The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is urging regional National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit writers to be flexible by allowing municipalities to integrate wastewater and stormwater requirements and prioritize cost-effective projects — approaches that EPA hopes will help limit local wet weather compliance costs.

In a Sept. 20 letter to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Nancy Stoner, acting assistant administrator for Water, and Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for Enforcement and Compliance assurance, expressed their goal “to develop an integrated approach that allows municipalities to evaluate all of the Clean Water Act requirements in a cost-effective manner. This includes sequencing projects to get the biggest benefits and most cost-effective approaches implemented first.”

See the Sept. 9 and Oct. 2 issues of This Week in Washington for more information.