Clean Water Current

The U.S. Senate began consideration this week of its version of the Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which fortunately does not include problematic PFAS provisions for the public clean water utility sector.

NACWA’s Board of Directors and standing committee leaders gathered this week in Charleston, SC for the Association’s annual Fall Leadership Meeting. This was the first NACWA in-person event since February 2020, and attendees were thrilled to see one another and gather together.

After several years of ongoing discussions in Washington, DC about the need for comprehensive infrastructure legislation, and NACWA’s continuous advocacy to ensure public clean water utilities were a key component, Congress finally acted Nov.5 by passing a $1.2 trillion bipartisan bill, H.R. 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which President Biden is expected to sign into law next week.

NACWA hosted a webinar Nov. 9 for public clean water utility executives on the growing challenges presented by PFAS chemicals.

NACWA filed an amicus brief last week supporting a group of Maryland municipalities challenging a state-issued National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) general permit for small MS4 operators that includes requirements beyond the maximum extent practicable (MEP) standard and requires MS4s to address nonpoint source runoff and other third-party stormwater discharges that neither flow into nor discharge from their systems.

John Sullivan, Chief Engineer for the Boston Water and Sewer Commission and a member of the NACWA Board of Directors, testified last week on behalf of the Water Information Sharing and Analysis Center (WaterISAC) before the House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee.

NACWA participated in EPA’s Urban Waters Federal Partnership (Partnership) virtual 10-year Anniversary Celebration Event on Nov. 9 to highlight the milestone of the Partnership and recommit to a Framework for the Future.

Congressional Democratic leadership released long-awaited legislative text on October 28 outlining their latest reconciliation proposal for investment in host of economic and social priorities.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has continued working to release in full the $1.138 Billion it received as part of the federal COVID-19 Relief packages for providing aid to water customers facing arrearages, potential water service shutoffs, or other hardship paying their water bills.

The final fairness hearing on NACWA member Charleston Water System’s (CWS) preliminarily approved class action settlement agreement with major U.S. wipes manufacturer Kimberly-Clark has been set for Jan. 24, 2022.

EPA unveiled its draft Strategy to Reduce Lead Exposures and Disparities in U.S. Communities on October 28. The draft Strategy aligns with the Biden Administration’s commitment to address ongoing exposures to lead, and it builds upon the progress already made on reducing lead with particular attention paid to overburdened communities and environmental justice concerns.

EPA finalized its toxicity assessment for GenX chemicals - the notorious short chain PFAS chemicals industry used to replace the related longer-chain perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) – on October 25.

NACWA’s comments explained that pesticides may be washed or drained into the sewer system or stormwater systems, and even utilities with advanced treatment technologies cannot remove all pesticides.

After months of negotiations, Congressional Democrats continue inching toward an agreement on a significant “budget reconciliation” package. The bill is envisioned as building upon the bipartisan infrastructure package that already passed the U.S. Senate, and would further address priorities including climate change.

A bipartisan bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate last week to require an updated formula by which Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) capitalization grants are allocated among U.S. states, tribes, and territories. Concerns about CWSRF allocations are perennially raised by Members of Congress who represent states which have grown in population since the formula was set in 1987.

EPA released its much-anticipated PFAS Roadmap October 18 detailing how the Agency plans to tackle PFAS in the months and years ahead. NACWA is reviewing the PFAS Roadmap and is preparing additional analysis and information on how particular items in the PFAS Roadmap may impact members and how the Association plans to respond.

U.S. EPA’s Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water, Radhika Fox, testified October 20 before the U.S. Senate Environment & Public Works Committee (EPW) on the federal response to the presence and impacts of PFAS chemicals on our environment.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) published an alert on October 14 to highlight ongoing malicious cyber activity directed at the water sector and how the sector can protect itself from these attacks.

Nearly three months after passage of the House Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies bill, and over two weeks into the new fiscal year, this week the Senate released its version of the bill, which provides annual funding for U.S. EPA and its core clean water programs.

The Senate Environment & Public Works Committee (EPW) held field hearings last week in Delaware and West Virginia that focused on the challenges that small, rural and disadvantaged communities face in accessing and maintaining wastewater and drinking water treatment services.