Clean Water Current

After two years of negotiations, EPA on December 27 proposed settlement agreements for Massachusetts and New Hampshire’s small municipal separate stormwater sewer system (MS4) permits. NACWA played an instrumental role working with impacted member utilities in these two states to negotiate a favorable settlement.

NACWA submitted comments January 2 on EPA’s recent proposal to alter the administrative appeals process through the Agency’s Environmental Appeal Board (EAB), support efforts to streamline the process but expressing concern over plans to eliminate stakeholder input and increase Agency political influence over the EAB’s deliberations.

In comments filed December 18 on EPA’s September 2019 notice, Water Quality Trading Under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Program (84 Fed. Reg. 49293), NACWA thanked EPA for its continued interest in jumpstarting market-based and other innovative approaches to improving water quality.

Before leaving Washington at week’s end for the holidays and the year, Congress is expected to pass a final Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) omnibus appropriations package that will fund the federal government at increased spending levels for the remainder of the fiscal year and includes several key NACWA and clean water sector priorities.

NACWA submitted comments to EPA December 16 on the draft Water Reuse Action Plan (WRAP) which lays out 46 proposed actions to guide water reuse initiatives across the sector.

EPA is soliciting public comments on a proposal to create a new, time-limited alternative dispute resolution (ADR) process, which would result “in a fundamental change to the Agency's long-held administrative exhaustion requirements” and make significant changes to the appeals process before the Environmental Appeals Board (EAB).

NACWA held a conference call with its State and Regional Partners on December 17 to discuss legislative efforts to address the problem of wipes improperly flushed into sewer systems.

NACWA convened a call last week at the request of the New York Water Environment Association (NYWEA) to discuss PFAS, EPA’s action on this issue to date including work under the Agency’s PFAS Action Plan, and how various states are tackling this complex topic.

In an important legislative achievement for NACWA and the clean water sector, House and Senate negotiators released their compromise Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA - the Full report and summary are viewable online) earlier this week and excluded the most problematic PFAS provisions.

NACWA helped spearhead a meeting of diverse stakeholders last week to discuss water affordability challenges. The group came together to discuss respective priorities around water affordability issues, potential areas for collaboration, and interest in advancing federal legislation.

EPA sent a proposed regulatory determination to establish a maximum contaminant level (MCL) for PFOA and PFOS, two of the most well-known PFAS constituents, to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on December 4. This is consistent with the Agency’s PFAS Action Plan, which envisioned EPA beginning this regulatory process.

NACWA’s Water Quality Committee held its last committee call of 2019 on December 4 and discussed a myriad of recent developments on the water quality front that will spill over into 2020.

NACWA and the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA) hosted Part 2 last week of a 4-part webinar series Dealing with Disruption: Operationalizing Resilience in the Water Sector.

NACWA is pleased to welcome two new members to the Association’s staff.

NACWA released a new document, A Clean Water Utility’s Guide to Considering Source Identification, Pretreatment, and Sampling Protocols for PFAS, on November 25 designed to provide helpful information to utilities that are dealing with growing questions around PFAS chemicals in wastewater and biosolids.

NACWA, along with its partners the American Water Works Association and the Water Environment Federation, met December 3 with political leadership for both the enforcement and water offices at EPA to discuss the groups’ report, Developing a New Framework for Household Affordability and Financial Capability Assessment in the Water Sector, which outlines a new approach to evaluating household affordability and utility financial capability across all water programs.

NACWA led a group of national and state stormwater associations in filing a November 25 brief with the US Supreme Court in support of the review of a Maryland court decision that could open municipal stormwater utilities to greater Clean Water Act (CWA) liability.

Congress returned to Washington, DC this week for what is expected to be a busy three-week legislative period prior to adjourning for the holiday recess.

In November 25 comments on EPA’s Preliminary Effluent Guidelines Program Plan 14, NACWA asked EPA to broaden its study of industries that may discharge PFAS.

Members of NACWA’s Pretreatment & Pollution Prevention Committee met on November 21 to discuss the implementation of the Dental Amalgam Rule. The 2017 rule requires that dental offices install dental amalgam separators and follow best management practices (BMPs) by July 2020. Dental offices must submit a one-time compliance report to their wastewater utility by October 12, 2020.