Clean Water Current

NACWA submitted comments to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week on EPA’s Study of Oil and Gas Extraction Wastewater Management, which considered the current management practices for wastewater generated by both conventional and unconventional (“fracking”) oil and gas extraction from onshore facilities.

NACWA sent a letter to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on July 2, requesting assistance in clarifying influent and effluent sampling requirements for pretreatment programs of publicly owned treatment works (POTWs).

A new report by the Northeast-Midwest Institute assesses the implementation of a federally funded conservation program, with a particular concentration on its potential to improve water quality, focusing on a set of locations across the Upper Mississippi River Basin.

A major bipartisan effort to address PFAS chemicals advanced last week, as a package of bills that had been passed by the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee was successfully attached to the Senate’s National Defense Authorization Act. The Defense bill passed the Senate on an 86-8 vote.

The US House of Representatives passed a Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) spending package on June 25, which includes significant increases for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other agencies. The bill (H.R. 3055) would provide $9.5 billion to EPA in FY20, a roughly $1.5 billion increase over current (FY19) spending. This spending would be the second-highest EPA budget in history.

NACWA presented at a workshop last week in Los Angeles hosted by member utility LA Sanitation and Environment (LASAN) to discuss how integrated planning (IP) has the potential to more strategically help Los Angeles, and communities across the country, better manage costs and prioritize their clean water investments.

NACWA member utility the Louisville/Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) released the first ever water equity roadmap for the metropolitan Louisville area on June 27.

NACWA joined the WateReuse Association, the American Water Works Association, the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, the Water Environment Federation and the Water Research Foundation to submit comments to EPA on July 1 to inform EPA as it develops its Water Reuse Action Plan (WRAP). Through this joint sector effort, comprehensive input was compiled and prioritized.

After months of consideration and bipartisan negotiation, the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee last week marked up and unanimously passed via bipartisan agreement a comprehensive PFAS legislative package, the PFAS Release Disclosure and Protection Act of 2019 (S. 1507), to respond to growing public concerns about PFAS.

NACWA joined a host of public clean water associations in filing an amicus brief on June 24 that defends the legality of water quality trading.

The US House of Representatives is expected to complete its work this week on several more of the 12 annual Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) appropriations bills for federal funding. The House finished debate last week, and passed a “minibus,”—a reference to a smaller “omnibus” spending bill—which incorporated four of the twelve annual bills, including funding for the US Army Corps of Engineers and US Department of Energy, among others.

NACWA joined with other organizations from the water sector last week to discuss workforce challenges facing clean water and drinking water utilities in a meeting with senior EPA Office of Water officials.

The US House of Representatives began floor consideration last week of the first set of Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) funding bills with several key agencies addressed in this first package, including the Department on Energy (DOE) and the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).

NACWA met with senior EPA Office of Water and Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance staff again last week to discuss compliance issues for combined sewer overflow (CSO) communities that reach the end of their long-term control plans (LTCPs).

After months of consideration and bipartisan negotiation, the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee released final text of a comprehensive piece of legislation late last week to respond to growing concerns about PFAS.

NACWA hosted the second Hot Topics in Clean Water Law Webinar of the year on June 11, focusing on PFAS-centric issues happening federally in the legislative, regulatory, and legal space.

NACWA’s Small & Mid-Size Utility Workgroup met on June 12 to discuss the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF), and the Association’s efforts to not only advocate for funding on behalf of its members, but also for a more streamlined process for utilizing that federal funds.

NACWA and the WateReuse Association submitted comments on June 7 to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding the application of the Clean Water Act (CWA) National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program to the release of pollutants that originate from a point source, but are conveyed to navigable waters by a nonpoint source such as groundwater [84 Fed. Reg. 16810 (Apr. 23, 2019)].

President Trump signed a long-awaited legislative package (H.R. 2157) on June 6, which provides $19.1 Billion in supplemental disaster relief to states and communities impacted by recent natural disasters. These include Hurricanes Florence and Michael, Typhoon Yutu, and wildfires and earthquakes that occurred in 2018.

NACWA, along with the Water Environment Federation, the American Water Works Association, and the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, met with various individuals representing the solid waste and recycling sectors on June 4 in an effort to foster a continued dialogue that public wastewater treatment facilities and landfills are passive receivers, and not sources, of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).