EPA has released its “Draft Strategy for National Clean Water Industrial Regulations” (67 FR 71165) and is calling for comments from interested parties. The draft document describes processes for identifying existing effluent guidelines that EPA should consider revising and possible new effluent guidelines for specific industrial categories. The comment period ends Feb. 27.

EPA will use the final strategy in developing plans for future industrial discharge effluent guidelines, which must be updated every two years under the Clean Water Act Sec. 304(m). Under a 1992 consent agreement with environmental groups, EPA must establish effluent guidelines for 19 specific industrial point-source categories by June 2004, a deadline the agency said it anticipates meeting.

“The prospective end of the consent decree in 2004 offers EPA and stakeholders an excellent opportunity to evaluate the effluent guidelines program and to consider how national industrial regulations can best achieve the nation’s clean water goals and the requirements of the Clean Water Act in the years ahead,” EPA states. The draft strategy outlines a process for developing a biennial plan designed to meet both the statutory requirements and the water quality challenges of the 21st century.

“EPA is looking for ways that its Strategy can help spur the development of innovative technologies, promote multi-media pollution prevention and expand the use of market-based incentives to improve the quality of our nation’s waters.” A public meeting on the proposed strategy is slated for Jan. 15 at agency headquarters in Washington, D.C. In addition, EPA and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., are co-sponsoring the Industrial Wastewater and Best Available Treatment Technology Conference, scheduled for Feb. 26-28 at the Vanderbilt campus.

See www.epa.gov/guide/plan.html for the draft strategy, or contact Patricia Harrigan at (202) 566-1666 or harrigan.patricia@epa.gov, or Jan Matuszko at (202) 566-1035 or matuszko.jan@epa.gov.