SITE INFORMATION AND CORRESPONDENCE 1980-1999

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EXHIBIT 1 CITY OF LODI COiV'IMENTS ON TENTATIVE DISCHARGE REQUIREMENTS Comment 1. Time Schedule for Compliance The City has objections to several of the effluent limitations in the tentative permit and believes they should be deleted. The proposed numerical limits for several constituents have not been properly developed, and extensive toxicity testing data demonstrate that the City's effluent is not toxic (see enclosed comments from Hall &C Associates, Exhibit 2): However, if such requirements are imposed, we request the Board also authorize a feasible schedule of compliance in the permit. We believe the Board has such authority tinder applicable law. In the case of this specific permit, there are additional bases to authorize a schedule of compliance. The current discharge permit (dated 3/93) was written to be in compliance with the Clean `Vater Act and the Second Edition of Basin Plan which included narrative toxicity standards and numeric standards for zinc, cyanide, chlorinated pesticides, and some other trace constituents. The Basin Plan beneficial uses for the Delta were listed in Table II-1. The beneficial uses for the Delta are qualified with a footnote which states, "Beneficial uses vary widely throughout the Delta and will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis." This language is also in the current Basin Plan. Using the authority in the Clean Water Act and in the Second Edition of the Basin Plan Table II-1, footnote 9, the Regional Board effectively defined Dredger Cut as a mixing zone and established site specific objectives for Dredger Cut in the current permit which differed from the objectives for the major Delta channels including White Slough and Bishop Cut. The differentiation between Dredger Cut, Bishop Cut, and White Slough is clearly established in items 23 - 25 of the Findings, Discharge Prohibition A.3, and the points of compliance in the current permit. The City of Lodi has reliably complied with requirements-in the permit to protect these objectives, including not violating acute toxicity requirements for undiluted effluent. In the new tentative waste discharge requirements, Regional Board staff has changed the site specific standards for Dredger Cut to match those applied to major Delta channels. These are effectively new water quality objectives for Dredger Cut and result in new, more stringent discharge standards for the City's wastewater treatment plant. Section IV, page 17of the Basin Plan under Implementation states the following: "GYhere the Rea.Tonal GYater Board determines it is infeasible to achieve immediate compliance with water quality objectives adopted by the Regional 6Yater Board, or with water quality criteria adopted by the USEPA, or with an effluent limitation based on these objectives or criteria, the Regional 6Yater Board nray establish in NPDES permits a schedule of compliance. " Since new water quality objectives are being specified for Dredger Cut, a schedule for compliance with those new requirements should be included in the City's Discharge tentcommentsw95 Exhibit 1 Page 1 12/17/99