WASHINGTON, D.C. — On May 26, 2010, the Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water, Peter Silva, signed a Federal Register Notice seeking stakeholder input to help the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determine whether to modify the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) regulations as they apply to municipal sanitary sewer collection systems and SSOs.

Input will be provided through both written comments and during four public listening sessions in late June and early July. A webcast will be accessible nationally for members of the public that cannot attend the listening sessions during which EPA will accept oral comments over the phone.

In order to ensure enough space for all attendees, EPA asks participants at the four listening sessions to register in advance for the location they plan to attend in person. The four listening sessions will be held: June 24, 2010 at the EPA Region 10 office in Seattle; June 28, 2010 at the EPA Region 4 office in Atlanta; June 30, 2010 at the EPA Region 7 office in Kansas City, Kan.; and July 13, 2010 at EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

All listening sessions will be held from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. local time. More specific information can be found in the Federal Register Notice. Registration information is available at www.epa.gov/npdes/sso.

The 4-hour webcast is scheduled for July 14, 2010 from noon to 4:00 p.m. EST. Registration for this webcast is available at www.epa.gov/npdes/sso.

Written comments are due by August 2, 2010. For more information, visit www.epa.gov/npdes/sso.