Comment submitted by Rachel Harrod
AnonymousSupportIndividual
Summary: The commenter supports the continued collection of NPDES information, arguing that it is essential for monitoring water quality and holding polluters accountable. They suggest that the use of artificial intelligence and technology will eventually reduce the manpower burden associated with these data collection efforts.
The collection of NPDES information is paramount to successful data collection and accurate monitoring of our nation’s water quality. The NPDES Program also holds polluters accountable for point source pollution by enforcing regulation and monitoring effluent through inspections and reporting. All these actions are quite practical and necessary for the betterment of water quality in the United States.
I truly believe with the use of A.I, the amount of manpower will be lessened, and data collection and analysis will be made easier with technology. So, while currently there is an estimated total burden of 33,221,897 hours (Proposed Information Collection Request Supporting Statement for the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Program (Renewal), 2026), this will dramatically decrease with the use of technology.
We need to maintain the efforts of data collection so as to not compromise water quality and aim to not disregard keeping industry accountable.