Featured Webinar Series: Improving CWA-NPDES Permit Compliance

Have you attended webinars from the Improving CWA-NPDES Permit Compliance series of technical assistance webinars put on by the EPA and the Significant Noncompliance Rate Reduction National Compliance Initiative? (Also known as the SNC NCI).

These webinars are meant for plant operators, municipal leaders, TAPs, and compliance inspectors who are working to improve surface water quality and drinking water impacts by ensuring compliance with Clean Water Act and/or National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permits. Attending live will provide you with a certificate of attendance that may be eligible for CEU credit in your state, depending on your state’s certification authority. The EPA has an archive of webinar recordings dating back to 2019, but watching these recordings does not make you eligible for a certificate of attendance or any CEU credit.

All the same, the recording archive contains information on a wealth of topics under the umbrella of CWA/NPDES permit compliance. We have put together a few recommended highlights below, but be sure to examine the whole archive as you grow your knowledge in pollutant discharge.

Recording Highlights

POTWs – What Does Your Permit Say? (Part 1)
January 22, 2024: This presentation covers how to read and understand a NPDES permit, how permittees can ensure that permit requirements are met, and a discussion of the most common reporting requirements for NPDES permits. Presented by Dan Connally, vice president of ERG Group with 22 years of experience in NPDES permit development.

POTWs – What Does Your Permit Say? (Part 2)
February 28, 2024: Part two of ‘What Does Your Permit Say?’ covers the permit requirements for pretreatment and biosolids, associated federal regulations, and both standard and special conditions for publicly owned treatment works. Presented by Dan Connally, Bob Brobst (Principal Environmental Engineer at PG Environmental), and Chuck Durham (Principal Engineer and Senior Project Manager at PG Environmental).

Fats, Oils, and Grease: What We Know After 23 Years of FOG Work
October 12, 2023: This presentation focuses on managing the impacts of FOGs on collection systems and wastewater treatment plants, as well as fees, public outreach, and enforcement for food service establishments. Presented by Byron Ross of Monitoring & Management Services, with nearly 40 years of experience in wastewater treatment.

Everything You Wanted to Know About PFAS But Were Afraid to Ask
April 12, 2023: This session examines the emerging contaminants PFAS and PFOA and discusses their uses, properties, impacts, and possible treatment methods in wastewater and drinking water. Viewers will also learn to identify the sources of these contaminants. Treatment options explored include activated carbon, ion exchange resin, reverse osmosis/nanofiltration, advanced oxidation, and biosolid removal. Presented by Jamie Hope, wastewater operator and training technician, with four decades of experience in wastewater treatment.

Small POTWs: What to Expect and How to Prepare for your NPDES Permit
June 16, 2022: This webinar explains what a small publicly owned treatment works can expect as they undertake NPDES permitting. It also features a step-by-step overview of obtaining a permit and insights on collaborating with permitting authorities. Presented by Sean Ramach, NPDES Training Coordinator for the EPA Office of Wastewater Management, Water Permits Division.

Small Drinking Water Webinar Series 2023 Recap

EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) and Office of Water (OW), in collaboration with the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA), host this free webinar series to communicate the latest information on solutions for challenges facing small drinking water systems. The series topics vary each month and are primarily designed for state, territory, and tribal staff responsible for drinking water regulations compliance and treatment technologies permitting. We have compiled the webinar recordings that were released in 2023 as part of this series below:

Pathogens | February 2023

Presentation 1: Microbial and Disinfection Byproducts (MDBP) Rules Revision Update
Presentation 2: Challenges and Perspectives of Studying Water Storage Tank Ecosystems in Distribution Systems

Lead and Copper | March 2023

Presentation 1: EPA's Lead Service Line Inventory Guidance
Presentation 2: Corrosion Test Methods

Manganese | April 2023

Presentation 1: Manganese Interference with Disinfectant Residual Methods
Presentation 2: Management of Manganese and Small System Considerations

Harmful Algal Blooms and Algal Toxins | May 2023

Presentation 1: HAB Technical Assistance in El Salvador
Presentation 2: Cyanobacterial Blooms Dynamics as Determined by Nucleic Acid Based Techniques

Bipartisan Infrastructure Law | June 2023

Presentation 1: EPA Water Technical Assistance Opportunities
Presentation 2: Supporting the Selection and Implementation of Technologies to Remove PFAS from Drinking Water and from Treatment Residuals
Presentation 3: Applied Research and Technical Assistance Project on Lead Service Line Identification Technologies

Wildfire Impacts on Drinking Water | July 2023

Presentation 1: Wildfire Implications for Drinking Water Systems
Presentation 2: Wildfires Can Increase Drinking Water Contamination: Nitrate, Arsenic, and Disinfection Byproducts

Cybersecurity | August 2023

Presentation 1: Tools and Resources to Help Your Small Systems Build Cyber Resilience
Presentation 2: Water Distribution System Operational Technology Cybersecurity Research at the Water Security Test Bed

Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 5) and a Spotlight Presentation on EPA's Fraud Awareness | October 2023

Presentation 1: Update on the Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 5)
Presentation 2: EPA Fraud Awareness
Presentation 3: PFAS Drinking Water Methods: Past, Present, and Future

Risk, Crisis, and General Communication | November 2023

Presentation 1: Conversations With Customers: What We’ve Learned from Talking with Them
Presentation 2: Drinking Water Risk Communication Toolkit
Presentation 3: EPA Flint Water Response: Risk Communication Case Study

The Small Drinking Water Systems Webinar Series is scheduled to continue in 2024. Some of the subjects that are likely to be featured this year include Lead Service Line Inventory Guidance, PFAS Treatment, Disinfection Byproducts, and many other topics.