303)
312-6016, email address: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The Drinking Water General Permit (DWGP) contains requirements
similar to an individual permit and will authorize the discharge of
process wastewater in accordance with the terms and conditions
described therein.
[[Page 23528]]
The fact sheet for the permit is provided for download concurrently
with the permit and provides detailed information on the methodology
used to develop effluent limitations, the specific geographic areas
covered by the permits, monitoring schedules, inspection requirements,
major changes from previous permit and other regulatory decisions or
requirements in the permit.
II. Summary of Permit Coverage
The DWGP (permit numbers: CODWXXXX@, MTDWXXXX@, NDDWXXXX@,
SDDWXXXX@, UTDWXXXX@, WYXXXX@) provides coverage for drinking water
treatment facilities in EPA Region 8 that discharge process wastewater
to waters of the United States in Indian Country and Lands of Exclusive
Federal Jurisdiction within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. 1151. A full
description of the geographic scope of coverage is included in the
public notice version of the permit.
The DWGP provides coverage for discharges of wastewater from
drinking water treatment processes. Process flows contributing to the
wastewater discharge include: filter backwash, filter to waste,
decanted lime sludge dewatering, influent screen backwash and/or
miscellaneous wastewater sources associated with drinking water
facility operation. Miscellaneous wastewater sources may include, but
are not limited to: processed potable water, disinfection of treatment
plant pipelines and tanks, and overflow from holding tanks of treated
water.
The EPA has identified drinking water treatment processes methods
that do not qualify for coverage under the DWGP. The processes
wastewaters not included in this general permit include: batch
regenerated potassium permanganate iron removal, sodium zeolite
softening, nano filtration and reverse osmosis.
The DWGP contains two sets of effluent limitations: primary
effluent limitations that apply to all discharges, and supplemental
effluent limitations that will apply to discharges on an individual
basis as necessary to protect water quality. The effluent limitations
were derived from technology based and water quality based effluent
limitations as described in the fact sheet. The EPA will review a
facility's Notice of Intent (NOI) to be covered under the DWGP and
determine the need for implementation of the supplemental effluent
limitations and corresponding self-monitoring requirements. The
permittee will be notified of the applicable effluent limitations and
monitoring requirements in the notification of coverage.
The following Tribes in EPA Region 8 have Clean Water Act (CWA)
section 401(a)(1) certification authority: the Assiniboine & Sioux
Tribes, the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes, the Northern
Cheyenne Tribe, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and the Southern Ute Indian
Tribe. The EPA has requested certification from each of these Tribes
that the DWGP complies with the applicable provisions of the CWA and
their respective Tribal water quality standards.
III. Other Legal Requirements
Economic Impact (Executive Order 12866): The EPA Office of Policy
has determined that the issuance of these general permits is not a
``significant regulatory action'' under the terms of Executive Order
12866 (58 FR 51735 (October 4, 1993)) and is therefore not subject to
formal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review prior to proposal.
Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA): EPA has reviewed the requirements
imposed on regulated facilities in these proposed general permits under
the PRA of 1980, 44 U.S.C. 501, et seq. The information collection
requirements of these permits have already been approved by the OMB in
submissions made for the NPDES permit program under the provisions of
the CWA.
Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA): Section 201 of the UMRA,
Public Law 104-4, generally requires federal agencies to assess the
effects of their ``regulatory actions'' defined to be the same as
``rules'' subject to the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) on Tribal,
state, local governments and the private sector. Since the permit
proposed is an adjudication, it is not subject to the RFA and is
therefore not subject to the requirements of the UMRA.
Authority: Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. 1251, et seq.
Stephanie DeJong,
Manager, Clean Water Branch, EPA Region 8.
[FR Doc. 2025-10034 Filed 6-2-25; 8:45 am]
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