Sewer Regulations

[don@radpro.uchicago.edu]

I search the Fed. Reg. and the Cong. Rec. periodically for indications
of additional actions on the issue and have not found anything.  I've also
searched NRC files from time to time for similar information, with the same
result - nothing.  This is not too surprising for a number of reasons.

The recent impetus for change seems to have come from Sen. Glenn in response to
the contamination discovered at a sewage treatment plant outside of Cleveland. 
Sen. Glenn no longer chairs the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee and may 
not influence its agenda as before.  (This, obviously, could change next year.)

The EPA, which regulates treatment plants and sets generally applicable 
standards under the Clean Water and Air Acts,  may be awaiting the results 
of the next National Sewage Sludge Survey (NSSS) before considering possible  
regulations.  The next NSSS, to be conducted in 1996 or 1997, will  
specifically look for radionuclides. 

Some of the RADSAFE comments suggest that there is some confusion over the 
cause of the presumed problem and the regulatory agencies' positions on the 
issue.  The conclusions I present below come from prepared testimony delivered 
to a Joint Hearing before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee and the 
Subcommittee on Environment, Energy and Natural Resources of the House 
Committee on Government Operations held on June 21, 1994.  

NRC 
Ivan Sellin, Chairman of the NRC, testified that the NRC believes that all 
cases of contaminated sewage sludge reported or discovered so far have 
resulted from the discharge of "insoluable" material into the sewers.  
[To preclude a debate over soluability products, let's stipulate that cobalt 
metal powder _is_ insoluable.]   

Battelle PNL reconstructed doses to workers exposed at the contaminated plants 
so far discovered and estimated them to be in the range of 70-350 mR/year, 
which were well below the 500 mR/a dose limits for members of the general 
public in force at the time.  The NRC asserted that these doses would have 
been essentially zero if the insoluable material had not been present. 

The NRC, therefore, believes that its recent rule change prohibiting discharge 
of "insoluable" material will prove adequate to prevent any future problems 
at treatment plants, even in light of the new 10CFR20 dose limits.

EPA
Michael B. Cook, Director of the EPA's Office of Wastewater Management,
testified that the results of the 1988 NSSS, which did not specifically look 
for radionuclides, had suggested to EPA that contaminated sludge posed very 
low risk; EPA estimated that an individual's total lifetime fatal cancer risk 
from a treatment plant's airborne emissions  as 2 E-10  and that 3 E-8 fatal
cancers resulted annually from operation of a referance treatment plant.  
For the short term, EPA intends to rely on NRC regulation in this area.

Municpalities
The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District passed an ordinance in 1991 limiting 
all the NRC licencees in the District to a combined total of 1 Curie of 
discharges per year.  [Presumably this is the 1 Ci of non tritium, non C-14
releases.]  The NRC has generally opposed States & municipalities which 
adopt regulations more stringent than NRC's.  The NRC's Deputy General Counsel  
advised the City of Laramie, Wyoming in 1993 that the city could regulate  
sewer releases of radioactivity if it had a sound reason other
than radiation protection for doing so.  [While it is hard to conceive of 
any other reason for regulating radioactive releases, it is 
conceivable that regulating other discharges for other reasons might have the 
additional effect of reducing radioactive discharges.]  

[Civil Tort Liabiltiy
Persons who believe that they have been harmed may seek injunctive relief and 
damages in the civil courts.  Sewer releases might be constrained more by the 
unofficial regulation of capricious court decisions than through the formal 
regulatory processes.] 


BTW
According to the Unified Regulatory Agenda, the NRC expects to have its new
reg.s on patient release ready this month.

___________________________________________________________________

Don Jordan                          Tel. (312) 702-6299
Office of Radiation Safety          Fax        702-4008
The University of Chicago           email: don@radpro.uchicago.edu
1101 East 57th Street, Room 11
Chicago, Illinois  60637  
                -- Any opinions are the author's --