RD35 - Annual Report on the Status of the State Water Control Board's Efforts to Reduce the Level of Toxic Substances in Sate Waters


Executive Summary:
The complete set of tables, figures and appendices associated with this report, as well as the text document itself, are available on the WebPages of the Department of Environmental Quality at
http://www.deq.state.va.us/watermonitoring/.

On January 1st of each year, the Virginia DEQ submits the annual Toxics Reduction in State Waters (TRISWat) Report to the Governor and General Assembly of the Commonwealth in accordance with Virginia Code § 62.1-44.17:3.

The primary objective of the TRISWat Report is to document the State's commitment to improving water quality. This commitment includes:

1. The prevention of contamination of the Commonwealth's waters by toxics,
2. The continued monitoring of the those waters for the presence of toxics and
3. The implementation of remedial measures to reduce and/or eliminate toxics found in the state's waters.

This report serves to keep the members of the General Assembly informed of the on-going efforts to achieve these objectives and, as a public document, provides the general population with objective, summarized information not readily available from other sources.

Monitoring: DEQ began the probabilistic monitoring (ProbMon) of freshwater streams and rivers in the spring of 2001. The agency produced a report on its first year of freshwater probabilistic monitoring results in January of 2003. “The Quality of Virginia Non-Tidal Streams: First Year Report” is currently available on the DEQ WebPages at http://www.deq.virginia.gov/probmon/pdf/report1.pdf. A similar report is currently being developed for the second year of ProbMon and should become available at the same Internet address in the spring of 2004.

The spring and summer of 2003 comprised the third year of DEQ’s freshwater probabilistic monitoring. An EPA grant provided for fifty semi-permeable membrane devices that were utilized for monitoring dissolved toxic organic compounds at probabilistic sites across the state during 2003. The USGS is analyzing the samples and the results should be included in next year’s TRISWat report.

DEQ is currently revising/updating/expanding its Water Quality Monitoring Strategy document to include adaptations and new EPA guidelines developed since 2000. Draft copies should be available for review by upper DEQ administration and to EPA by early spring 2004.

Permitting: DEQ’s Toxics Management Program (TMP) currently includes 279 facilities that have active permit-defined toxics limits in their effluents, and 75 active applications in the CEDS database. The CEDS database now records Discharge Monitoring Reports (DMRs) on a monthly basis.

Toxics Release Inventory (TRI): The most recent Virginia Toxic Release Inventory Report (SARA Title III TRI, May 2003) indicated that 508 Virginia facilities reported to the TRI program for the 2001 activity year. Statewide toxic releases to the water totaled approximately 7.0 million pounds or 9.9% of the total onsite releases to all media during 2001. This represents a 14.6% decrease from 2000 releases, in spite of the lower reporting thresholds introduced for lead and lead compounds (persistent bioaccumulative toxins or PBTs).

Pollution Prevention: Among the highlights of Pollution Prevention successes in the past year were the following:

• The total number of facilities in the Virginia Environmental Excellence Program (VEEP) increased from 122 to 152, an increase of 25% over 2002.

• Virginia DEQ actively participated with EPA’s National Environmental Performance Track Program (NEPT), rewarding “high-performing” pollution prevention facilities with regulatory flexibility incentives.

• During the past two years, the Electronics Recycling & Stewardship Program, initiated in late 2001, stimulated local governments, businesses and consumers to recycle about 100 tons of obsolete computers and potentially hazardous components. A single day record of 28 tons of equipment collected for recycling took place in the Charlottesville area.

• DEQ’s Pollution Prevention in Healthcare Program continues to be active in the reduction of medical wastes, to reduce toxicity by encouraging environmentally preferable purchasing, and to eliminate the use of mercury in the health care industry.

• Participants in the Businesses for the Bay (B4B) Program reported 16.7 million pounds of waste reduction, and cost savings of about $664,000. As of October 2003 B4B has over 540 participants and approximately 120 mentors providing peer-to-peer assistance.

• The onsite Pollution Prevention Technical Assistance Program was eliminated in 2003 because of state budget reductions in the fall of 2002.