The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) stakeholders appreciate the opportunity to provide the following proposals to the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board or Board) as part of Phase 2 of the Board’s resource alignment initiative. If adopted, these proposals could result in significant cost savings for Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs) and other entities subject to NPDES Permits and waste discharge requirements.

Dear Ms. Webster:

Robertson-Bryan, Inc. (RBI) is pleased to present this proposal to provide services to conduct an environmental DNA (eDNA) pilot study to evaluate the efficacy of using eDNA to make defensible presence/absence determinations regarding freshwater mussels in POTW’s receiving waters. This work would be conducted as “Phase IIa” of the Freshwater Mussel Collaborative Study for Wastewater Treatment Plants. As you know, Phase I examined the current state of knowledge regarding freshwater mussels in water bodies of the Central Valley, identified the field methods for determining if mussels are present or absent in a water body, and provided guidance on the regulatory options for compliance with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (USEPA) 2013 ammonia criteria.