Biosolids Committee Letter to
EPA Administrator Leavitt

April 23, 2004

Dear Mr. Leavitt,

Greetings from the Iowa Water Pollution Control Association (IWPCA) Biosolids Committee!  This letter is in regard to the development of the Biosolids Data Management System (BDMS) software.  As you may well be aware, the BDMS was first developed by the EPA to improve compliance monitoring and management of regulated biosolids.  It was also developed keeping in mind the need for a standardized reporting format.  The state of the BDMS development right now is rather unsettling.  That such a potent tool in the EPA’s inventory, to promulgate better biosolids management, as well as a method to answer some the National Science Foundations assertions regarding tracking and compliance with the Federal (503) regulations and the ability for the scientific community to access this information is being allowed to languish without further development for lack of funding is quite distressing.

Mr. Leavitt, I’m sure that the beneficial aspects of the BDMS such as its capacity to allow comparison of the compliance level & biosolids quality monitoring on a national scale (or even on a regional scale) and its ability to generate reports in an electronic format (which enables the users to transmit entire reports with a click of a button to the EPA authorities) are documented in detail.  In particular the electronic compatibility of the report ensures no delay time in terms of data entry on the part of the EPA and additions/changes can be done online itself.  BDMS also showcases its versatility by allowing multiple users to access files simultaneously.

Bearing in mind these significantly positive traits of the BDMS, we – the members of the Biosolids Committee and our 650+ member Association, strongly urge you to seek federal funding to place the BDMS up-gradation program back on track.  I hope you will view this correspondence as an opportunity to help the IWPCA realize its efforts towards re-instating the BDMS software development project.

Sincerely,

Charles G. Stevens
Chairman IWPCA Biosolids Committee