WASHINGTON — The Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies (AMSA) attacked a recent study that said many sewage treatment plants are violating the Clean Water Act and are not being prosecuted.
The study, conducted by the US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), claimed that nearly one-third of major industrial facilities and government-operated sewage treatment plants significantly violated pollution discharge regulations during the past two years, but relatively few are being prosecuted.
In a letter to PIRG, AMSA Executive Director Ken Kirk said the publicly owned treatment works (POTW) community "is extremely troubled by the misleading nature and errors of omission" contained in the report.
"First and foremost, the mischaracterization of POTWs as polluters throughout the report is both offensive and simply untrue," Kirk said. "POTWs treat and clean the nation's wastewater, serving as the primary line of defense against water pollution."
"Like PIRG, the wastewater treatment community's mission is to work on behalf of the public's interest by ensuring water quality improvements," the letter stated.
"Unlike PIRG, however, POTWs must actively treat the nation's wastewater and must do so not within an ivory tower context, but within the very real constraints of tightening municipal budgets, population growth, and aging infrastructure -- issues conveniently not touched upon in your report," Kirk said.
AMSA contended that "Deriding the nation's public servants and misleading the public" fall PIRG's stated mission of speaking for the public interest against the special interests.
AMSA said many of the alleged violations are paperwork issues " that have absolutely no association with water quality."
"As you know, EPA considers failure to comply with certain paperwork requirements as significant. Nevertheless, your summary statistics fail to recognize that nearly half of the PIRG Report's "significant" violations for so-called persistent offenders are for administrative or paperwork," the letter stated.
Additionally, officials from a number of states have already come forward documenting that some of the violations alleged in the report simply did not occur or do not rise to the level of significant non-compliance, and more will likely continue to come forward, according to AMSA.
The PIRG Report would also have been better served by mentioning the achievements of POTWs nationwide, AMSA said.
"Perhaps PIRG's failure to recognize such outstanding achievements stems from reports that PIRG's primary purpose in releasing the study was to bolster a narrow legislative agenda, namely support for the so-called Clean Water Enforcement and Compliance Improvement Act…Without getting into the substance of this misguided piece of legislation, it is simply wrong to disparage the hard work of our nation's public servants, who are working every day on behalf of the public interest, for legislative gain," the letter said.
AMSA represents over 270 publicly owned treatment works that treat over 18 billion gallons of wastewater daily and provide sewer service to more than 180 million Americans.
Every month in Water Technology Magazine, "Professor POU/POE" answers reader questions about point-of-use/point-of-entry water treatment.
If you have a question for the Professor (also known as David Bauman, Technical Editor), send an e-mail to rdipaolo@ntpmedia.com and we'll pass it along. With your question, please indicate your general location (region, state, province, etc.). Not all questions will be chosen for publication.
Write for WT
Water Technology welcomes and encourages editorial contributions from the world of residential water conditioning, bottled water delivery, and treatment for commercial or light industrial applications.
To place a classified ad online, e-mail your ad text to pharrington@ntpmedia.com or call Pat Harrington at 518-640-9173.
Bookstore
WaterTechBooks.com is an online bookseller for the water treatment industry. It has dozens of titles in stock, in a variety of categories. A simple e-commerce platform allows you to complete your transaction online and have your books shipped directly to your home or business.
Every month in 
