U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Water Docket

Mailcode 4101T

1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington D.C. 20460

Re:  Water Docket ID No. OW-2003-0025

To Whom It May Concern:

The East Coast Shellfish Growers Association is writing this letter in response to the EPA’s proposed blending policy entitled “National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit Requirements for Municipal Treatment Discharge During Wet Weather Conditions.”

The shellfish industry operates in all of our coastal states.  On the east coast of the United States, more than 4,500 leaseholders lease about 185,000 acres from individual states and localities.  Most of our members are small businesses.

The policies proposed would most certainly have a significant negative impact upon the shellfish growers represented by our group.  The shellfish that we grow depend on a healthy environment, and high water quality standards are imperative to the marketability and food safety of our products.  The water quality that is so vital to our industry is highly dependent on having adequate sewage treatment plant capacity, and on effective operations of these facilities.

To protect public health, the shellfish industry is regulated by the National Shellfish Sanitation Program (NSSP), which is administrated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the federal level, and by departments of agriculture or health at the state level.  NSSP guidelines for shellfish growing area classification dictates that large prohibited zones are placed around sewage outfalls.  The size of the prohibited area is determined by several factors, but essentially prohibited zones are determined by the volume of water needed to dilute the treated effluent  to the NSSP shellfish growing area criteria of 14 fecal coliform (FC)  per 100 milliliters under normal waste water treatment plant operations.  During wet weather conditions, effluent FC concentrations increase due to greater flow rates and approved or conditionally approved shellfish areas are often closed because FC concentrations increase beyond NSSP criteria.  Clearly, if primary treated effluent is blended with the secondary treated effluent during these wet weather conditions, FC loads in the effluent will be further increased.  This increase in FC concentration has the potential to:

 1.  Extend shellfish harvest closure periods.  Increased FC concentrations will increase the time period will be required to dilute carrying waters to the shellfish FC standard.

2.   Cause more frequent shellfish harvest closures.  If blending is allowed before the waste treatment plant capacity is reached, higher FC concentrations will occur more frequently over shellfish areas and increase the number of times these areas will be closed to shellfish harvest.

3.  Expand the shellfish areas affected by sewage treatment plant effluents.  Greater FC concentrations occurring more frequently will result in the closure of shellfish areas currently unaffected by FC contamination.  Such increases in closed areas will diminish the available shellfish resources of our nation, and adversely affect the shellfish industry.

There are other operational options available to waste water treatment plants to improve treatment of wet weather flow without resorting to blending.  Several options are listed in the EPA request for comment (Federal Register / Vol. 68, No. 216 / Friday, November 7, 2003 / Proposed Rules).  Relaxing rules on blending, or allowing some treatment capacity to be held in reserve will provide municipalities a disincentive for upgrading or repairing waste water treatment plant operations.

The EPA has been entrusted to maintain and improve the quality of the marine waters of our nation.  The impact of the proposed policy change on commercial and recreational shellfish activities must be considered.  The East Coast Shellfish Growers Association urges the EPA to take no steps, such as these changes in sewage blending requirements, which would increase contamination in our coastal waters, and endanger the livelihoods of those in the shellfish industry.

Sincerely yours,

Edwin W. Rhodes

Executive Director

cc. Congressional Delegations of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida