Clean Water Current

In the last Clean Water Current, NACWA included a save-the-date for Thursday, July 22nd for a one-hour webinar to be hosted by the Department of Health and Human Services for water and wastewater utilities to learn more about the emergency Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP).

Have you registered for NACWA’s upcoming Utility Leadership Virtual Event? Happening next week on July 20 and July 21, NACWA is hosting this free leadership event that will explore how water sector leaders have an opportunity to highlight the essential role they play in their communities and to influence how infrastructure conversations ultimately play out on the national stage.

EPA has approximately $5.5 billion in credit for Fiscal Year 2021 that could finance over $11 billion in water infrastructure projects through the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) program.

NACWA has asked EPA to consider the risks to utility operations and the aquatic environment when evaluating pesticides for classification as a Minimum Risk Pesticide. This classification exempts certain pesticides from registration and other regulatory requirements under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). EPA is currently considering potential modifications to the Minimum Risk Pesticide Program.

The US Water Alliance recently kicked off a survey on climate resiliency as part of a larger Climate Resilience Through One Water: Framework and Utility Action Guide project.

Prospects for an infrastructure deal began to solidify late last week with an announcement between the White House and a bipartisan group of 21 Senators on June 24th that a deal had been struck on an infrastructure package.

The Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Community Services, which is administering the emergency Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP), is planning a webinar on July 22 to discuss this new program with clean water and drinking water utilities.

The supply issues related to sodium hypochlorite and other chlorine products appear to be resolving, with a chlor-alkali facility in Washington State back to full operations. Supplies of sodium hypochlorite and other chorine products had been reduced due to equipment failure and other problems at this production facility and facilities in other locations. The supply reductions primari

This week, the House Appropriations Committee began work on the Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies bill, which provides annual funding for U.S. EPA and its core clean water programs.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been seeking input from various stakeholders on whether to rescind and replace the guidance put out at the end of the previous administration on how to apply the test articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund.

As chemical supply chain issues continue to impact utilities around the country, EPA has published instructions for water utilities on how to use Section 1441 of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) or the Defense Production Act to obtain chlorine or any other chemicals needed for treating drinking water or wastewater.

Congressional focus on water legislation continues this week both at the highest levels of leadership – with the White House and Congressional leaders continuing to negotiate a potential bipartisan infrastructure deal – and at the Committee level, where work continues to advance authorization bills.

EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) held its third public meeting of the year last week, highlighting the emphasis on environmental justice (EJ) issues by the new Biden-Harris Administration.

NACWA’s Biosolids Committee will convene on Thursday, June 24 from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. EST on Zoom and will discuss a variety of key issues happening at the federal level. The Committee will be briefed on activities that are ongoing at EPA as well as dive into evolving PFAS matters including NACWA’s recent letter to EPA’s PFAS Council and a new “how-to” guide on modeling the fate and transport of PFAS in biosolids and residuals.

Last week, over 130 communications professionals from the public clean water sector joined NACWA for the second virtual StratComm: H2O event.

NACWA sent a letter on June 14 to EPA’s newly formed EPA PFAS Council (EPC) detailing specific recommendations for EPA to consider as it develops a multi-year strategy to address PFAS.

A report will soon be available summarizing the results of the recent utility cybersecurity survey sponsored by NACWA and the other water sector associations. The survey revealed that many utilities are taking the necessary steps to protect their information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) systems, incorporating cybersecurity into risk management plans and protecting IT and OT assets but that there is not consistency across-the-board in planning.

Building on the momentum of last week’s passage of H.R. 1915, the Water Quality Protection and Job Creation Act of 2021 by the Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee, the focus shifted this week to the Energy and Commerce (E&C) Committee where the Environment Subcommittee marked up and advanced several pieces of water legislation, including H.R. 3293, the Low-Income Water Customer Assistance Programs Act of 2021, which NACWA has continued to champion.

This week, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm the nomination of Radhika Fox to be Assistant Administrator of the U.S. EPA’s Office of Water. At press time, a vote had not yet occurred but is imminent. In advance, NACWA reiterated its strong support for her nomination. The nomination has advanced swiftly through the Senate, where a hearing and Committee vote on her nomination were held in May.

The Water Research Foundation (WRF) has opened a utility survey to help determine how pretreatment programs fit within One Water frameworks and goals. The survey will allow WRF to identify pretreatment program activities, best practices, opportunities, challenges, and needs to characterize potential opportunities to leverage pretreatment programs for One Water initiatives.