Objectives

To determine if the Department of Environmental Conservation (Department) is ensuring applicable entities are complying with the 2013 Sewage Pollution Right to Know Act (Act), and is adequately monitoring and enforcing requirements of the State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) to ensure safe discharge into public waters. The audit covered the period April 1, 2017 to February 27, 2020.

About the Program

New York State is rich in surface and ground water resources, with over 70,000 miles of rivers and streams and more than 7,600 freshwater lakes, ponds, and reservoirs that are used for drinking, bathing, and recreation. As the State’s environmental regulatory agency, the Department is responsible for improving and protecting this vast network of water resources, including preventing, abating, and controlling pollution. Wastewater has been identified as one of the top sources of pollutants, including bacteria and other pathogens, which impair or impact the quality of State waters and, in turn, pose health risks to those who use them. Two key pieces of legislation specifically related to wastewater were enacted to protect the State’s natural resources and the health of its residents: the Act and Article 17 of the State Environmental Conservation Law, which created the SPDES program. Generally, the Act requires publicly owned (e.g., municipal) treatment works (POTWs) and publicly owned sewer systems (POSSs) to report untreated and partially treated sewage discharges to the Department and local health department within two hours of discovery and to notify the public and affected and adjoining municipalities within four hours of discovery. To ensure appropriate notification, the Department requires POTWs and POSSs to register for and use its NY-Alert electronic notification system to report overflow events and any subsequent updates.

The SPDES was created as a means to maintain reasonable standards of water purity by controlling permitted discharges into State waterways. Under the program, the Department issues both individual and general discharge permits. Individual permits are issued to a single facility, in one location, possessing unique discharge characteristics such as POTWs. General permits cover a category of dischargers with similar operations or pollutants such as those related to stormwater discharge from construction activities. SPDES permit holders have certain reporting responsibilities, depending on the permit type. For example, many are required to submit periodic discharge monitoring reports (DMRs), which are self-monitoring reports that detail facility discharge data. The Department monitors compliance by analyzing DMRs, conducting periodic facility inspections, responding to citizen complaints, and issuing formal and informal enforcements.

The Department’s Division of Water is responsible for ensuring POTWs’ and POSSs’ compliance with the Act and overseeing the SPDES program.

Key Findings

• The Department has established procedures to help ensure that POTWs and POSSs comply with the Act; however, at the time of our testing, 83 (22 percent) of the 371 identified POSSs were not registered for NY-Alert and were not reporting overflow events.
• The Department has established procedures to ensure that SPDES permit requirements are met; however, some SPDES permit holders are not responding timely to actionable follow-ups resulting from inspections, and 11 percent of DMRs that identified exceedances did not include a report of non-compliance as required.

Key Recommendations

• Initiate prompt enforcement action to register POSSs with the Department and NY-Alert.
• Monitor and take timely enforcement action for facilities that don’t submit required reports or plans.