Effluents from concentrated aquatic animal production facilities have for many years been subject to permitting under the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program pursuant to provisions of the federal Clean Water Act. A concentrated aquatic animal production facility for warm water species is currently defined as an operation that a regulatory agency has determined to be a significant contributor of pollution, or that discharges at least 30 days per year and has production of more than 100,000 pounds of fish or other aquatic animals per year. Closed ponds that discharge only during periods of excess runoff are excluded.
However, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not yet prepared specific rules regarding the quality of aquaculture effluents, in effect allowing Alabama and other states with delegated NPDES programs to determine individualized permit conditions if any aquaculture operations meet the permitting thresholds. Current Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) NPDES rules mirror the federal requirements. Because of the existing EPA permitting criteria, ADEM has not required NPDES permit coverage for any Alabama aquaculture operations other than requiring compliance with NPDES construction stormwater permits for pond construction. However, EPA is expected to significantly lower current NPDES permitting thresholds.
The EPA was sued by the Natural Resources Defense Council, and a federal court approved a consent decree ordering EPA to accelerate implementation of certain provisions of the Clean Water Act by creating or updating effluent guidelines for several industry sectors. In 1997, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) prepared a report critical of the environmental performance of aquaculture nationwide and urged EPA to initiate rule-making for aquaculture. The EPA accommodated the EDFs request by removing the shipping container cleaning sector from the list of industries for rule-making under the consent decree and replacing it with aquaculture.
EPA is currently reviewing existing federal NPDES permitting thresholds, technical standards, administrative requirements, and effluent quality data for the aquaculture industry nationwide. The EPA draft rule for aquaculture effluent guidelines and revised permitting standards and thresholds is due in June 2002, and the final rule is scheduled for completion in June 2004. Once the final EPA rule is in place, NPDES delegated states such as Alabama must update their NPDES program regulating aquaculture.
Alabama has a growing aquaculture industry. Currently there are more than 350 production aquaculture operations in the state. This total includes approximately 265 catfish production operations and 85 other operations ranging from alligator to oyster production. In Alabama, to the extent that these operations might pose an environmental problem, any ADEM environmental regulatory program that is developed as the result of EPA updates to federal NPDES permitting requirements and effluent guidelines needs to be tailored to effectively manage the needs of Alabamas environment and Alabama aquaculture.
The form of the EPA rule is not known for certain, but the EPA has strongly hinted that the rule will require a greater number of producers to obtain NPDES permit coverage, and implement and maintain effective best management practices (BMPs) to manage the volume and improve the quality of effluents. A practice is defined as a cultural, vegetative, operational, or structural change that will reduce potential environmental effects and in some cases improve environmental quality.
A BMP is considered to be the best economically feasible and technically practical method for reducing potential water quality impacts to a level that protects water quality and is consistent with resource management goals. Examples of BMPs to reduce erosion are to provide grass cover on a watershed, stabilize dirt roads with crushed rock, or to fence cattle off embankments. Examples of BMPs specific to aquaculture would be to prevent overfeeding of fish to avoid excessive and unnecessary nutrients from entering ponds, and to implement practices to minimize release of dead fish from ponds. Usually, a system of BMPs must be installed and regularly maintained to avoid potential environmental impacts.
The Alabama Catfish Producers (ACP) hopes to ensure continued good stewardship of the environment in Alabama, to minimize uncertainty and possible disruption of production methods as a result of the impending EPA aquaculture effluent rule, and to cooperatively move forward to benefit all involved stakeholders. Toward this goal, ACP voluntarily partnered with ADEM and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to formalize BMPs that many in the industry already voluntarily implement, and to take a leadership role in developing an effective, workable regulatory framework for Alabama aquaculture.
ADEM recognizes that any regulatory or permitting program must comprehensively address construction, operation, BMP implementation and maintenance, and closure of regulated operations. Regulatory requirements must be based on sound technical decisions supported by reasonable, informed management judgments predicated on science and proven technology. Any regulatory program should focus on implementation and maintenance of effective on-the-ground BMPs. Environmental regulatory programs developed by ADEM with the cooperation of interested federal and other state resource agencies with full input from aquaculture producers must be designed to prevent duplication of efforts and to provide quality service to the general public and aquaculture.
Results of an environmental impact assessment of Alabama catfish farming conducted by Auburn University and funded by the ACP were used to identify potential environmental impacts and benefits of catfish farming. Auburn University has worked diligently for some time researching, developing, evaluating, and updating aquacultural BMPs designed to prevent and minimize these impacts. These BMPs are arranged in a series of short documents with the following titles:
Reducing Storm Runoff into Ponds
Each document has a definition of the system of practices related to the category, an explanation of the objectives of the practices, statements of the practices, notes on implementation of the practices, and references.
The BMP documents have been reviewed by selected catfish farmers; Auburn University research and extension personnel; officials of ADEM, EPA, NRCS, and ALFA; and various other individuals. The final BMP documents were formally presented to catfish farmers in early November 2001, and a meeting was held in mid-November 2001 to allow additional comments by farmers. After revision to include consideration of the final comments of farmers, the documents will be printed and maintained as NRCS Conservation Practice Guide Sheets.
The ADEM program for aquaculture at a minimum will require the application of BMPs to prevent potential environmental impacts. The ADEM program will refer the producer to NRCS Conservation Practice Guide Sheets for details on application of BMPs. All aquaculture operations will be required to implement effective BMPs. A number of operations will have to register for NPDES permit coverage due to their size or production characteristics. Of course, the ADEM program will contain additional standard NPDES requirements, such as record keeping, self-inspection, regular qualified credentialed professional (QCP) review, continuing education, updated permitting thresholds (if required by EPA) along with a processing fee, etc., but BMPs will be the main feature. The ADEM rule must be consistent with EPA rules, and it is anticipated that the ADEM program will be more comprehensive than the federal rule. Because of this proactive effort, Alabama catfish producers should easily comply with impending federal regulations.
For more information on the use of BMPs in Alabama aquaculture,
contact Dr. Claude Boyd at (334) 844-4078, firstname.lastname@example.org.
For additional information regarding the proposed EPA rules or the proposed
ADEM NPDES program for Alabama aquaculture, contact Richard Hulcher at
Field Operations Division, Alabama Department of Environmental Management,
Montgomery, Alabama 36130, (334) 394-4311, email@example.com.