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2000
ANNUAL REPORT
ISSUES BY REGION
NPDES
Permits Dominate Bay Area Agenda
EPA Region IX swayed the San Francisco Bay Regional
Water Quality Control Board to impose onerous permit
conditions in two Tosco refinery discharge permits for
its Rodeo and Avon refineries. (Ultramar, Inc subsequently
purchased the Avon refinery from Tosco and ultimately
accepted the permit conditions. WSPA and Tosco continued
the appeal for the Rodeo permit.) The imposed permit
conditions eliminated the consideration of dilution
in the reasonable potential analysis and required "no
net loading" for all Section 303(d) listed chemicals
by 2010 if Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) are not
completed. WSPA filed appeals to the State Water Resources
Control Board (SWRCB). The decision from the SWRCB is
expected to establish guiding policy for all NPDES permit
renewals in the Bay Area and statewide.
The role of the Partnership for Sound Science and Environmental
Policy (PSSEP) this year was expanded beyond its dioxin
mission counter production. The PSSEP formed a coalition
to fight the EPA and Regional Water Board over its approach
to regulating wastewater discharges to the Bay. PSSEP
led communication efforts with publicly owned water
treatment agencies and community leaders whose growth
and redevelopment efforts would be stymied by the policy.
WSPA, Tosco and other organizations appealed the permits
to the SWRCB. A decision is expected early next year.
Bay
Area Sees Results from Outreach
Through the Bay Area External Affairs Committee and
PSSEP, the Bay Area Refining Committee is enhancing
its proactive outreach to Bay Area elected officials
and opinion leaders on a broad array of issues. The
industry has seen great success over the past year with
several efforts including: effectively lobbying to revise
the New Source Review Rule at the Bay Area Air Quality
Management District to clean up problematic provisions;
fighting back efforts to amend Contra Costa County’s
Industrial Safety Ordinance to authorize the county
to mandate "Inherently Safer Systems" deemed
infeasible by the refineries; and advocating and prevailing
with the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors to
limit its new Unannounced Safety Inspection Program
to the equivalent of two new inspectors, as opposed
to the six that had been sought by two members of the
Board.
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