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1999
ANNUAL REPORT
BAY AREA
Strategic Alliances Are Forged
in Bay Area As Unreasonable Regulations Proliferate
Alliances with a variety of business, trade association
and municipal authorities were forged in 1999 as WSPA
and its Bay Area allies faced increasingly stringent
air and water environmental regulatory proposals.
Nowhere was the need more evident than the move by
the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce a section
of the Clean Water Act guiding state standards regarding
the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) of pollutants permitted
to be discharged into impaired waters. The EPA proposal
would do little to protect impaired water but wouId
result in unnecessary costs for refiners. WSPA has taken
a leadership role on the issue since it could result
in more stringent conditions and permit limitations
for member companies with direct discharges into impaired
waters. WSPA is working with such groups as the National
TMDL Coalition.
Partnership for Sound Science
in Environmental Policy Formed
EPA Region IX is proposing the elimination of mixing
zones and dilution for impaired waters. It also decided
to list San Francisco Bay as impaired for dioxin over
the opposition of the regional water board, state water
board and CAL EPA. The listing decision was based on
limited fish tissue data and subsistence fishing concerns
and followed a significant misinformation campaign by
environmental groups. WSPA has joined with concerned
municipalities and the business community in forming
the Partnership for Sound Science in Environmental Policy.
The group is currently developing information materials
to address concerns regarding dioxin.
In other significant activities
in the Bay Area, WSPA:
- worked with the business community to help develop
rational and cost-effective amendments to the Bay
Area Clean Air Plan in response to the Bay Area Air
Quality Management District's redesignation of the
region to non-attainment status for the Federal Ozone
Standard
- advocated passage of a rule that provided greater
flexibility and cost savings for compliance with the
existing refinery NOx regulations
- became actively engaged in the Mercury TMDL process
initiated by the Regional Water Quality Control Board
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