Clean Water Current

EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) published a recent report recommending that EPA develop an Agency Wide Strategic Action Plan to Address Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs).

Congressional negotiators have bought themselves more time to hammer out agreements to address several looming issues reported on in last week’s Current, most notably avoiding a government shutdown, raising the debt limit, and passing infrastructure investment legislation.

NACWA hosted a joint Legal Affairs Committee meeting and Legal Hot Topics Webinar this week entitled “Waters of the United States” – Where Are We Now On WOTUS?

Congressional negotiators are working furiously against the clock to hammer out agreements to pass critical bills to avoid a government shutdown, raise the debt limit, and advance infrastructure investment legislation.

In comments submitted to EPA on September 24, NACWA, the American Water Works Association (AWWA), and the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA) offered support for the Agency’s efforts to use the Toxic Substances Control Act’s (TSCA) Section 8(a)(7) reporting and recordkeeping requirements as a means to broaden the universe of understanding on PFAS, where it has been discharged, and its uses.

The NACWA Pretreatment & Pollution Prevention Committee will be holding a meeting on Tuesday, October 5, 2:00-3:00 pm ET to discuss EPA’s Preliminary Effluent Guidelines Program Plan 15 and NACWA’s comment on the Plan, which are due October 14.

In a memorandum sent last week to the EPA Regions and Water Division Directors, EPA Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water Radhika Fox revoked the previous administration’s January 2021 guidance document, “Applying the Supreme Court’s County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund Decision in the Clean Water Act Section 402 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit (NPDES) Program.”

NACWA submitted initial comments to EPA and the Department of the Army on September 20 urging the agencies to maintain existing and added exclusions for waste treatment systems, stormwater control features, wastewater recycling structures, and groundwater as the agencies begin another effort to revise the definition of Waters of the United States (WOTUS).

The House and Senate reconvened this week as both chambers work to iron out spending and policy differences on the reconciliation bill and on a short-term spending measure to avert a government shutdown on October 1st.

Following recent high profile cybersecurity incidents, the White House in July released its National Security Memorandum on Improving Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure Control Systems, outlining a plan to promote industrial control system (ICS) security in critical infrastructure sectors.

NACWA joined with other organizations in the municipal governance space last week on a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department seeking clarification on the taxability of certain utility financial assistance.

The Executive Highlights and raw data from NACWA’s 2020 Financial Survey are now available for download on NACWA’s website. The Survey’s results reflect input from 109 public agencies, collectively serving more than 74 million people, with more than $159 billion in total asset and over $20 billion in 2019 revenues.

Congressional work on infrastructure continued this week as several U.S. House committees marked up and passed their respective jurisdictional bills related to the “Reconciliation” package as the Democrat Majority looks to further build on the investments that were included in the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

EPA announced its Preliminary Effluent Guidelines Program Plan 15 in the September 14 Federal Register. The Plan is published every two years to outline EPA’s planned studies and rulemakings related to effluent limitation guidelines (ELGs) and pretreatment standards for industrial dischargers. The Plan, an FAQ, and other documents are available on EPA’s website.

If you haven’t yet registered for EPA Finance Center’s upcoming Funding Stormwater Operations and Maintenance webinar, NACWA encourages you to consider sitting in on this event.

The debate over investing in infrastructure continues to advance in the U.S. Congress. Majority leadership in both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate are working feverishly to draft a “Reconciliation” package that could be advanced alongside the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment And Jobs Act, which passed the Senate last month and is scheduled for a House vote by Sept. 27th.

NACWA is proud to release its 2020-2021 Annual Report, which documents the accomplishments and milestones the membership accomplished together over the past 12 months and outlines our vision for the year ahead. The electronic version is available on the NACWA website, and the print version is now being delivered to all member agencies, along with Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 member invoices.

EPA, in collaboration with the Department of Defense (DoD), announced a new analytical method—Method 1633—to test for PFAS in various environmental media on September 2. This single-laboratory validation method can test for 40 PFAS compounds in wastewater, surface water, groundwater, soil, biosolids, sediment, landfill leachate, and fish tissue using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS).

NACWA joined Association members the Louisville/Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District and the City of New York, as well as the California Association of Sanitation Agencies (CASA), in filing an amicus brief this week in support of NACWA member the City and County of San Francisco’s challenge to their first post-long term control plan (LTCP) National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit.

NACWA joined a broad coalition this week on a letter to Congress requesting support for municipal bonds as part of infrastructure investment, especially in the context of the upcoming budget reconciliation process. The letter notes the importance of municipal bonds in funding infrastructure projects around the country.