Clean Water Current

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler testified before the House Subcommittee on the Environment and Climate Change last Thursday, Feb. 27th concerning EPA’s Fiscal Year 2021 (FY21) Budget.

NACWA and the California Association of Sanitation Agencies (CASA) met with EPA on February 25 to discuss the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program’s classification of fuel produced through co-digestion of biosolids and food waste.

EPA recently announced it is proposing to extend the Phase 2 compliance deadlines for the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Electronic Reporting Rule from December 21, 2020 to December 21, 2023.

NACWA CEO Adam Krantz published an op-ed in Bloomberg Environment yesterday, February 25, highlighting the hard work and remarkable efforts undertaken by public clean water utilities to comply with federally mandated consent decrees regarding combined sewer overflows under the integrated planning framework.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released a Report to Congress calling for increased technical assistance to address utility resilience risk and recommending that federal agencies require climate information be considered in the water infrastructure project planning process.

Congress returned to Washington, DC this week for what is expected to be a busy legislative period ahead.

NACWA’s Stormwater Management Committee will hold its first committee meeting of 2020 on March 2 from 3:00 to 4:00 PM ET.

The American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) held their Water, Energy and Environment Committee meeting in Washington DC on February 24, and NACWA participated to provide a municipal clean water perspective.

Four of the 2020 Presidential Candidates – Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Tom Steyer and Mayor Pete Buttigieg – convened February 16 at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas for the first-ever Presidential Candidate Infrastructure Forum.

NACWA recently joined a coalition of wastewater utilities seeking to intervene in litigation brought by an environmental organization in the US District Court for the Western District of Missouri challenging the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) approval of Missouri’s newly adopted “Combined Criteria Approach” for aquatic life nutrient criteria in lakes.

EPA released its Draft Technical Support Document for Implementing the 2019 Recommended Human Health Recreational Ambient Water Quality Criteria or Swimming Advisories for Microcystins and Cylindrospermopsin on December 16, 2019.

NACWA asked EPA to consider aquatic impacts of pet flea shampoos and treatments that contain pyrethroid and pyrethrin chemicals.

In support of its advocacy efforts on behalf of the public clean water sector, NACWA’s leadership and staff regularly field questions from members of the national, local and trade press to provide insight and expert analysis on clean water-related topics.

EPA released its annual Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act report last week, highlighting the data-driven process behind the 14 loans made to public water utilities throughout 2019.

The Water Environment Federation released their guidance documents on the coronavirus earlier this week. With research on the topic still being developed and with global attention on the pandemic, NACWA’s partners in the water sector put together guidance documents on how the water sector can approach the issue.

Two opposing messaging proposals for water infrastructure were unveiled in recent weeks.

The Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act, introduced in the Senate on February 11, became the first federal bill that would address the labeling of wipes.

EPA recently proposed a regulatory rulemaking to update the 1991 Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) on November 13, 2019.

The American Water Works Association (AWWA) held a technical Symposium earlier this week on global potable reuse efforts and biological treatment initiatives in Atlanta, Georgia.

NACWA will be hosting a new legal hot topics webinar, What the WOTUS? The Latest and Greatest on the “Waters of the US” Definition, on March 18th from 2:00-3:30 p.m. (Eastern).