TACWA Meeting Minutes Dallas, Texas January 21, :00 a.m.

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1 TACWA Meeting Minutes Dallas, Texas January 21, :00 a.m. The Texas Association of Clean Water Agencies (TACWA) meeting of January 21, 2011 was hosted by the Trinity River Authority, sponsored by Alan Plummer Associates, Inc., Camp Dresser and McKee, Inc, CP&Y, Inc, Espey Consultants, Inc, and Freese and Nichols. The meeting was held at the TRA Central Plant in Dallas. Those in attendance included: Tim Loan City of Amarillo; Raj Bhattarai City of Austin Water Utility; Brian Williams City of Garland; Sharon Hayes City of Weatherford; Chris Kaakaty Dallas Water Utilities; Jesse White City of Dallas; Pederson Gulf Coast Waste Disposal Authority; Dolan McKnight North Texas Municipal Water District; Cynthia Belvin Trinity River Authority; Warren Brewer Trinity River Authority; Michelle Clark Trinity River Authority; Patricia Cleveland Trinity River Authority; Glenn Clingenpeel Trinity River Authority; Bill R. Smith Trinity River Authority; Larry Patterson Upper Trinity Regional Water District; Peggy Glass Alan Plummer Associates Inc.; Betty Jordan Alan Plummer Associates Inc.; Ellen McDonald Alan Plummer Associates Inc.; Phil Spitzer Alan Plummer Associates Inc.; Alan Tucker Alan Plummer Associates Inc.; Mike Wagner Alan Plummer Associates Inc.; Layne Parsons Black & Veatch; Aiza Jose Brown & Gay Engineering; Mary Clyburn Carollo Engineers; Doug Varmer CDM; Ken Hall CH2M HILL; Dawn Anderson CP&Y; Wayne Hunter Espey Consultants; David Jackson Freese and Nichols; Ray Longoria Freese and Nichols; Gordon Wells Freese and Nichols; George Luke Gupta & Associates; Ahsan Moeen Jacobs; Doug Smith Jacobs; Jerry Newell Klotz Associates; Chamindra Dassanayake Malcolm Pirnie; Randy McIntyre Malcolm Pirnie; David Patterson Michael Baker; Terrance Stewart Michael Baker; Bob Johnson MWH; Eric Loveless Parsons; Gene Shull OFS; and Mark Perkins P.E.C.. Business Meeting: President Gordon Pederson opened the meeting by thanking the meeting sponsors. President Pederson requested the attendees to introduce themselves. After the introductions, President Pederson introduced the host, Patricia Cleveland. Ms. Cleveland also thanked the meeting sponsors before turning the opening welcome over to Warren N. Brewer, Regional Manager, Northern Region, TRA. Mr. Brewer mentioned that he may be leaving TRA in February and expressed reflections of his career. Mr. Brewer also said that he appreciated the attendance. President Pederson announced that he wanted to present Mr. Brewer with an award from NACWA. Larry Patterson said a few words about Mr. Brewer and then presented him with the award. Page 1 of 5

2 Vice President Raj Bhattarai said a few words about Mr. Brewer and then presented him with a plaque from TACWA. Brian Williams made a motion to approve the minutes of the November 20, 2010 TACWA meeting. The motion was seconded by Patricia Cleveland, and approved unanimously. President Pederson introduced Carol Batterton, Executive Director of the Water Environment Association of Texas (WEAT), reminded everyone that they could access a list of Bills that have been filed for this session on the WEAT website: On the home page, across the top, click Government Affairs then click legislative. This will take you to a table with the Bills being tracked. With the exception of Senate Bills 332 and 389 & House Bills 628 and 725, not much has changed since the Bills were filed back on November 8, Senate Bill 332 clearly states land owner/vested ownership in ground water. Senate Bill 389 covers emergency power generation capabilities. House Bill 628 references Alternative Delivery Public Works Projects. House Bill 725 references Operation and Management of Water Districts. Ms. Batterton has not yet reviewed the House Bills. Ms. Batterton also mentioned that some WEAT and TACWA Officers will be visiting the Capitol and visiting with selective members on February 17, She asked that if anyone had anything on their minds to let them know and they would see if they could get those issued addressed during the visit. In conclusion, Ms. Batterton said that the Sunset review of TCEQ, which happens approximately every 12 years, recently took place. Detailed below are highlights from the final hearing on TCEQ: o Voted to continue TCEQ for the next 12 years. o Made recommendations about the Office of Public Interest Council. It directed public interest council to represent the public interest as opposed to representing an individual s interests. o Modifications to the Compliance History process. WEAT supported those recommendations. o Enforcement it directs the Agency to put a lot of their Enforcement Policies into Rule or into a Guidance Document which makes it more transparent. More transparency may lead to more predictability. It may limit the ability for a flexible response from the Agency. o Recommended raising the penalty cap for water quality violations from $10,000 to $25,000. Cap on drinking water violations is $5,000. o Recommended changing the process for supplemental environmental projects to allow penalty money to be used for supplemental environmental projects. o Recommendations moving forward will get put into form of Bill, filed, TCEQ subset Bills. o First look at budget proposal for TCEQ. House appropriations Bill the recommendation was to reduce TCEQ s budget from $997.7 million to $661.5 million. 2

3 President Pederson introduced Dr. Peggy Glass of Alan Plummer Associates who briefed the attendees on the following regulatory updates related to whole effluent toxicity (WET): o The TCEQ and EPA have had two main areas of disagreement regarding the implementation of the WET program, particularly as it relates to sublethal test failures: Reasonable Potential determinations (i.e., determining whether a permit will have a WET limit) the EPA policy provides for establishing a limit if there is 1 test failure. The TCEQ would propose not to establish a limit unless there are at least 2-3 failures in a 2- to 5-year period. Compliance schedules EPA has been urging TCEQ to establish 1-year compliance schedules for WET limits. TCEQ has been working to justify allowing up to 3 years to achieve compliance. o Dr. Glass stated that influencing the policies on how WET permit limits are structured and when and how enforcement actions are taken by TCEQ needs to be our current focus. Dr. Glass also mentioned that WET limits are much more stringent than other parameters in the permit, such as BOD and ammonia, because a single bad test result is a permit violation. However, if the one test failure is a sublethal failure, there is no evidence that the test failure is indicative of an adverse impact on the receiving stream. o Everyone was urged to check WET test results carefully for validity prior to signing the DMRs. It is difficult to convince the EPA to disallow a test result once it has been reported. o The Implementation Procedures adopted by TCEQ are unclear regarding what would constitute a permit violation. In one section, it implies that there must be a test failure in the initial test and the 2 follow-up tests before a permit violation occurs. Current permit language we have seen suggests that a single test failure is a permit violation. EPA s position is that each test failure is a permit violation. o Dr. Glass would encourage permit limits that are based on both the No Observed Effect Concentration (NOEC) and the 25% inhibition concentration (IC 25 ). At present, Texas only uses NOEC. The ability to include IC 25 would eliminate some test results that are not good performance indicators. o Dr. Glass also recommended that permits provide that test failures during periods of accelerated testing and Toxicity Reduction Evaluations (TREs) not be considered permit violations. o A policy is needed on how to interpret the results of split samples. The current EPA position is that if either test is a failure the failure is the result to be reported. o The current WET policies do not address what to do if a TRE cannot identify the cause of test failures so that a corrective action plan can be implemented. o There is also a potential concern for permittees with moderately high salt content in the effluent. It appears this can trigger random, inconsistent sublethal test failures. 3

4 Dr. Glass brought up nutrients as a topic for future discussion. Nutrients are a big concern nationally. o EPA adopted the stringent criteria that were proposed in Florida. Several other States are also looking at adopting very stringent criteria for nitrogen and phosphorus. o EPA made two comments on the Implementation Procedures provisions related to nutrients that are a concern, if TCEQ concurs in the comments: TCEQ stated that permit reviews to determine whether there should be nutrient limits would be performed for new permits and expansions only. EPA wants reviews of all permit renewals, as well. TCEQ provided that, except in special cases, phosphorus limits would not be less than 0.5 mg/l. EPA wants TCEQ to anticipate establishing limits below that value more frequently. President Pederson allowed a poll to be taken on how municipalities are dealing with WET testing issues. President Pederson announced that the Collation Fund to pay Alan Plummer was short several thousands of dollars. Also was the question if the Collation wanted Alan Plummer to represent them in i. The following organizations contributed to the fund: 1. City of Garland Utilities 2. Upper Trinity Regional Water District 3. North Texas Municipal Water District 4. City of Dallas Water Utilities 5. City of Weatherford 6. City of Fort Worth 7. City of Corpus Christi 8. San Jacinto River Authority 9. Gulf Coast Waste Disposal Authority 10. Trinity River Authority 11. City of El Paso 12. Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority 13. Lower Neches Valley Authority 14. Sabine River Authority 15. Tarrant Regional Water District 16. San Antonio River Authority Total Collected $32,700. Total Invoiced $40,110. Larry Patterson made a motion to develop a budget and to send it out to the members. He also made a motion to request for voluntary contributions. The motion was seconded by Brian Williams, and approved unanimously. 4

5 Technical Presentations: Senate Bill 3 Update: The Contentious Quest for Environmental Flow Standards and How it Will Affect Dischargers Glenn Clingenpeel, Senior Manager of Planning and Environmental Management Division, TRA TRA/DCURD Reclaimed Water System; Looking Back and Moving Forward with Successes and Challenges of the First Major Direct Reuse Program in Texas Dr. Ellen T. McDonald, Alan Plummer Associates Solids Management: A Business Case for Planning at the Trinity River Authority Central Regional Wastewater System Lynne H. Moss, P.E., BCEE, CDM Regional General Permit: Improvements Underway for Meeting the Needs of Protecting Levee Systems Michael T. Smith, Deputy Chief of Engineering and Construction, USACE, Fort Worth District Social Media Socialite: Taking a Lite Approach to Using Only What Works for Your Organization Michelle Clark, Public Information Officer, TRA President Pederson closed the meeting by thanking the meeting sponsors and the attendees for a productive meeting. He reminded everyone about the next TACWA meeting that will be hosted by the City of Austin on March 25,