CASA to Comment on Revised Toxicity Provisions
On July 7, the State Water Board released the revised toxicity provisions and updated staff report. The proposed toxicity provisions will establish numeric water quality objectives for both acute and chronic toxicity, and a program of implementation for dischargers to surface waters. CASA has been actively engaged in the development of the toxicity provisions, a process that has taken many years. State Water Board staff will host a workshop on July 29 to review the revisions, and formal comments are due August 24. Later this month, the State Water Board staff will release a response to comments, which they indicated will only address the draft provisions released over the last couple of years and exclude matters related to the test of significant toxicity (TST). CASA will be submitting written comments on the revised toxicity provisions. If you have questions or comments, please reach out to Adam Link. A summary of the changes is available here, and the materials for the next draft of the regulations are here.

Water Board Orders PFAS Monitoring for Wastewater Plants
On July 13, the State Water Board released an Investigative Order of PFAS in California for wastewater treatment plants. The order requires wastewater plants with designed permitted flows above 1 million gallons per day to collect quarterly composite samples of influent, effluent, and biosolids for analysis of 31 different PFAS compounds. The monitoring is to begin in the fourth quarter of 2020. Copies of the order, issued pursuant to Water Code section 13267, were mailed by to affected entities by certified mail last week. Members of the Water Board’s investigative team presented to CASA’s regulatory workgroup on July 16 and took questions from our members about the order. The presentation is available here. A second presentation about the development of detection methods for nonpotable matrices is available here. Please reach out to Jared Voskuhl with questions or for further information.