August 6, 2007
Water Docket Environmental Protection Agency
Mailcode: 2822T
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington DC 20460
Attention: Docket No. OW-2007-0483
The Resource Development Council for Alaska, Inc. (RDC) appreciates the opportunity to comment on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) notice for the development of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for discharges incidental to the normal operations of vessels as published in the Federal Register on June 21, 2007.
RDC is a statewide, non-profit, membership-funded economic development organization made up of businesses and individuals from all resource sectors, including oil and gas, mining, fisheries, timber, and tourism, as well as business associations, labor unions, Native corporations and local governments. Through RDC these interests work together to grow Alaska through responsible resource development.
As pointed out in the Federal Register, and in response to a court ruling currently under appeal, the EPA is preparing for the monumental task of issuing individual NPDES permits to millions of commercial and recreational vessels throughout the United States. It is simply not feasible to require individual permits for all possible discharges on an estimated universe of 14 million commercial and private vessels operating in the contiguous waters of the U.S. Continental Shelf, Alaska, and Hawaii. Before permits are required, RDC believes the agency should analyze the impacts of the enormous paperwork, manpower, and energy that would be necessary to conduct and enforce this level of regulation, and proceed only with practical regulations that will provide environmental protection while maintaining economic benefits from the waters.
The vessels that would be subject to this new program, even as a collective, cause no measurable harm to the waters. Therefore, it makes both regulatory and financial sense to avoid a system of individual permits. Under the court’s ruling, individual permits would be required for numerous types of discharges, such as deck runoff from a vessel, any engine cooling water, gray water, bilge water from properly functioning marine engines, or any other discharge incidental to the normal operation of a vessel. The vast majority of these discharges pose absolutely no harm to the environment.
RDC believes it is unrealistic to expect the EPA, which currently issues 600,000 permits annually, to suddenly expand the program to the point where it is capable of issuing individual permits. Many of these potential permittees are currently required to obtain NPDES permits as part of doing business in Alaska. The vast majority of vessel operators whom would need the new permits, as required by the court’s decision, would, along with the agency, find the process to be an enormous burden, in terms of both time and cost. Many of these vessel operators fall into the category of small businesses, and many are family owned. The time and expense incurred by these operators would be significant, with little or no benefit to the environment.
In response to the court’s decision, we suggest the EPA move to a system of general permits, distributed to large groups of vessel operators rather than individuals. The agency has long used general permits for various regulated groups whom have similar operations, and we feel that general permits will result in a manageable, effective NPDES permit system for discharges incidental to the normal operations of vessels.
RDC appreciates your consideration of our comments. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.
Sincerely,
Resource Development Council for Alaska, Inc.
