November 8, 2000 Annual Business Meeting - Central States Water ...

November 2, 2000
Groundwater Protection & Toxic Waste – Dave Sauer, Chair
Following discussion by the board at the August 16, 2000 meeting, it was decided that I should
make a recommendation to the board on the future direction of the Groundwater Protection
and Toxic Waste Committee. As you all know, the committee has been inactive for quite some
time now. The committee’s focus over the past few years has been to participate with WDNR
staff and advisory groups working to modify regulations and testing requirements for
groundwater and toxicity disciplines. In addition, information gathered on both groundwater
and toxicity issues were to be assembled and made available to CSWEA members. Specific
topics which were identified include:
1. Toxicity testing at wastewater treatment facility using different species such as plants
and the application of this testing for the various WPDES permit owners.
2. Wastewater treatment systems at municipalities treating landfill leachate.
3. Toxicity Reduction Evaluations (TRE) at municipal facilities as required by the WDNR.
4. Municipal sludge and related toxicity issues involved with land application.
With the ever increasing use of the Internet and the availability of information through it, it
appears that the members will continue to use this tool to meet their specific needs. Future use
of the Internet will only increase the distribution of this information. This will truly benefit
everyone including CSWEA members and non-CSWEA members.
The value the committee could continue to provide to the members would be the interpretation
and application of this information for specific purposes. To gain this insight, the committee
members would need to actively participate with the regulatory and university staff working in
these areas. This is currently not occurring. This could well occur with those who have an
interest and could occur through the existing groundwater/toxic waste committee. History,
however, has told me that it is unlikely to occur.
Given this information, I am recommending that the Groundwater Protection and Toxic Waste
Committee be disbanded and that the groundwater/toxicity issues be pursued through the
existing committees such as the Government Affairs, the Industrial Waste and/or the
Operations Committee.
It appears that most of the groundwater/toxicity issues are most closely related to the
government affairs committee. New standards and regulations are continuing to occur in this
area. I would expect the WDNR would welcome input on these issues should the
CSWEA/Wisconsin Section identify staff who would represent the interests of the group. In
return, the CSWEA would benefit from this knowledge provided the group’s representative(s)
would provide and distribute reports concerning the specific subjects.
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