Federal Water Tap, December 13: Jet fuel leak contaminates water at Oahu Naval Base

The rundown

• The FDA, in a revision of Food safety rules, proposes to abolish the obligation to test irrigation water in favor of company-wide assessments.
• A pipeline company is facing Criminal penalties after spilling 29 million gallons of oilfield wastewater in North Dakota.
• An implementing regulation requires federal authorities to set up energy and Water protection
• ONE Fuel leak at a naval base on Oahu contaminates the base’s drinking water.

And finally, the Department of Defense has Congress over its PFAS cleanup Process.

“We estimate that future costs will exceed $ 2 billion. And frankly, we expect that amount will continue to grow as we continue the cleanup investigations and better understand the challenges we face. “- Richard Kidd, Assistant Secretary of State for Environment and Energy Resilience, Department of Defense, testifying before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. Kidd was referring to the Department of Defense’s PFAS cleanup commitments. The department identified 699 facilities that may have released the toxic chemicals into the environment. As of September 30, the department had assessed only 190 of the assets. 75 of the sites were evacuated. The department wants to complete the assessments at the remaining locations by September 30, 2023.

With the numbers

$ 15 million: Fine that Summit Midstream Partners LLC will pay after they found guilty violating the Clean Water Act for spilling 29 million gallons of oilfield wastewater. The incident began in North Dakota in 2014 and lasted five months. Summit agreed that the failure to stop the leak was due to negligence. As part of the conviction, Summit is given a three-year suspended sentence. The company has already paid a civil fine of $ 20 million.

39: Number of utilities that the US Environmental Protection Agency has selected for application for $ 6.7 billion in soft loans through the WIFIA program. The projects are mainly large water, sewage and rainwater projects.

Short messages

E. Coli and your salad
The Food and Drug Administration is Propose changes Federal food safety requirements to ensure irrigation water does not contaminate plants.

The changes would eliminate the need to test irrigation water for microbial contamination. Instead, farms would conduct comprehensive “water assessments” that assess and address potential sources of pollution across the farm.

Farms called for the change because water testing requirements were difficult to implement, they said.

There is cause for concern. In 2018, romaine lettuce grown in Yuma, Arizona was linked to an E. coli outbreak. Health investigators concluded that the source of the bacteria was an irrigation canal. How was the canal water polluted? Most likely from an adjacent feedlot. Shallow groundwater in the area was pumped into the canal. In addition, groundwater seeped into the canal.

The Food Safety Modernization Act, an umbrella law, was signed by President Obama in 2011. The product safety regulations that apply to contamination in irrigation water were finalized in 2015.

Public comments are due on April 5, 2022. Submit them below www.regulations.gov using file number FDA-2021-N-0471.

We put our money where the carbon isn’t
President Joe Biden signed one supreme command to tackle the climate crisis from the nonexistent point of view: federal procurement.

A large part of the order is aimed at the energy sources used by the federal government. There are goals for the purchase of electric vehicles and net zero emissions from buildings.

The ordinance also instructs authorities to set energy and water savings targets for 2030.

Hawaii water pollution
There’s a jet fuel leak from an underground warehouse on Oahu contaminated large water supply wells and forced military families to seek refuge in hotels.

On November 20, the fuel leak occurred at the Red Hill fuel depot. Eight days later, residents of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam began complaining about petroleum odors in their water. Petroleum products have been found in at least one well that supplies the base.

The city of Honolulu has closed one of its water supply wells, which is located about a mile from the contamination site. The city feared that the pumping from the well would suck in contaminated water.

State officials are not happy with what has happened. Governor David Ige said he would ask the Navy to drain Red Hill’s fuel tank. However, Navy officials said they intend to contest the order.

Studies and reports

Disaster recovery funding
A state regulator says the Department of Housing and Urban Development needs to collect better data on which households receive funding after a disaster. The information would help the ministry assess whether low- and middle-income households are getting 70 percent of the funding, which is the goal of the federal government.

The Office of Accountability of the Government report tracked disaster recovery funds disbursed to Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, Texas and the US Virgin Islands in 2017. The grants in these areas were mainly given in response to hurricanes.

United States waters
The EPA released on the Federal Register his proposal to revert the scope of the Clean Water Act to a definition that existed before 2015, before the Obama and Trump administrations tried to clear the law.

The authority then intends to implement a new regulation to define which waters are subject to the licensing requirements of the federal government. But some legal experts, according to Bloomberg, say a second attempt could be a challenge because the agency has to justify why its reasoning deviates from this attempt.

On the radar

Revisions to the lead and copper rule
The EPA has 16 December to reply to their review of rule changes for lead in drinking water.

The lead and copper rule was revised under the Trump administration, but Biden officials delayed the rule’s entry into force so they could again consult with stakeholders about possible changes.

EPA Region 9 administrator has water background
Martha Guzman has been named director of EPA Region 9, which includes Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, the Pacific Islands, and 148 tribal nations.

Guzman comes from the California Public Utilities Commission where she was a commissioner. She previously worked in Governor Jerry Brown’s drinking water administration in California.

Drinking water contamination for potential regulation
A panel of the EPA’s Scientific Advisory Board will be three public meetings in January and February to discuss the agency’s list of drinking water contaminants eligible for future regulation.

The EPA will consult the board prior to completion The listwhich includes chemical and microbial contaminants.

Federal Water Tap is a weekly roundup that reveals trends in US government water policy. To get more water news, Follow Circle of Blue on Twitter and subscribe to our newsletter.