Effluent Guidelines

Final 2008 Effluent Guidelines Program Plan

Fact Sheet; August 2008; EPA 821-F-08-005

EPA is publishing a plan and schedule for its industrial wastewater regulations. These effluent regulations will improve water quality by controlling pollutant discharges from certain industrial sources. The plan itself does not establish any new requirements for any businesses.

EPA publishes an Effluent Guidelines Program Plan (“Plan”) every other year. The Plan is required by Section 304(m) of the Clean Water Act. EPA published the preliminary 2008 Plan for public comment on October 30, 2007. The Agency received 32 comments from a variety of commenters.

Background on Effluent Guidelines
Summary of Plan
Further Information

Background on Effluent Guidelines

Effluent guidelines are national regulations that control the discharge of pollutants to surface waters and to publicly owned treatment works (POTWs). Effluent guidelines are specific to an industry. EPA writes effluent guidelines for all types of industrial discharges—from manufacturing, agricultural, and service industries.

The effluent guidelines program is one of EPA's most successful environmental protection programs. Effluent guidelines have helped reverse the water quality degradation that accompanied industrialization in this country. These regulations reduce the discharge of pollutants that have serious environmental impacts, including pollutants that:

kill or impair fish and other aquatic organisms;
cause human health problems through contaminated water, fish, or shellfish; and
degrade aquatic ecosystems.

EPA has already issued effluent guidelines for 56 industries. These regulations have prevented the discharge of more than 1.2 billion pounds of toxic pollutants each year.

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Summary of Plan

This notice first presents EPA's 2008 review of existing effluent guidelines. Second, it presents our evaluation of indirect dischargers without pretreatment standards to identify potential new categories for national pretreatment standards. Pretreatment standards are Clean Water Act (CWA) technology-based controls that regulate industrial discharges before they enter POTWs and then enter surface waters. Third, this notice presents the final 2008 Plan as required under CWA section 304(m). This includes establishing a schedule for the annual review and revision of promulgated effluent guidelines and for identifying industrial categories without effluent guidelines that might need to be regulated to prevent or control pollution. EPA reviewed all existing effluent limitations guidelines and standards and did not identify any industry sector for an effluent guidelines rulemaking.

This notice also describes EPA's preliminary thoughts concerning its 2009 annual reviews under CWA sections 304(b) and 307(b) and solicits comments, data and information to assist EPA in performing these reviews. EPA will conduct more focused detailed reviews in the 2009 and 2010 annual reviews for the following industrial sectors: Steam Electric Power Generating category, Oil and Gas Extraction category (only to assess whether to revise the limits to include Coalbed Methane extraction as a new subcategory), and unused pharmaceutical management for the Health Services Industry (which includes the Hospital category).

Finally, recent studies have identified more than 160 pharmaceutical compounds at discernable concentrations in our nation's rivers, lakes, and streams. EPA has been actively working with federal agencies, state and local partners to better understand the implications of these pollutants. To address this issue at the source, EPA is studying how the drugs are entering our waterways and what factors contribute to the current situation. Towards this end, EPA initiated a study on pharmaceutical disposal practices at health care facilities, such as hospitals, hospices, long-term care facilities, and veterinary hospitals.

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