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ADEM holds public hearing on proposed water-system asset-management rules
Summary
The Alabama Department of Environmental Management held a Jan. 10, 2022 public hearing on proposed revisions to its water supply program regulations to require asset-management plans for new and existing facilities and more prescriptive tank inspection requirements; no members of the public spoke at the hearing.
Christy Monk, hearing officer with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) Office of Water Services, opened a public hearing Jan. 10, 2022, on proposed revisions to the water supply program regulations that would require new and existing water facilities to adopt asset-management plans and would add prescriptive inspection and repair requirements for water storage tanks.
The hearing provided a formal opportunity for the public to present data, views, questions and arguments on the proposed rule revisions. "The subject of this hearing is the proposed revisions to chapters 4 and 7 to the water supply program regulations found in division 7 of the Alabama Administrative Code," Monk said. She told attendees that the department had received two written comments before the hearing and that written comments submitted by 5 p.m. Jan. 10, 2022, at ADEM's Montgomery office would be included in the hearing record.
The department said the amendments are intended to allow ADEM to implement a new federal requirement under the federal America's Water Infrastructure Act that directs primacy agencies to incorporate asset management into their capacity-development programs. Monk summarized that the department proposes to amend provisions governing both new and existing facilities to require development of an asset-management plan and to add more prescriptive requirements for regular inspection and timely repair of water storage tanks.
ADEM noted procedural steps taken before the hearing: notice of the hearing was published Nov. 21, 2021, in the Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Press-Register and the Montgomery Advertiser; the department mailed the same notice on Nov. 19, 2021, to 2,647 individuals and organizations that had requested advance notice of rulemaking; a copy of the proposed rules was filed with the Administrative Procedure Division of the Legislative Services Agency and furnished to the Joint Committee on Administrative Regulation Review on Nov. 18, 2021; and the notice appeared in the Alabama Administrative Monthly (vol. 40, no. 2) on Nov. 30, 2021. Monk said those filings and publication certifications were submitted for the hearing record as exhibits.
Monk said the hearing record will include the transcript, written submissions and exhibits, and that if conflicting views are submitted the department will prepare "a concise statement of the principal reasons for and against adoption of the proposed rule revisions and the reasons for overruling any considerations urged against their adoption" to forward, with the record, to the Environmental Management Commission for its consideration and possible adoption. She closed by noting that no one in the room had registered to speak and that the hearing was adjourned.
No formal vote or decision on the proposed rules occurred at the hearing. The department will accept written comments through 5 p.m. Jan. 10, 2022, and will respond to each relevant comment in the hearing record before forwarding the rulemaking record and any recommended final rule to the Environmental Management Commission.
