The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released resource tools to help protect public health and local water bodies in communities that rely on lagoons for wastewater management.
The EPA released the tools on September 27, 2024.
Lagoon wastewater treatment systems are typically used in communities that are smaller than 3,000 people and can lack the necessary financial and technical resources to comply with the Clean Water Act.
EPA’s new tools are intended to help local decision makers effectively and efficiently protect public health and the environment, address compliance challenges and improve asset-management planning.
The new resources include the “First Stop Toolbox for Lagoons,” which identifies technical, financial and regulatory support resources in a user-friendly web tool.
This tool will help lagoon operators and technical assistance providers assess operations and compliance challenges in their lagoons, and in turn, help communities resolve these challenges on their own.
The new resources also include the “Small Lagoon Communities Economic Streamlining Tool” and the “Individual Lagoon Tool” that helps states, authorized Tribes, and communities determine whether a water quality standards (WQS) variance is an appropriate step to take when a small community is experiencing challenges related to ammonia.
Both tools are accompanied by an implementation document: “Applying the EPA’s Economic Analysis Tools to a WQS Variance for Ammonia for Small Lagoon Communities.”
These tools were developed as priority actions under the EPA’s 2022-2026 Lagoon Wastewater Treatment Action Plan, and respond to the needs identified by state co-regulators and lagoon communities.
