Clean Water Current Archive

NACWA and the water sector continue to engage with Congress on a daily basis to ensure future stimulus legislation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic includes assistance to public clean water utilities. This assistance will help clean water agencies maintain critical services during the coronavirus pandemic and to mitigate projected losses of revenue and impacts to scheduled investments.

The COVID-19 pandemic has offered NACWA and its members the chance to highlight the importance of the water sector and its workforce. Beginning at the onset of the pandemic, NACWA launched the hashtag #H20Heroes on Twitter to acknowledge its water professionals standing on the frontline of this crises.

NACWA’s Small and Mid-Size Utility Executive Workgroup hosted a call on April 6 as a follow-up to the Association’s COVID-19 Webinar. Nearly 50 utility executives came together to discuss best practices and continuity of operation resources as well as financial implications related to the coronavirus pandemic.

In recent comments, NACWA asked EPA to consider aquatic impacts of pet flea shampoos and treatments that contain methoprene, a chemical that is used in pet flea treatments.

The ink had barely dried on the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), which passed into law Friday, March 27th, when policymakers turned their focus to the next phase of coronavirus response and recovery this week.

NACWA hosted a webinar with over 1000 attendees on April 2 to highlight top utility leaders’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and engage in a question and answer session.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) this week published guidance on how it intends to implement the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), including a directive that public works personnel be considered “emergency responders” under the law.

EPA issued a news release on March 30 to encourage Americans to only flush toilet paper. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and toilet paper shortages, wastewater utilities have seen an increase in flushing of wipes and other materials.

EPA’s newly appointed Municipal Ombudsperson, Jamie Piziali, met virtually with NACWA staff on March 30 to discuss NACWA’s long-standing work on Integrated Planning initiatives, including the importance of having an Ombudsperson office within EPA’s Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations serve as a liaison between EPA Headquarters, municipalities, state regulators and EPA Regional Offices.

The Water Sector Coordinating Council (WSCC) met on March 25 to discuss the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on the water sector and met the following day with the Water Government Coordinating Council (GCC). The WSCC and GCC had originally planned to meet in person on these dates but moved to a web meeting format due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

NACWA and its members have been active in their outreach to the media during this extraordinary time.

In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and in recognition of the concerns raised by NACWA members and many others concerning the worker shortages and compliance limitations it may cause, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) on March 26 issued a temporary policy outlining how the Agency “intends to exercise its enforcement discretion with respect to certain compliance situations.”

NACWA and the broader water sector joined together in a formal request to Congress this week to aid water and wastewater utilities in overcoming the challenges posed by coronavirus.

NACWA is hosting a free webinar regarding the impacts of COVID-19 on clean water agencies, with all utilities invited to participate. The webinar will be held April 2 from 2:00 – 3:30 PM ET.

Washington State became the first state with a wipes labeling law on March 25, when Gov. Jay Inslee signed Washington’s HB 2565.

NACWA met with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) via conference call on March 19 to discuss the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS), the regulatory program that manages security of high-risk facilities that possess any of 300 chemicals of interest above a specified threshold.

In a recent report released March 9, NACWA corporate affiliate Arcadis reviewed readily available fate and transport models for groundwater leaching, surface water runoff, and plant uptake as they apply to PFAS in land applied biosolids and residuals. NACWA and the Water Environment Federation (WEF) partnered with the American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA) and the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement (NCASI) to complete this modeling review.

NACWA submitted comments March 13 on EPA’s Draft Inventory of US Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2018. The annual Inventory provides nationwide estimates for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for different sectors, including wastewater treatment, and is intended to be used only for informational purposes.

As the impacts from the COVID-19 outbreak continue to spread across the country, NACWA is committed to providing the highest level of service and resources to its members during this difficult time. Member utilities are doing incredible things to keep their staff and communities safe and their utilities providing service without disruption that all clean water agencies can benefit from.

As the economic impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic further reverberate throughout the entire U.S. economy, NACWA staff have been in continual engagement with Congress to advocate that any legislative stimulus package must include assistance for hard-hit public clean water utilities.