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Water: Office of Wastewater Management

About the Office of Wastewater Management

The Office of Wastewater Management (OWM) is one of five water offices at EPA. Our mission is to help meet the nation’s clean water goals by ensuring that appropriate regulatory standards, voluntary management approaches, information, financial resources, and technical assistance are provided to states, communities, and regulated entities. Overall, OWM’s programs are designed to ensure that our surface waters and aquatic ecosystems protect human health, support economic and recreational activities, and provide habitat for fish, plants, and wildlife. Our programs include:

·          The National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Program, which regulates the discharge of point sources of pollution into surface waters, such as discharges from industrial facilities and municipal wastewater treatment plants;

·          The NPDES Stormwater Program, which oversees, the issuance of NPDES stormwater permits and provides education to local governments, industries, builders, and the public about the impact stormwater has on our local waterways and how to keep pollutants out of stormwater;

·          The Green Infrastructure Program, which promotes managing stormwater onsite through infiltration, evapotranspiration, or reuse, while keeping it out of our sewer system. Green infrastructure practices include green roofs, rain gardens, porous pavements, and other techniques, resulting in source water protection and energy and cost savings;

·          The Sustainable Water Infrastructure Initiative, which promotes the widespread adpotion of better management practices, water and energy efficiency, full-cost pricing, and watershed approaches to reduce costs and increase system investments; 

·          The WaterSense Program, which raises national awareness of water as a scarce resource; encourages water efficiency among utilities, manufacturers, retailers, and consumers; and makes it easy for consumers to find products and services that save water while ensuring product performance;

·          The Clean Water State Revolving Fund, which finances a range of water quality protection projects for point and nonpoint source pollution control and watershed and estuary management, in addition to wastewater treatment projects;

·          The Sustainable Communities Program, which provides outreach and targeted technical and financial assistance to small communities and tribal communities to help these communities find the assistance they need to address their wastewater treatment needs.

 

OWM Annual Reports

OWM’s annual accomplishments reports provide a snapshot of the most significant performance milestones for the office during the year.

 

OWM Organization Chart

  Text Version

 

orgchart

 

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Municipal Support Division

The Municipal Support Division conducts activities related to the national management of the construction grants, the CWA Indian Set Aside, special appropriations acts (including needy cities, U.S./Mexican Border, Colonias, and Alaska Native Villages) and the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CW SRF) programs, and provides ongoing oversight of these assistance programs. The division:

      ·          Implements the strategy for successful completion and closeout of the Construction Grants Program. 

      ·          Oversees management by the states of the Construction Grant and CW SRF programs;  Coordinates with 
            the Office of Inspector General on a continuing program of investigations and audits of SRF and grants 
            programs to prevent waste, fraud, and mismanagement;

·          Clean Watersheds Needs Survey, maintains and regularly updates inventories and cost estimates of existing and needed future municipal wastewater treatment works and capital investments to meet the goals of the CWA;

·          Promotes alternative financing methods for construction and upgrade of environmental infrastructure facilities, financial management techniques, and methods of encouraging "public-private partnerships" and alternative financing schemes for state water quality programs;

·          Promotes the widespread adoption of better management practices, water and energy efficiency, full-cost pricing, and watershed approaches to reduce costs and increase system investments through the Sustainable Infrastructure Program.

·          Promotes the beneficial use of biosolids;

·          Reviews technologies which deal with infiltration/inflow correction, small alternative wastewater treatment systems, biosolids and toxic management, industrial pretreatment, and secondary treatment;

·          Promotes state-based municipal water pollution prevention programs;

·         Manages a national program to help small communities and Indian tribes find the help they need to meet their wastewater treatment needs through outreach and targeted technical and financial assistance;

·          Promotes the effective management and use of onsite wastewater treatment systems to protect human health and the environment;  

·          Manages cooperative agreements/grants that fund the activities of national onsite (i.e., decentralized) wastewater demonstration projects; and

·          Through the WaterSense program, coordinates an EPA effort to incorporate water conservation principles into Agency programs to establish a national ethic of efficient water use, reduce overall water use. Also works to increase reclamation and reuse of wastewater for various applications.

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Water Permits Division

The Water Permits Division provides national program direction to the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination) permit, pretreatment, and Biosolids management programs under sections 401, 402, and 405 of the Clean Water Act, The division:

·          Develops and coordinates regulations, national policy, priorities and strategies for developing, approving, implementing, modifying and overseeing state NPDES, pretreatment, and sludge management programs; 

·          Reviews state applications for administration of the NPDES, pretreatment, and sludge management programs and major modifications to approved state programs;

·          Provides program direction to the national pretreatment program including local pretreatment program development, review, and implementation;

·          Reviews and redesigns the NPDES, pretreatment, and sludge management programs to be responsive to statutory and court ordered mandates and changes in Agency policy;

·          Develops model approaches for management of the NPDES program which consider changes in national priorities (such as water quality-based controls and the watershed approach);

·          Develops new and unique policies, methods, procedures,  or types of permits for controlling Combined Sewer Overflows(CSO), Sanitary Sewer Overflows (SSO), run-off of Stormwater from industry, commerce and cities, concentrated animal feeding operations, mines, vessels, pesticide discharges, and other water pollution sources;

·          Coordinates with the Office of Science and Technology (OST) in the development of national standards for point source controls, indirect dischargers, and sludge use and disposal which are implemented through the NPDES, pretreatment and sludge management programs;

·          Provides technical support and training to regions and states for all aspects of the NPDES permit, pretreatment, and sludge management programs;

·          Oversees Regional and state performance in implementing the NPDES permit, pretreatment, and sludge management programs;

·          Works closely with EPA’s Office of Research and Development to develop, implement and monitor research and development support for NPDES permits, sludge management and pretreatment activities, in cooperation with OST;

·          Develops and revises NPDES permit application forms; develops electronic tools to support NPDES program activities;

·          Works with the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance on NPDES program issues, including implementation of ICIS-NPDES, the national program database.

 

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