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The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has published a draft of a new General Permit (MAG590000) for medium-sized wastewater treatment facilities (“WWTF”) in Massachusetts under the Clean Water Act’s National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”).

This General Permit will authorize owners and operators of any privately or publicly owned facility that treats domestic sewage in Massachusetts with a design flow between 1 and 5 million gallons per day (MGD) to discharge wastewater to the Commonwealth’s waters pursuant to applicable effluent limitations, monitoring requirements, and other conditions. Table 1 on Page 4 of the draft permit outlines the effluent limitations and monitoring requirements to be met. Other permit requirements apply to certain facilities or to facilities that discharge into certain bodies of water. The General Permit requires annual sampling of six PFAS compounds in addition to other types of industrial discharges into the facility. The EPA has published a fact sheet with additional information about permit coverage and exclusions, proposed effluent limitations, monitoring, reporting, and record-keeping requirements, and instructions for public participation.

The public comment period for the draft permit closes on April 11, 2022. Written comments may be mailed to U.S. EPA Region 1, Water Division, Attn: Michele Duspiva, 5 Post Office Square, Suite 100, Mail Code 06-4, Boston, Massachusetts 02109-3912, or sent via email to Duspiva.Michele@epa.gov.

To obtain coverage under the General Permit, eligible facilities may submit a Notice of Intent pursuant to Part IV of the permit. The EPA identified 44 specific facilities that meet the eligibility requirements. The EPA may notify a discharger that it is covered by the General Permit even if the discharger has not submitted a Notice of Intent.

For advice about how your facility may be impacted by this new General Permit, please reach out to the attorneys at Mackie Shea Durning, P.C.

Mackie Shea Durning, PC, the Boston boutique environmental law firm, is proud to announce that Thomas A. Mackie, and John F. Shea have been selected for Environmental Law and Environmental Litigation, and Peter F. Durning for Environmental Law and Water Law for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® (2022).  Tom and John each have been recognized for over ten years.

Best Lawyers® is the oldest and most respected definitive guide to excellence in the legal profession.  Recognition is widely regarded by both clients and lawyers as a significant honor conferred on a lawyer by his or her peers.  Listing is based entirely on a transparent peer review survey process evaluating professional abilities and the quality of legal services.  The top 5% of practicing attorneys are selected, and will be featured in the 28^th edition of Best Lawyers® and excerpted in the Boston Globe.

Mackie Shea Durning, PC concentrates in environmental, land use law, and related litigation.  www.mackieshea.com

The Department of Environmental Protection (“MassDEP”) has published draft amendments to its solid waste ban regulations at 310 CMR 19.017 that would ban the disposal of mattresses and textiles and decrease the threshold at which generators of commercial organics are banned from disposing these materials from one ton per week to one-half ton per week. The Department will hold two virtual public hearings on November 9 and November 12 and will accept written public comments on the proposed amendments through December 4, 2020. Interested parties can submit written comments by email to dep.swmp@mass.gov or via mail to John Fischer, MassDEP, One Winter Street, Boston, MA 02108.  

In September 2019, MassDEP telegraphed its intention to make these changes in its Draft 2030 Solid Waste Master Plan and during past meetings of MassDEP’s Solid Waste Advisory Committee, most recently on October 1, 2020. We reported on that meeting and the proposed changes to MassDEP’s site assignment regulations at 310 CMR 16.00 in our October 6, 2020 Client Advisory.

For any questions about how these regulatory changes may affect your facility, contact the attorneys at Mackie Shea Durning, P.C.

At the most recent meeting of the Massachusetts Solid Waste Advisory Committee, held virtually on October 1, 2020, staff from the Department of Environmental Protection (“MassDEP”) unveiled potential changes to the agency’s solid waste facility site assignment regulations at 310 CMR 16.00.

The presentation was a preliminary step in the rulemaking process where MassDEP staff informs the solid waste community about regulatory changes under consideration and seeks initial input from interested stakeholders. The next committee meeting (scheduled for November 19) will focus on potential changes to the solid waste facility permitting regulations at 310 CMR 19.00. Thereafter, MassDEP expects to release draft regulations for public comment, then final revised regulations, which are expected by spring and fall 2021, respectively.

We want to highlight some of the proposed changes to the site assignment regulations that MassDEP discussed at the meeting.

New general permit for Organic Materials Consolidation. MassDEP is considering adding a new category to the list of solid waste activities in 310 CMR 16.04 that are eligible for a general permit without needing a site assignment, a solid waste facility permit, or a recycling, composting, or conversion permit (an “RCC permit”). The new category is for small-scale organic materials consolidation operations which function as an intermediate collection point between generators and processors, similar to the way a municipal transfer site works for materials recycling facilities.

Revised general permit requirements for Composting and Anaerobic Digestion facilities. MassDEP is proposing additional setback requirements for these facilities. Currently, the only setback requirement in 310 CMR 16.04(3) is at least 250 feet from any existing water supply well. MassDEP is proposing four new minimum setbacks: (1) 400 feet from any public drinking water well; (2) 250 feet from any private drinking water well; (3) 300 feet from any residence; and (4) 100 feet from any property line. MassDEP also noted that existing sites meeting certain criteria could be grandfathered and that certain materials handled at these facilities may be required to obtain an RCC permit, but the agency did not release the exact details and criteria for these revisions.

Revised Agricultural Lands siting criterion. Current regulations in 310 CMR 16.40(4) prohibit siting any solid waste facility on agricultural land rated as prime, unique, or of state and local importance by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. MassDEP is proposing to revise the criterion so that it better distinguishes between soil types and land uses, including land that is actively or has recently been used for agriculture. This change would make it easier to site facilities in locations where agricultural use is not foreseeable or practical.

New siting criterion for Promotion of Waste Diversion. MassDEP is proposing a new general site suitability criterion in 310 CMR 16.40 that would consider the extent to which a proposed solid waste management facility maximizes materials diversion from disposal, either alone or in combination with other facilities. This criterion would overlap with an existing criterion for Promotion of Integrated Solid Waste Management in 310 CMR 16.40(5).

While laudable, this criterion should be applied to a facility operations permit under 310 CMR 19.00 rather than a site assignment, which considers primarily the suitability of the location of the facility and not detailed operations. Adding this criterion to site assignment evaluation could result in local boards imposing conditions on facilities to meet specific recycling or diversion standards that later become impossible to meet in a volatile and quickly-changing recycling market.

Transferability of permits. MassDEP is proposing to add a regulation specifying the terms upon which RCC and general permits may be transferred to a new facility operator.

Notice requirements for environmental justice communities. MassDEP will modify the regulation governing notice to environmental justice (EJ) communities. Currently, the regulation at 310 CMR 16.10(4) differs from the enhanced public participation thresholds under the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act for EJ populations that are part of the state’s Environmental Justice Policy, resulting in potential inconsistency between the two public outreach programs. We anticipate that MassDEP will overhaul its EJ notice and participation requirements to match those in the EJ Policy.

These are just a few of the proposed revisions to the site assignment regulations, and a lot could change before MassDEP publishes its draft regulations for public comment. For any questions about how these regulatory changes may affect your facility, contact the attorneys at Mackie Shea Durning, P.C.

Mackie Shea Durning, PC, the Boston boutique environmental law firm, is proud to announce that Thomas A. Mackie and John F. Shea have been selected for inclusion in the 27^th Edition of The Best Lawyers in America® (2021 edition) for environmental law and environmental litigation.  Tom and John each have been recognized for over ten years.

Best Lawyers® is the oldest and most respected publication in the legal profession.  Recognition is widely regarded by both clients and lawyers as a significant honor conferred on a lawyer by his or her peers.  Listing is based entirely on a transparent survey process evaluating professional abilities and the quality of legal services.

Not satisfied with merely competing in the court room, Tom Mackie and Peter Durning have been competing in triathlons and road races for the past several years.

Peter has done the Boston Tri for the past three years and participates in several running events during the year, including the Yankee Homecoming 10 Miler in Newburyport and the Stone Cat Trail Marathon in Willowdale State Park.

Tom and his son, Sam [pictured], have done more than just complete Tris – they are on a winning streak.   In addition to consistently high finishes in the overall standings, Sam won his age group at the 2017 Cooperstown, Lake Waramaug, Harvest and Sharon triathlons and the 2018 Polar Bear Triathlon.  Tom won his age group at the 2017 Sharon and 2018 Polar Bear and Cooperstown triathlons.

Not one to take a season off, Tom’s Wachusett Night League ski team, Haddad Auto Detail, won the 2018 Good Race!