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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNC0026123_Comments_20230123 PATRICK M.MINCEY WILMINGTON OFFICE ATTORNEY AT LAW C RAN F I L L S U M N E RL LP DIRECT DIAL: (910)777-6017 101 N.3RD STREET,SUITE 400(28401) DIRECT FAX:(910)777-6107 POST OFFICE BOX 1950 EMAIL:PMINCEY@CSHLAW.COM WILMINGTON,NORTH CAROLINA 28402 WWW.CSHLAW.COM TELEPHONE(910)777-6000 FAX(910)777-6111 January 5, 2023 R.ROBERT EL-JAOUHARI ATTORNEY AT LAW DIRECT DIAL#: (919)863-8718 DIRECT FAX#: (919)863-3489 RALEIGH OFFICE EMAIL:RJAOUHARI(1CSHLAW.COM WWW.CSHLAW.COM 5420 WADE PARK BLVD.,SUITE 300 RECEIVED (27607)7) ELIZABETH C.STEPHENS POST OFFICE BOX 27808 ATTORNEY AT LAW RALEIGH,NORTH CAROLINA 27611-7808 TELEPHONE(919)828-5100 Y("F�`(A ,� 3 2023 DIRECT DIAL#: (919)863-8715 FAX(919)828-2277 DIRECT FAX#: (919)863-3414 EMAIL:ESTEPHENS@CSHLAW.COM WWW.CSHLAW.COM NCDEQ/DWR/NPDES Via USPS First-Class Mail, to: NCDEQ/DWR/NPDES Water Quality Permitting Section 1617 Mail Service Center Raleigh, NC 27699-1617 North Carolina Environmental Management Commission/NPDES Unit 1617 Mail Service Center Raleigh, NC 27699-1617 Via E-Mail, to: Nick Coco, PE nick.coco@ncdenr.gov Request for Public Hearing Dear Mr. Coco, and to whom it may concern, Our office represents the City of Reidsville in certain matters pertaining to 1,4- dioxane and related regulation and permitting by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality ("DEQ") and its Environmental Management Commission ("EMC") (collectively, the "Agency"). We have received and reviewed the proposed permit noticed to the public for the City of Asheboro's wastewater treatment facility, NPDES No. NC0026123 (the "Permit"), proposed by the Division of Water Resources (the "Division"). Today, we have submitted a comment (our "Comment") in opposition to the Division's inclusion in the Permit of a 1,4-dioxane effluent limitation based on a proposed 0.35 µg/L standard in water-supply waters. Pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-215.1(c)(3) and 15A NCAC 02H .0111(a)(1), the City of Reidsville, by and through its undersigned counsel, requests a public Mr. Nick Coco, PE Water Quality Permitting Section January 5, 2023 Page 2 of 2 hearing on the proposed Permit before the Permit is issued. The City of Reidsville is interested in the Permit as a municipal point-source discharger into the Cape Fear River basin, and is therefore interested in regulatory actions regarding the discharge of 1,4-dioxane, and regarding limitations imposed upon such discharge, in the Cape Fear River basin. Public hearing on the Permit is warranted because the Permit is the first effort by the Division to issue an NPDES discharge permit with a 1,4-dioxane effluent limitation based on a proposed 0.35 µg/L 1,4-dioxane standard in water-supply waters, and because the Division makes this effort despite the same proposed 0.35 µg/L standard being recently rejected by the Rules Review Commission due to EMC's failure to comply with North Carolina's Administrative Procedures Act in its effort to codify this proposed standard into law. Public hearing on the Permit is also warranted for the several reasons set forth in our Comment, and the Division is directed to our Comment for further description of the City of Reidsville's interest in the Permit and the reasons why public hearing on the Permit is warranted. We would appreciate being notified directly of the date, time, and location of the public hearing on the Permit once those details are determined, and hereby request notice of the same. Sincerely, Patrick M. Mincey R. Robert El-Jaouhari qe:„.(4.4e Elizabeth C. Stephens Counsel to the City of Reidsville 4868-6642-4392,v. 1 PATRICK M.MINCEY ATTORNEY AT LAW WILMINGTON OFFICE C RA N F I L L S U M.N E R`LP DIRECT DIAL: (910)777-6017 101 N.3RD STREET,SUITE 400(28401) DIRECT FAX:(910)777-6107 POST OFFICE BOX 1950 EMAIL:PMINCEY@CSHLAW.COM WILMINGTON,NORTH CAROLINA 28402 WWW.CSHLAW.COM TELEPHONE(910)777-6000 FAX(910)777-6111 January 5, 2023 R.ROBERT EL-JAOUHARI ATTORNEY AT LAW DIRECT DIAL#: (919)863-8718 /� DIRECT FAX#: (919)863-3489 RALEIGH OFFICE RECEIVED ��D EMAIL: WWW.CSHLA .COM RJAOUHARI@CSHLAW.COM 5420 WADE PARK BLVD.,SUITE 300 V (27607) ELIZABETH C.STEPHENS J4 N POST OFFICE BOX 27808 2 3 2023 ATTORNEY AT LAW RALEIGH,NORTH CAROLINA 27611-7808 G DIRECT DIAL#: (919)863-8715 TELEPHONE(919)828-5100 FAX(919)828-2277 NODE I DIRECT FAX#: (919)863-3414 CV DWG VNPDES EMAIL:) CHENS@CCO W.COM WWwVia USPS First-Class Mail, to: NCDEQ/DWR/NPDES Water Quality Permitting Section 1617 Mail Service Center Raleigh, NC 27699-1617 North Carolina Environmental Management Commission/NPDES Unit 1617 Mail Service Center Raleigh, NC 27699-1617 Via E-Mail, to: Nick Coco, PE nick.coco@ncdenr.gov Dear Mr. Coco, and to whom it may concern, Our office represents the City of Reidsville in certain matters pertaining to 1,4- dioxane and related regulation and permitting by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality ("DEQ") and its Environmental Management Commission ("EMC") (collectively, the "Agency"). We have received and reviewed the proposed permit noticed to the public for the City of Asheboro's wastewater treatment facility, NPDES No. NC0026123 (the "Permit"), proposed by the Division of Water Resources (the "Division"). The Permit purports for the first time in North Carolina to establish an effluent limitation based on a 0.35 µg/L standard in water-supply waters. This letter is a comment in opposition to the proposed effluent limitation for 1,4-dioxane included in the Permit, and for the reasons set forth below requests that the Permit's 1,4-dioxane effluent limitations be removed before the Permit is issued. As a procedural matter, the Division has not allowed sufficient time for an NPDES permit of this magnitude to be reviewed and analyzed by interested—and Mr.Nick Coco, PE Water Quality Permitting Section January 5, 2023 Page 2 of 12 potentially impacted parties, and the time for comments should be extended. As for substantive matters, the Division's inclusion of an effluent limitation for 1,4-dioxane based on a 0.35 µg/L standard in water-supply waters is arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable, and in excess of the Division's and the Agency's statutory and regulatory authority. The bases for these conclusions, and the reasons DEQ must remove the effluent limitations related to 1,4-dioxane before issuing the Permit, are set forth in the enumerated sections below. 1. The comment period should be extended beyond January 13, 2023. Asheboro's proposed Permit was delivered to Asheboro on December 6, 2022, and was publicly noticed on December 9, 2022. Upon information and belief, a prior proposed permit for Asheboro was previously noticed in 2018, and at that time included a 1,4-dioxane effluent limitation based on a 80.0 µg/L standard in the receiving Class C waters of Hasketts Creek, rather than an effluent limitation based on the 0.35 µg/L standard the Division now seeks to impose. This change is substantial, is the first effort by the Division to issue a permit with a 1,4-dioxane effluent limitation based on a 0.35 µg/L standard, and was noticed to the public for a comment period significantly curtailed by religious holidays and the New Year holiday. Fundamental principles of transparency and public input underlie North Carolina's Administrative Procedures Act. To allow the public adequate opportunity to evaluate the Permit, its fact sheet, and the various bases and authorities cited by those materials, the public comment period should be significantly extended. 2. 0.35 µg/L is not a lawful 1,4-dioxane standard in a water-supply stream, and a 1,4-dioxane effluent limit in the Permit based on 0.35 µg/L is therefore outside of the Agency's statutory authority. The Permit exhibits an effort by the Agency to defy North Carolina's rulemaking procedures established by the North Carolina General Assembly in the Administrative Procedures Act, and the proposed Permit therefore lies outside of the Agency's statutory authority. This conclusion is clear in light of the history of the Agency's efforts to establish regulations related to 1,4-dioxane. In its 2020-2022 Triennial Review, EMC sought to codify a 0.35 µg/L 1,4-dioxane standard in receiving water-supply streams. Although much of the Triennial Review was codified into law, in May 2022 the North Carolina Rules Review Commission ("RRC") objected to EMC's proposed 0.35 µg/L standard for receiving water-supply streams, on account of EMC's failure to comply with North Carolina's Administrative Procedures Act with regard to that proposed standard. The 0.35 µg/L 1,4-dioxane standard 4864-2558-8039,v. 1 • Mr.Nick Coco, PE Water QualityPermittingSection January 5, 2023 Page 3 of 12 was therefore not codified into law. After this initial effort, EMC again tried to obtain RRC approval for the 0.35 µg/L standard through a request for reconsideration in August, 2022, but RRC nevertheless maintained its objection. Thereafter, in September, 2022, EMC voted to request the return of the proposed 0.35 µg/L standard from the RRC, which ended the rulemaking effort.' Apparently dissatisfied with the rulemaking process required by the Administrative Procedures Act, and apparently dissatisfied with the Rules Review Commission's duly-exercised authority to ensure compliance with the Administrative Procedures Act, the Agency has decided to impose the same rejected regulations on its own authority rather than the authority allowed to it by statute. Such an effort is a clear attempt to side-step appropriate rulemaking requirements, and indicates that the Agency will nevertheless regulate for any substance using standards which rulemaking authorities— and indeed the Administrative Procedures Act—have rejected. At the very least, such an effort creates substantial uncertainty for a regulated community that cannot know how, on what bases, and whether, 1,4-dioxane or other compounds, will be regulated in the future,when the Agency is so freely willing to regulate outside of established statutory and regulatory procedure. Put simply, a 0.35 µg/L 1,4-dioxane standard in a receiving water-supply stream is not currently codified by law or regulation, and was not the law when the Permit was sent to public notice. Nevertheless, permitting by the Agency must be based on law and on lawful standards.2 A 1,4-dioxane effluent limitation in the Permit based on a 0.35 µg/L standard is therefore unlawful and should be removed. 3. Pre-existing regulations under 15A NCAC 02B do not permit the Division, or the Agency, to enforce the very same standard whose codification was rejected. The Division's reliance on pre-existing 1 Undersigned counsel recognize EMC's opportunity to file suit challenging RRC's objection to the 0.35 µg/L standard. Counsel also recognizes EMC's election not to do so in the nearly eight months following RRC's objection, and represent to the Division that, to the best of undersigned counsels' knowledge, no such lawsuit was filed—much less any court order entered reversing RRC's objection— before this Division sent Asheboro's proposed Permit to public notice with an effluent limitation based on a 0.35 µg/L standard. 2 In support of this proposition (and beyond the baseline principles of law and good-governance), undersigned counsel would refer the Division to Secretary Elizabeth Biser, Assistant Secretary Sushma Masemore, and the negotiations culminating in issuance of an Authorization to Construct permit to the City of Reidsville for its biologic nutrient removal project,which permit issued following DEQ's admission, to North Carolina Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, of DEQ's efforts to even informally enforce a 0.35 µg/L 1,4-dioxane standard which was not the law. 4864-2558-8039,v. 1 Mr.Nick Coco, PE Water Quality Permitting Section January 5, 2023 Page 4 of 12 regulations under 15A NCAC 02B to establish a 1,4-dioxane limitation is similarly flawed. The Division does in fact rely on this flawed basis: the Permit itself identifies the applicable Division regulations supporting inclusion of a 1,4-dioxane effluent limitation in the Permit as: a. 15A NCAC 02B .0206(a)(4)(B), which provides that for flow design criteria, the average annual flow for toxic substances shall be used to protect human health; b. 15A NCAC 02B .0208(a)(2)(B), which provides that for carcinogens, an unacceptable exposed risk level is lx10-6 or greater; and c. 15A NCAC 02B .0216(4)(d), which provides that for WS-IV waters no discharge shall be allowed that has an adverse effect on human health. As a preliminary matter, EMC recognized the insufficiency of pre-existing 02B regulations to support a 0.35 µg/L standard in receiving water-supply waters when it sought to create new regulation—and, for the first time, a codified 0.35 µg/L standard—in the Triennial Review. Indeed, before that rulemaking effort the Agency had not included a 1,4-dioxane effluent discharge limitation in any NPDES permit for any discharger into the State's water-supply waters,3 and the closest the Agency came to any enforcement of any 1,4-dioxane standard was its Special Order by Consent with the City of Greensboro which, upon information and belief, does not limit Greensboro's effluent based on a 0.35 µg/L standard in the receiving stream. Moreover, the Division improperly relies on the narrative text of a portion of 15A NCAC 02B .0208 (hereinafter referred to as ".0208") while ignoring other explicit language in that regulation and ignoring that regulation's place among other DEQ regulations. The plain language of .0208 not only identifies procedures for calculating water quality standards, but immediately thereafter, and explicitly, states that the "[s]tandards to protect human health from carcinogens through water consumption are listed under the water supply classification standards in Rules .0212, .0214, .0215, .0216, and .0218 of this Section." (15A NCAC 02B .0208(a)(2)(B)) (emphasis added). Thus, in no uncertain terms, the pre-existing regulations upon which the Division relies specifically direct the Division to .0212, .0214, .0215, .0216, or .0218 for the applicable water quality standard or criterion to protect human health from carcinogens through water consumption. .0208 does not permit the Division- 3 For comparison, consider NPDES permit No. NC0088838, issued to Radiator Specialty Company with an effective date of July 1, 2018, and which includes an effluent limitation for 1,4-dioxane based on a standard of 80.0 µg/L rather than 0.35 µg/L. Radiator Specialty Company discharges into Class C waters, which are not water-supply waters. 4864-2558-8039,v. 1 Mr.Nick Coco, PE Water Quality Permitting Section January 5, 2023 Page 5 of 12 and much less does it direct the Division—to calculate new standards from whole cloth when standards do not exist in .0212, .0214, .0215, .0216, or .0218. But, such an impermissible procedure is precisely what the Division purports to do in order to include a 1,4-dioxane effluent limitation in Asheboro's Permit.4 Relatedly, the Division's reliance on pre-existing regulations also utterly subverts the regulatory rulemaking procedure. EMC's recent efforts to establish a numeric 1,4-dioxane standard in .0212, .0214, :0215, .0216, and .0218 failed due to EMC's failure to perform a proper fiscal analysis of the economic impacts of 1,4-dioxane on the regulated community. Despite EMC's failure, and the subsequent lack of a codified 1,4-dioxane standard for water- supply waters, the Division now attempts to do what North Carolina's Administrative Procedures Act has determined is inappropriate: namely, enforce a 0.35 µg/L standard that not only has not satisfied statutory rulemaking procedures, but has specifically been rejected as a standard due to its failure to satisfy those procedures. The Division thus argues, much like EMC unsuccessfully argued before the Rules Review Commission, that an agency can avoid statutory rulemaking requirements so long as its enforcement efforts are based on an internal calculation of the very standard that was rejected for codification. But, internal agency rules cannot override legislative requirements, and efforts to do so are clearly beyond of the Division's, and the Agency's, statutory and regulatory authority. 4. The Permit's 1,4-dioxane limitation is arbitrary and capricious in that it relies on the improper application of.0208 by the Division and lacks any tie to scientific consensus. The Division relies on 15A NCAC 02B .0208(a)(2)(B) (again, referred to as ".0208") as the vehicle by which it is authorized to establish and impose effluent limitations related to 1,4 dioxane as part of Asheboro's proposed NPDES Permit. The portion of .0208 upon which the Division specifically relies indicates clearly that its application is limited to "carcinogens[.]" In support of its use of .0208 to regulate for 1,4-dioxane as a carcinogen, the Division cites to a single clause contained in an outdated, non-binding, non- regulatory report issued in 2013 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which states: "1,4-dioxane is`likely to be carcinogenic to humans."'5 (Fact Sheet 4 Again,the Division is reminded that EMC sought to create a 1,4-dioxane standard in receiving waters by amending .0212, .0214, .0215, .0216, and .0218 to include a 0.35 µg/L 1,4-dioxane standard. Had that rulemaking been successful, the Division could then have had an established standard in .0212, .0214, .0215, .0216, or .0218 to rely on for setting an effluent limitation based on.0208. 5 Notably, the Division clearly understands the limitations associated with a non-enforceable, non- regulatory report issued by EPA, as here. For instance, it appears, at least in part, that the Division 4864-2558-8039,v. 1 Mr.Nick Coco, PE Water Quality Permitting Section January 5, 2023 Page 6 of 12 for Permit at 12; EPA IRIS, 1,4-Dioxane (CASRN 123-91-1), 2013 at 12.) However, the same report expressly acknowledged that there is "inadequate evidence of carcinogenicity in humans." (Id.) Further, in December 2020, the EPA issued its Final Risk Assessment related to 1,4 dioxane. (86 Fed. Reg. 1,495 (Jan. 8, 2021)) The EPA's Final Risk Assessment found (1) no unreasonable risks to the environment from any conditions of 1,4 dioxane use; (2) no unreasonable risks to consumers or bystanders from any conditions of 1,4 dioxane use; and, (3) no unreasonable risks to the general population related to 1,4 dioxane. (See 86 Fed. Reg. 1,495, Section 5.4 (Jan. 8, 2021).) The findings of the Final Risk Assessment are issued by order and are considered a final agency action. (Id.) On January 20, 2021, the President of the United States signed Executive Order No. 13,990 directing that EPA review its Final Risk Assessment related to 1,4 dioxane. On June 30, 2021, EPA announced that its supplemental risk assessment would include analysis of additional exposure pathways for 1,4 dioxane, including via drinking water, ambient air, and as a generated byproduct in manufacturing and industrial uses. EPA's supplemental risk assessment is currently underway, and is expected to determine whether 1,4 dioxane presents an unreasonable risk to human health on a much broader scale than did the Final Risk Assessment. EPA recently announced its plans to provide a public notice and comment opportunity on its supplemental risk evaluation for 1,4 dioxane in 2023. Through its supplemental risk assessment, it is possible that EPA could affirm the findings contained in its Final Risk Assessment or modify those findings altogether. In the interim, no federal maximum contaminant level ("MCL") has been established for 1,4-dioxane in drinking water. Moreover, the Division has not demonstrated any changes in scientific evidence since its 2018 proposed NPDES permit to Asheboro, which proposed permit included a 1,4-dioxane effluent limitation based on an 80.0 µg/L 1,4- dioxane standard in the receiving stream rather than the 0.35 µg/L basis proposed today. In proposing the Permit today with an effluent limitation based on a 0.35 µg/L 1,4-dioxane standard, the Division relies on 2013 and 2014 publications by EPA (Fact Sheet for Permit at 12) and EPA recommendations from 1991 (id. at pg. 14 of 24). However, the Division demonstrates no reasons declined to impose a permit limitation related to PFAS in Asheboro's Permit based on a lack of enforceable standards and the nascent scientific consensus surrounding sampling and treatment. Especially in light of the fact that the scientific consensus related to 1,4 dioxane is similarly situated to that of PFAS (or perhaps is even more uncertain), it is unclear why the Division chose to impose permit limitations related to 1,4 dioxane, but not with respect to PFAS. 4864-2558-8039,v. 1 Mr.Nick Coco, PE Water Quality Permitting Section January 5, 2023 Page 7 of 12 why these same references perfectly available to the Division in 2018—when 80.0 µg/L was proposed to Asheboro as the standard for its 1,4-dioxane effluent limitations—today require an effluent limitation based on a much more restrictive 0.35 µg/L standard. And, the Division demonstrates no reason why EPA's 2020 Final Risk Assessment related to 1,4 dioxane, and its conclusions of no unreasonable risk to consumers or the general population related to 1,4- dioxane, should be fully ignored. Indeed, .0208 itself was last amended effective May 1, 2007, and the Division has therefore not only has the same scientific bases, but also the same regulatory bases, today that it had in 2018, for this proposed permitting.6 The Division's determination that the same scientific and regulatory bases now require an effluent limitation based on a 0.35 µg/L standard, when they previously only required an effluent limitation based on a 80.0 µg/L standard, is therefore utterly arbitrary. To be clear, the City of Reidsville does not contend that 1,4-dioxane is not a pollutant of concern or that 1,4-dioxane is not an emerging contaminant. Indeed, the City of Reidsville certainly recognizes the need to protect North Carolina's drinking water resources. However, through the Permit, the Division proposes to establish permit limitations and impose regulatory penalties related to substances where no scientific consensus exists, its impacts on humans are currently under review by the EPA, and testing criterion and removal techniques are unavailable. Thus, while it is possible that the Division may engage in certain mitigation efforts related to discharges of 1,4 dioxane, 15A NCAC 02B .0208 is not among the regulatory tools upon which the Division may rely absent reliable scientific findings of the compound's carcinogenicity in humans, as required by .0208's specific text. Based on the foregoing, the Division appears not to even know at this time what level of exposure to 1,4 dioxane results in unreasonable risk to human health, but has supplanted that precise scientific need with the generalized, non-specific conclusions of .0208 without having demonstrated that .0208 is properly applicable as a basis for a 1,4-dioxane effluent limitation. Thus, the Division's reliance on .0208 to impose NPDES permit limitations for 1,4- dioxane exceeds the scope of the Division's authority. As a result, .0208 may not be used as a tool by which to regulate 1,4 dioxane discharges as part of Asheboro's NPDES Permit. 6 Undersigned counsel are aware of the written 2022 DWR NPDES Strategy for 1,4-dioxane (the"2022 Strategy"), which the Division includes among the bases for the 1,4-dioxane effluent limitations proposed in the Permit. Undersigned counsel received the 2022 Strategy from the Permit writer, Mr. Coco, and observes that the 2022 Strategy (1) is in draft form, (2) is not approved by any Division or Agency official, and (3)purports to establish regulation outside of the Agency's rulemaking authority. 4864-2558-8039,v. 1 Mr.Nick Coco, PE Water Quality Permitting Section January 5, 2023 Page 8 of 12 5. Asheboro's wastewater treatment facility does not directly discharge into a water supply stream, and the connection the Division draws to water-supply waters is arbitrary and capricious. Asheboro's wastewater treatment facility discharges directly into Hasketts Creek, a Class C water. Class C waters are not water-supply waters. While there also is no codified 1,4-dioxane standard for Class C waters, the proposed standard for Class C waters in EMC's recent rulemaking effort (the Triennial Review, discussed above) was 80.0 µg/L. In the proposed Permit, the Division asserts that it calculated proposed 1,4- dioxane effluent limitations based on both a 80.0 µg/L standard and a 0.35 µg/L standard, and reports that it selected the lower effluent limitation resulting from the 0.35 µg/L standard because the waters into which Asheboro discharges eventually become water-supply waters. Indeed, it appears that the first iteration of Asheboro's NPDES permit, in 2018, included only a 1,4-dioxane ioxane effluent limitation of 149 /L calculated usingan 80 proposed d µg µg/L standard due to Asheboro's discharge into Class C waters. Asheboro does discharge into waters that eventually become water-supply waters (and eventually become the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, and perhaps eventually the tidal waters of South America or Europe or Africa). However, the Division's determination that ultimate reach to water-supply waters requires an effluent limitation based on water-supply waters is, in this instance, too attenuated at best and entirely unsupported at worst. The downstream water supply facility upon which the Division relies is the presently inactive water-supply facility at or near the boundary of the Gulf- Goldston water-supply watershed, which is approximately 43 miles downstream of Asheboro's discharge into Class C waters. Neither the Permit nor the Division's fact sheet for the Permit explain why an inactive water supply 43 miles downstream is relevant to Asheboro's discharge. Nor do the Permit or the fact sheet show any calculations made by the Division to determine the amounts of 1,4-dioxane that would be present at the water- supply boundary—instead, the Division assumes (1) that Asheboro's discharge will be 100% of the flow at the WS-IV boundary, (2) that the instream concentration of 1,4-dioxane is the exact same at the point of Asheboro's discharge as it is at the WS-IV boundary for the facility 43 miles downstream, and (3) that there would not be any additional mitigation of Asheboro's discharge by the normal variation in hydrology over such an extended distance and change in the drainage area. On such an approach, any water-supply waters anywhere downstream of Asheboro, or downstream of any discharger, no matter the distance, would require imposition of an effluent discharge limitation based on a 0.35 µg/L standard for the water-supply stream. In 4864-2558-8039, v. 1 Mr.Nick Coco,PE Water Quality Permitting Section January 5,2023 Page 9 of 12 addition to being illogical, such a conclusion would also subvert the distinction between 1,4-dioxane criteria proposed for water-supply and non-water-supply waters, and would indeed eliminate the distinction between the Agency's permissible regulations of differing classes of waters. Such an approach would also mean that every North Carolina discharger that is upstream of water-supply waters should be subjected to effluent limitations based on a 0.35 µg/L 1,4-dioxane standard for water-supply waters—regardless of actual discharge amounts, flow amounts, classification of the receiving waters at the point source, or even where a particular facility falls within the Division's draft (and unapproved) NPDES Strategy for 1,4-dioxane. The Division must not only concede that this is not a well-reasoned approach, but must also concede that this approach is not consistent with the Division's past permitting activity: the only existing NPDES discharge permit in North Carolina with a 1,4-dioxane effluent limitation belongs to another discharger into Class C waters (Radiator Specialty Company) but contains a 1,4-dioxane effluent limitation based on an 80.0 µg/L standard, not 0.35 µg/L, even though Radiator Specialty Company's discharge is approximately 50 miles from the Pee Dee River's WS-V waters.? Thus, if any 1,4-dioxane effluent limitation is permissible at all, reliance on an inactive facility approximately 43 miles downstream and a questionable hydrological analysis (inasmuch as such an analysis, beyond simple assumptions, was performed) is an arbitrary and capricious basis for the Division's determination that Asheboro's Permit's 1,4-dioxane effluent limitation must be based on a 0.35 µg/L standard. 6. Technological and economic limitations make compliance with a 0.35 µg/L standard in a receiving stream practically unachievable. EMC has long admitted that the current state of technology is not sufficient to meet a 0.35 µg/L standard in a receiving water-supply stream. At the beginning of its failed rulemaking efforts (the 1,4-dioxane aspects of EMC's 2020-2022 Triennial Review, discussed above), EMC anticipated that schedules of compliance for regulated entities "will be common due to the high cost of treatment technology[,]" that "municipal water and wastewater treatment facilities are generally not equipped to remove [1,4-dioxane] through their treatment processes[,]" that "conventional treatment processes are generally ineffective at removal[,]" and that "[i]nstallation and operation of advanced treatment processes, such as those using hydrogen peroxide, ozone and/or 7 See NPDES permit no. NC0088838, issued to Radiator Specialty Company with an effective date of July 1, 2018. 4864-2558-8039,v. 1 Mr.Nick Coco, PE Water Quality Permitting Section January 5, 2023 Page 10 of 12 ultra-violet photo-oxidation—all known to be effective for 1,4-dioxane removal at either wastewater treatment facilities or drinking water systems — are anticipated to be prohibitively expensive for local governments and the citizens served by public utilities." (Regulatory Impact Analysis for EMC's Triennial Review, pp. D-16, D-17). Such admissions lay alongside EMC's ultimate admission that its creation of a 0.35 µg/L standard was not based on sufficient information: as EMC stated in connection with its Triennial Review, "[I]t is worth acknowledging that the ongoing costs and benefits associated with the monitoring and treatment of 1,4-dioxane are likely to be considerable. Unfortunately, we have very limited data upon which to expand on this topic[,]" and"DEQ is continuing to gather information on costs associated with implementation of 1,4-dioxane ITVs. (Id. p. D-17). The Division is not permitted to impose effluent limitations that so clearly cannot be technologically or economically met. In addition to such an approach's dissonance with principles of good regulatory governance, and resultant arbitrary nature, the approach violates 15A NCAC 02H .0112(c), which prohibits the imposition of effluent limits in NPDES permits when those limits "cannot reasonably ensure compliance with applicable water quality standards and regulations....". As EMC has admitted, and as the Division must therefore recognize, technological and economic impossibilities mean that simple imposition of an effluent limit based on a 0.35 µg/L standard in an NPDES permit cannot, simply by imposition, reasonably ensure compliance with what the Division asserts is the applicable water quality standard. Thus, the proposed 1,4-dioxane effluent limitation in Asheboro's Permit is arbitrary and fails to comply with other Agency regulations. 7. Inclusion of a 1,4-dioxane effluent limitation is arbitrary and capricious when taken in relation to other North Carolina NPDES permits and groundwater standards. The 1,4-dioxane limitation in Asheboro's permit is premised on water-supply waters 43.5 miles downstream from Asheboro's discharge, alongside the Division's assertion that protection of said water supply requires a discharge limitation based on a 0.35 µg/L standard to protect downstream water-supply users. However, the Division has issued a similarly situated permit without having found such a requirement to protect water-supply users. Under its 2018 NPDES permit, bearing permit number NC0003719, DAK Americas is permitted to discharge into the Cape Fear River at a point approximately six miles from Class WS-IV waters, but is required only to monitor and report levels of 1,4-dioxane in its effluent by way of a grab sample taken once per 4864-2558-8039,v. 1 Mr.Nick Coco, PE Water Quality Permitting Section January 5, 2023 Page 11of12 year. Consistent application of the Division's current belief(that is, that .0208 requires effluent limitations based on a 0.35 µg/L water quality standard for anyone upstream of a water-supply water) would have required an effluent limitation for the DAK Americas permit, and indeed for any NPDES permit where there is any detection of 1,4-dioxane in the discharge. No such limit exists in the DAK Americas permit and, as discussed above, the Division has not demonstrated any scientific changes that would support different 1,4- dioxane provisions in NPDES permits today than were imposed in 2018. In addition, EMC has determined that a 1,4-dioxane standard of 3.0 µg/L, rather than the stricter .35 µg/L, is protective of the best use of drinkable groundwater (that best use being as water for human consumption). This drinking water standard is nearly ten times higher than the standard the Division seeks to impose upon Asheboro, and is not an artifact of outdated rulemaking—rather, the effective date of the most recent rulemaking involving 1,4-dioxane in potable groundwater is April 1, 2022. This wide difference in the two classifications arises out of EMC's implementation of the same legislative enactment, G.S § 143-214.1: although groundwater and surface water are indeed two different classifications of water, the same statute is applicable to the classification of surface waters and groundwater, and makes the two classifications subject to the same criterion of"best usage." G.S § 143-214.1. Moreover, the standards applicable to GA classified groundwater (that is, groundwater suitable for drinking) include a threshold of cancer risk identical to that applicable to water-supply classified surface waters. 15A NCAC 2L .0102(24); 15A NCAC 2L .0202(d)(2). Despite this identity in statutory authority and the identity in use of the applicable waters, the Division has here arbitrarily chosen a different 1,4-dioxane standard when 1,4-dioxane is in surface waters than when 1,4-dioxane is in groundwater. 8. The interim limits for 1,4-dioxane discharge in Asheboro's permit, and any discharge limit based on a single grab-sample, are arbitrary. Asheboro's Permit includes a compliance schedule with 1,4-dioxane effluent limitations decreasing at one-, three-, and five-year intervals from the Permit's effective date, and includes both monthly average limits and daily maximums based on grab samples. However, none of the daily maximum limits or the interim limits between the Permit's effective date and the five-year monthly average mark are based on the 0.35 µg/L standard which the Division asserts is necessary for protecting downstream water supply users. Instead, the Division has simply decided that within one year Asheboro may not exceed half of what it currently discharges (despite the technological and economic impossibilities discussed above), and that the 1,4-dioxane effluent limit for Asheboro in three years actually can be based on EPA's Health Advisory Level 4864-2558-8039,V. 1 Mr.Nick Coco, PE Water Quality Permitting Section January 5, 2023 Page 12 of 12 of 35.0 gg/L (100-times less restrictive than the standard the Division asserts is necessary for protection of human health). (Fact Sheet,pp. 13-14). Moreover, the Division's calculation of daily maximums are based on recommendations issued by EPA in 1991, and purport to create the basis for violations when a single grab-sample exceeds a daily limit for a compound whose toxicity has only been asserted for long-term—and not instantaneous—exposure. Indeed, daily maximum effluent limitations are inappropriate for likely carcinogens that are not also acutely toxic, but the Division's inclusion of daily maximum limits for 1,4-dioxane disregards this difference in regulatory treatment, and the Division has in any event failed to demonstrate any scientific, statutory, or regulatory basis for why concerns based on long-term exposure should be addressed as if the compound of concern were acutely toxic. In conclusion, although the City of Reidsville appreciates and understands the real need to have clean, safe drinking water for the citizens of North Carolina, the City also is comprised of North Carolina citizens who would be negatively impacted by regulations that are arbitrary, capricious, unsupported by statute, contrary to law, and economically and technologically impossible to obtain. For the reasons set forth above, the City of Reidsville requests that any NPDES permit issued to Asheboro contain no effluent limitation for discharges of 1,4-dioxane. Sincerely, 7/2 Patrick M. Mincey R. Robert El-Jaouhari Elizabeth C. Stephens Counsel to the City of Reidsville 4864-2558-8039,v. 1