Biosolids Projects Update
5-Sep-08
Status of 68 FR 75531 projects
Project
No.
Project Title
Status
Comments
1
Biennial Review (BR) Under
CWA Section 405(d)(2)(C)
BR 2003 Completed.
Other BRs underway
Under Section 405(d)(2)(C) of the Clean Water Act, every two years EPA is to conduct a review of existing sewage
sludge regulations for the purpose of identifying and regulating, if appropriate, additional toxic pollutants in sewage
sludge to adequately protect human health and the environment from the reasonably anticipated effects of such
pollutants. EPA issued the 2003 Biennial Review (BR) (68 FR 75531), in which EPA identified 9 pollutants as having a
potential hazard to either humans or the environment following use or disposal of sewage sludge. EPA continues to
evaluate these pollutants and others of potential concern to determine if any of these pollutants warrant possible
regulation. BRs 2005 and 2007 will be made available this fall. EPA will initiate BR 2009 in 2009.
2
Compliance Assistance and
Enforcement Actions
Ongoing
EPA and states continue to actively address biosolids violations and require proper land-application of biosolids to
prevent risk to human health or the environment. The public can now report possible environmental violations or crimes
through EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance website. EPA will also be working to improve current
processes for routing and tracking citizen complaints and enhancing efforts to inform the public about possible
environmental violations.
3
Methods Development, Optimization, and Validation for Microbial Pollutants in Sewage Sludge [includes multiple components with different status]
3a
Optimization of the Methods for
Detecting, Enumerating, and
Determining the Viability of
Helminth / Ascaris Ova in
Sewage Sludge
Underway
Recently a new molecular method was published that can be used to detect helminthes ova in a few days instead of
several weeks. EPA plans to complete the Helminth ova biosolids method by the end of 2009.
3b