Vol. 3 No. 3 Winter 1995
A Newsletter About New Jersey's Water Quality Programs

Clean beaches, swimming, fishing, and shellfish harvesting are things that are important to most New Jerseyans. But how do we ensure these resources, we sometimes take for granted in New Jersey, are protected and maintained for all to enjoy? Protecting the coastal resources listed above requires a multifaceted regulatory approach, providing specific measures for addressing each resource. One such facet is the Ocean Discharge Criteria or ODC - a set of federal regulations issued in 1980 under section 403 of the Clean Water Act. These regulations prohibit discharges into marine waters resulting in unreasonable degradation of the marine environment. Unreasonable degradation is defined as significant adverse changes in the biological community, threat to human health, or a loss of aesthetic, recreational, scientific, or economic value.

The ODC regulations contain ten criteria which the DEP address before issuing or renewing permits for facilities discharging into the ocean. These include areas of concern such as bioaccumulation and persistence of pollutants, potential transport of pollutants, habitation of the biological community including unique and endangered or threatened species, importance of the receiving water, existence of special aquatic sites such as marine sanctuaries, potential impacts on human health, fishing and shellfishing, and marine water quality criteria.

To help ocean dischargers provide the permit information needed to address ODC, the DEP identified draft ODC data/study requirements. These requirements, which were modeled on case histories from other states around the country and USEPA guidance, provide sufficient information for making permit decisions without causing undue hardships on effected dischargers.

Prior to finalizing data requirements, ODC information was presented to the Ocean Discharge Group (an organization of domestic wastewater ocean dischargers) in December 1993 and to interested parties on February 2, 1994. Shortly thereafter, the EPA published its final guidance for ODC monitoring. Both the comments received from interested parties and dischargers, as well as the EPA's final guidance, were considered before the DEP finalized its ODC data requirements. Since some requisite information recommended by EPA is very comprehensive and resource intensive, the department decided the requirements could best be satisfied using a two-tiered approach. In the first tier, permittees are required to provide basic core data which is used for making general assessments on the nature of their discharge and its probable impacts to the receiving water. Depending on the results of the first tier data, additional data and information (second tier) may be required. This tiered approach saves dischargers the time and expense of collecting more data than is actually needed to evaluate their discharge.

Permittees are required to submit acute and chronic toxicity test results, a plume study, priority pollutant data, a benthic study, and a sensitive areas map. This information, in conjunction with other existing data, would be used to address the 10 criteria mentioned earlier.

Permittees not having the required ODC data may still receive a wastewater discharge permit, however, the permit will contain a compliance schedule for obtaining the necessary data. To receive such a conditional permit, a permittee must demonstrate to the DEP that the discharge will cause no irreparable harm to the marine environment during the period covered by the compliance schedule. Demonstrating no irreparable harm requires permittees to provide priority pollutant data, acute toxicity test data, and a dilution study. In most cases, this data is readily available.

Used in concert with other coastal protection initiatives, the ODC requirements should help preserve New Jersey's valuable marine environment. If you have any questions about ODC requirements, please contact Nancy Immesberger of the Bureau of Water Quality Analysis by calling (609) 633-7020.