CLEAN WATER ACT
Congress never intended for the Clean Water Act (CWA) to be the primary enforcement tool for the
regulation of sludge
"(1) Purpose - This section was not intended to be primary source of regulation of sludge but was intended
as cautionary measure to provide additional protection against dangers to navigable waters caused by disposal
methods unregulated by section 1311 of this title, i.e. careless land disposal and deep ocean dumping of
sludge from vessels. ---" (Title 33, part 1345, note 1)
(7) it is the national policy that programs for the control of nonpoint sources of pollution be developed and
implemented in an expeditious manner so as to enable the goals of this chapter to be met through the control of
both point and nonpoint sources of pollution.
The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect human health and the environment.
The release or discharge of sludge without a federal permit is an illegal point source of solid waste
sewage sludge pollution. However, when released, discharged or disposed of as a normal application of
fertilizer sewage sludge becomes a nonpoint source of water pollution which is excluded from the law as
a agricultural stormwater discharge.
A toxic pollutant may be a combination of sewage sludge, chemical wastes, biological materials "including
disease-causing agents, which after discharge and upon exposure, ingestion, inhalation or assimilation
into any organism, either directly from the environment or indirectly by ingestion through food chains,
will, on the basis of information available to the Administrator, cause death, disease, behavioral
abnormalities, cancer, genetic mutations, physiological malfunctions (including malfunctions in
reproduction) or physical deformations...."
This is virtually the same definition given in Part 503.9 for a pollutant. Since farmers and the public would
never accept the risk if sludge promoters used the term human as the CERCLA and RCRA does, EPA Ph.d's
use the broader term organism for humans. (i.e. 2 : an individual constituted to carry on the activities of
life by means of organs separate in function but mutually dependent : a living being)
Public Health Service of the Federal Security Agency and in the Federal Works Agency (33 U.S.C. 1251
et seq.)
(14) The term ``point source'' means any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance, including but not
limited to any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated
animal feeding operation, or vessel or other floating craft, from which pollutants are or may be discharged. This
term does not include agricultural stormwater discharges and return flows from irrigated agriculture.
(7) it is the national policy that programs for the control of nonpoint sources of pollution be developed and
implemented in an expeditious manner so as to enable the goals of this chapter to be met through the control of both
point and nonpoint sources of pollution.
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=browse_usc&docid=Cite:+33USC1251
Sec. 1362. Definitions
(6) The term ``pollutant'' means dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewage
sludge, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials, radioactive materials, heat, wrecked or
discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt and industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste discharged into water.
(12) The term ``discharge of a pollutant'' and the term ``discharge of pollutants'' each means
(A) any addition of any pollutant to navigable waters from any point source,
(B) any addition of any pollutant to the waters of the contiguous zone or the ocean from any point source other than a
vessel or other floating craft.
(13) The term ``toxic pollutant'' means those pollutants, or combinations of pollutants, including disease-
causing agents, which after discharge and upon exposure, ingestion, inhalation or assimilation into any organism,
either directly from the environment or indirectly by ingestion through food chains, will, on the basis of information
available to the Administrator, cause death, disease, behavioral abnormalities, cancer, genetic mutations,
physiological malfunctions (including malfunctions in reproduction) or physical deformations, in such organisms or
their offspring.
(14) The term ``point source'' means any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance, including but not
limited to any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated
animal feeding operation, or vessel or other floating craft, from which pollutants are or may be discharged. This
term does not include agricultural stormwater discharges and return flows from irrigated agriculture.