Webinar Held on Chesapeake Bay States Onsite Wastewater Treatment Data Sharing Effort

On June 2nd, EPA’s Decentralized MOU Partnership held a webinar about the “Model Program for Onsite Management in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed,” as part of the Strategy for Protecting and Restoring the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.  Decentralized wastewater management applications can be an important tool for protecting sources of drinking water.
During the webinar, Maureen Pepper of EPA’s Office of Wastewater Management and Marcia Degen of the Virginia Department of Health presented information about this program that shares data between states to:  document the performance of advanced onsite pretreatment systems for nitrogen reduction; simplify the technology approval processes for states; and reduce costs to residents and manufacturers.  This effort was formalized between the states of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia on April 16, 2015 with a signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) and assistance from EPA.  Prior to this MOC, all states nationwide approved systems on an individual basis and many do not take into account data collected by other state programs.  You may click on the following links to view the:  MOC, Test Plan Application Template, and Initial Data Collection Protocol.