Environmental Protection Agency's Implementation of Consultant's Study Report Recommendations on Demonstrations of New Wastewater Treatment Technologies

Studies performed by the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) contractor highlight the need for timely implementation of innovative technologies to achieve water pollution abatement goals and elimination of factors inhibiting the marketing and adoption of such technologies in municipal wastewater treatment. The reports recommend the reinstatement of full-scale demonstrations of new technologies. EPA demonstration grant expenditures were reduced beginning in 1972 because of competing priorities and limited resources. There are plans to provide about $2.2 million in fiscal year (FY) 1978 for funding projects demonstrating new technologies, and EPA has requested a supplemental FY 1978 appropriation of $9.5 million to finance a project demonstrating the land application of wastewater in Lubbock, Texas. An internal budget plan indicates that EPA plans to provide only $400,000 in FY 1979 for demonstration of percolation bed rejuvenation techniques for small flows, and funding for other demonstrations were dropped from the plan. No action was planned on report findings and recommendations until results of an ongoing study of a municipal wastewater research and development program were known. However, completion of the study has been delayed. Incentives provided in the Clean Water Act of 1977 may enhance the likelihood of the greater use of innovative technologies.