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DEP Briefs Water Resources Committee On Proposed Changes To PAG-13 General Permit For Small Municipal Stormwater Dischargers; Latest Emerging Contaminants Sampling Results; Microplastics Study

On November 21, DEP briefed the Water Resources Advisory Committee on changes being proposed to the PAG-13 General Permit For Small Municipal Stormwater Dischargers (MS4) and the latest emerging contaminants sampling results.

As part of the emerging contaminants discussion, DEP said they have a pilot study of microplastics contamination beginning next year at a few select sampling stations.

PAG-13 General Permit

Jamie Eberl, P.E., Environmental Group Manager in DEP’s Bureau of Clean Water, gave a presentation on changes DEP will be proposing to the PAG-13 General Permit for Small Municipal Stormwater Dischargers (MS4).

Jill Whitcomb, Acting Deputy Secretary for Water Programs, said the agency hopes to publish the proposed changes in the PA Bulletin, as soon as possible with a 60 day comment period.

Sean Furjanic, Environmental Program Manager, Bureau of Clean Water, said later DEP hopes to finalize PAG-13 and updates to the new Post-Construction Stormwater Management Manual together sometime in 2026.

Furjanic said DEP is also creating related implementation tools for Chapter 102 project sites that can be used for MS4 stormwater projects as well so “the crediting [for stormwater management practices] to be kind of universal for stormwater.”

There are now 493 communities in Pennsylvania, designated by the US Environmental Protection Agency, currently with PAG-13 General Permits.

When finalized, communities that now hold PAG-13 General Permits will be required to submit a Notice Of Intent to renew their coverage under the General Permit.

DEP anticipates this NOI will be due at the same time as the fifth year’s annual MS4 status report is submitted.

DEP formed a 22-member Work Group of stakeholders in 2022 to help develop and react to proposed changes in the PAG-13.

The biggest change recommended by the Work Group, DEP said, was to focus the General Permit requirements on the reduction and management of stormwater runoff volume rather than sediment and nutrient loading measures.

As a result, DEP will be proposing to replace the Pollutant Reduction Plans in the existing PAG-13 with Volume Management Plans.

“The anticipated increase in runoff in Pennsylvania as a result of changing weather patterns associated with climate change, and the impact of excessive runoff through flooding, is more easily understood by local officials and residents in terms of the need for Volume Management,” said Eberl. “A switch to Volume Management approach also helps the MS4 permit program align better with the Chapter 102 Permit Program for Earth Disturbance Activities.”

“Each MS4 seeking PAG-13 coverage will need to submit the MEP calculation with their NOI [Notice of Intent].

“The Volume Management Objective calculated by the MEP calculator will be based on the amount of untreated impervious within the permittees urban area and will be adjusted to account for socioeconomic and other factors.

“Also, incentives will be provided in the calculator for collaborations with other MS4s.

“After submission of the MEP calculator spreadsheet, permittees will have two years to develop their plan for how they will achieve the Volume Management Objective to determine through use of the spreadsheet.”

Eberl’s entire presentation was just over 20 minutes and she included a lot of helpful details about proposed changes and background on why the changes were being proposed.

Click Here for a transcript of her remarks for those who want more details.

Click Here for DEP’s presentation slides she referred to in her presentation.

Click Here for audio of the PAG-13 changes (be patient with download).

Visit DEP’s Municipal Stormwater webpage for more information on this program.

Emerging Contaminants

Amy Willliams, Water Program Specialist with DEP’s Bureau of Clean Water, provided an update on DEP’s emerging contaminants sampling initiative that began in 2012 as part of an effort to identify why smallmouth bass were dying off in the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed.

“Contaminants of emerging concern are those that were not previously detected or are now found in higher concentrations than in the past. We don't necessarily define them as new chemicals, and some of these might actually be less than emerging now that we've been studying them for about 10 years,” said Williams.

“But more often than not, the federal [government] and states don't have surface water criteria [standards] for these as well.

PFAS ‘Forever Chemicals’

Williams provided an update on PFAS sampling results through 2023 [Read more here] and a description of DEP’s collaboration with the US Geological Survey.

She highlighted the publication of a Journal article in August of 2023 by the USGS and DEP summarizing the results that found 76% of 161 of the streams sampled across the state had PFAS contamination.

As a result of the PFAS sampling and fish tissue analysis-- since these chemicals bioaccumulate-- DEP and the Fish and Boat Commission issued a do not eat fish advisory in the Neshaminy Creek Watershed in Montgomery and Bucks counties. [Read more here]

Williams noted DEP does not have a PFAS Total Maximum Daily Load standard yet, but it would “probably follow the same process Pennsylvania took for PCBs, if no surface water criteria are developed.”

Other Contaminants

Williams went on to describe the most recent sampling results for estrogenicity, other hormones, pharmaceuticals, wastewater compounds, various pesticides, PCBS [Polychlorinated biphenyls], PBDs [Polybrominated diphenyl ethers - flame retardants], polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and metals.

She noted not all chemicals were sampled at all sites across the state in water and/or sediments.

Microplastics

In response to a question from Harry Campbell, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Williams said DEP will start a pilot study of microplastics contamination beginning next year at a few select sampling stations.

She said results may be available by the end of 2025.

Click Here for a copy of the presentation that includes links to related documents.

Visit DEP’s Contaminants Of Emerging Concern webpage for more information.

Moving Beyond A Pilot To A Plan

Dr. John Jackson, Stroud Water Research Center, commented on the need to take the emerging contaminants sampling study beyond the pilot stage and to pinpoint where the problems are.

"We've seen a lot of these slides and they are helpful. To me though, they speak more to a pilot study as opposed to a broader Commonwealth-wide effort to really pinpoint where these problems are and therefore build them into planning. In other words, moving us away from just nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment.

“These issues are more than a decade old in many of these things, whether it's PAHs [polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons] or estrogenicity or whatever, and whether it's a grab sample or a passive sample, but there's so many other studies that have come out, urban and agricultural that say these things are issues.”

“So if I had a suggestion, I would like to see a plan, and I know this is what we call a budget buster. These are expensive to understand, but if we don't understand them, the conversation goes right by them.

“ I mean, you're showing something that's 10 years of data from how many sites right there. I'm not saying that that's not a good start, but after a decade, we should be past the good start.”

“ I think a lot of our pollution reduction efforts are not even beginning to address these things that we know so well at this point.

“It's not 1999 anymore. We really know a lot about everything that you've talked about today.

“Do we know enough? No. Is it evolving? Yes.

“So this isn't about, in my mind, regulatory standards in some cases, but it is definitely about understanding hotspots and understanding trends, just to change the conversation a little bit away from sediment, sediment, sediment or nitrogen, nitrogen, nitrogen.

“We've done a really good job with phosphorus to a large degree.

“So it boils down to nitrogen and sediment right now. Just a thought. And I can't imagine what the price tag is going to look like.”

Josh Lookenbill, Chief of the Water Quality Division, Bureau of Clean Water, said, “Yeah, you're right, John. These are budget busters.

“And so the approach that we've chosen to take here is to establish these individual pilot projects, not only to just collect the data, but to also develop the data collection protocols and to demonstrate that we can actually collect this data at some scale.

“We've used this strategy then, for example, with PFAS to expand our data collection beyond that pilot.

“And PFAS is really that example where we've used this CDC [US Centers for Disease Control] program or approach as a springboard of sorts to then integrate what we call an emerging contaminant into our statewide program.

“So at some point when we meet some threshold, and I'm not quite sure what that is . In PFAS we saw it with the do not eat fish consumption [advisory].

“And the high concentrations throughout the state were of significant concern, but at some point, we would be able to expand, depending on the chemical, depending on the risks, depending on what we're seeing around the state, we would be able to expand any of these efforts into a statewide program like our water quality network.”

For more information and available handouts, visit the DEP Water Resources Advisory Committee webpage. Questions should be directed to Bob Haines at robhaines@pa.gov.

Related Articles This Week - Watersheds:

-- DEP Awards $2.55 Million In Federal Funding To Support 5 Local Abandoned Mine Reclamation Projects [PaEN]

-- Fish & Boat Commission Accepting Application For Stream Habitat Improvement Projects In Lancaster, York Counties [PaEN]

-- Penn State Center For Agricultural Conservation Assistance Training Seeks Input On Shaping Agenda For ACAP Ag Conservation Con 2025 In April [PaEN]

-- DEP Briefs Water Resources Committee On Proposed Changes To PAG-13 General Permit For Small Municipal Stormwater Dischargers; Latest Emerging Contaminants Sampling Results; Microplastics Study [PaEN]

-- DEP Publishes Updated Non-Regulatory Agenda Showing Technical Guidance Documents In Development [PaEN]

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-- Susquehanna River Basin Commission Meets Dec. 12 On New Fee Schedule; Water Withdrawals, Including 4 Shale Gas; New General Permit For Into-Basin Diversions [PaEN]

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