Fall 2009 - Michigan Water Environment Association

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news in brief An Observation About the Importance Of Educating the Public about What We Do By John P. McCulloch, Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner A s those of us in the public works arena know all too well, what we do to protect water quality is not well known by the public we serve. The measures we take to ensure that drinking water is safe are not typically the topic of casual conversation. Much of our infrastructure is underground which contributes to the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ phenomenon. In fact, unless there is a problem, public works often is the forgotten municipal service. Nevertheless, it is important that people understand how they are served by their public works agencies. It is especially critical that elected officials are knowledgeable about public works facilities and infrastructure. After all, they have been entrusted to make the hard decisions during times of limited financial resources. That is why “Operation Outreach,” the promotional program inspired by MWEA to encourage us to reach out to decisionmakers and stakeholders throughout our communities, is so valuable. For our part, we have on-going educational programs for people of Online Training for Water & Wastewater Operators • Reasonably priced • Available 24/7 • Instant access • Experienced Courses Available for: • Drinking Water Operators • Wastewater Operators • Distribution Systems • Collection Systems all ages, from school-age youngsters to senior citizens. We offer tours of our facilities and have formed a speakers’ bureau to expand our educational reach into the communities. Most recently, we conducted tours of two retention and treatment basins in Birmingham and Bloomfield Township. A couple of the tours were geared specifically for city and township officials to give them a better comprehension of the importance of these two facilities. The other tours were open to the media, the public, to engineers and other public works professionals. I am happy to report that these tours were a success and met the goals of the MWEA to raise public awareness of critically important clean water facilities. I am confident that, as a direct result of these tours, the stakeholders have a better awareness of our operations and can vote with greater confidence on issues that impact our facilities. I would like to extend my sincere thanks and appreciation to the MWEA for its leadership role in promoting this critically important awareness-raising activity. • Quality Programs • Experienced Instructors • State Approved • Laboratory Practices • Small Community Systems • Engineers & Regulatory www.CEUplan.com Michigan awarded national grant for Qualifications-Based Selection Program Educational Organization provides free information to help owners plan safe, high quality, costeffective public projects Q BS Michigan Manager Ronald Brenke, PE, today announced that the Michigan Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS) Coalition has been awarded a QBS Facilitator Grant to provide education about the QBS process. The Michigan QBS Coalition is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to providing public agencies/entities with information on how to develop procurement policies and procedures for selecting design professionals, which lead to quality, costeffective projects. The services of a QBS Program can be instrumental in familiarizing owners with the QBS process and broadening the use of QBS among state and local agencies. In 1989, Michigan was one of four states to receive grants to develop and implement QBS Facilitator Programs. By 2007, 30 states had been allocated funds through the grant program. This year, Michigan was one of just three states to receive the grants. Five national groups have partnered to provide funding and program support for states seeking to promote the use of QBS: the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the American Public Works Association (APWA), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE). Brenke, who also serves as Executive Director of ACEC/Michigan, received the good news from Charles Kim, ACEC’s Director of Policy & Strategic Planning, in Washington D.C. “Michigan was one of the first states to form a QBS organization and offer free assistance to owners, and we are pleased and thankful that we can continue to provide this valuable service,” Brenke said. “This grant will be extremely beneficial in developing new resources for use by owners who procure design professional services.” For more information, please visit www. QBS-MI.org. 26 MWEA MATTERS: Fall 2009 Click here to return to the TABLE OF CONTENTS See us on FACEBOOK
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) CAFO CORNER news in brief CAFO NPDES permit program numbers: • There are a total of 217 existing or proposed CAFOs in the state of Michigan. • Permits have been issued to 190 of those and 15 permit applications are in process. • 12 CAFOs have successfully achieved a No Potential to Discharge (NPTD) Determination. • NPTD is a DEQ program where a CAFO can demonstrate to DEQ that it has no potential to discharge under any circumstance or climatic condition. If successful, the CAFO does not need a NPDES permit. Generally, CAFOs granted NPTD do not conduct any land application, the production area is not located near any surface waters or cannot discharge to any conduits to surface waters, and the granting of NPTD requires an inspection by DEQ. • Of the 190 permitted CAFOs, 168 are under a general permit and 22 are under individual permits. CAFO Permits: CAFO NPDES permits provide important environmental protections for water resources of the state. Permit conditions are designed to meet technology-based requirements and Michigan’s Water Quality Standards. In general, the permit is designed to control discharges, prevent violations of water quality standards, and protect the waters of the state. CAFO General Permit Reissuance Process for 2009 – 2010: The current CAFO General Permit must be reissued in 2009 to allow time to reissue the individual Certificates of Coverage prior to the April 1, 2010, expiration date of the current general permit. Applications for the reissued permit are due October 1, 2009. Permit Reissuance Process Steps: April 2009 DONE! Send invitation letters to establish a stakeholders group to receive input on potential changes to the general permit. We do not plan to make major changes but, rather, we hope to make minor adjustments that simplify compliance, improve water quality protection, and comply with new federal CAFO rules. May 2009 DONE! Convene stakeholders group meetings. After the first meeting, we will consider input and develop tentative permit language, or perhaps an entire draft permit. That will be sent out to the stakeholders group for discussion at a second meeting. June 2009 Prepare a draft permit with consideration of all of the input from the stakeholders and then public notice the draft permit. Due to a recent court ruling we have had to hold up processing of the permit at this point. We hope to resume processing soon. July 2009 Hold a public hearing. July - August 2009 Review and consider public comment, revise the draft permit as needed, and issue the general permit with an effective date of April 1, 2010. August 2009 Send letters to permittees advising them that they need to reapply for permit coverage by October 1, 2009. November 2009 - March 2010 Issue Certificates of Coverage. Revisions for the reissued CAFO general permit: We are not planning major changes to the permit. Most of the changes are adjustments to existing conditions. The need for many of these adjustments has been realized because of frequent questions or complaints about certain regulations or because our field staff would find repeated misunderstanding of a particular regulation. A couple of the changes are due to new US EPA rules. A few of the changes include: reducing the volume of recordkeeping submittals to DEQ; list conservation practices in the CNMP; a requirement to better manage heavy use pasture areas associated with the CAFO; a better description of when the CNMP must be revised (i.e. cumulative expansions); revise application rate determination requirements to be consistent with new EPA CAFO rules; public notice new fields added after permit issuance; compliance requirements for Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs); allow outside materials to be added to an anaerobic digester, along with the manure, to enhance energy production; and, to comply with a recent court ruling, require the submittal of CNMPs with permit applications. As mentioned above, we hope to have the permit on public notice soon and interested parties will have an opportunity to comment on these items, and anything else, at that time. Thank you to the following people for purchasing a Toilet Tie: Fred Cowles Mary Jane Robinson Thank you to the many people who contributed money to the 5S Inductees at the MWEA Annual Conference. This money went to the Dan Wolz Fund. Click here to return to the TABLE OF CONTENTS w w w.mi-wea.org Fall 2009 27
Page 1: 2009/10 MWEA Membership Directory &
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Page 6 and 7: Straight from the Harte - EXECUTIVE
Page 8 and 9: committee news MWEA government affa
Page 10 and 11: committee news MWEA Nominations com
Page 12 and 13: By Brian Hannon, P.E., Project Engi
Page 14 and 15: Possible Funding Changes in DEQ Was
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Page 37 and 38: professional directory UMW Enterpri
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Fall 2009 - Michigan Water Environment Association

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