Clean Water Current

EPA’s Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Dental Category, also known as the Dental Amalgam Rule, went into effect for new sources on July 14.

NACWA was pleased to give a national update at the Kentucky-Tennessee Water Professionals Conference in Lexington, Kentucky on July 11.

NACWA signed onto a letter July 5, with a broad coalition of water and engineering organizations, to raise concerns about federal “materials preference” legislation for water and wastewater projects.

NACWA asked EPA, in its July 7 comments, to consider impacts on wastewater treatment and the aquatic environment, in its environmental risk assessment of pyrethroid insecticides, which are found in many consumer products such as pet flea control treatments, lice and scabies treatment, and impregnated clothing.

EPA released a suite of online resource materials in early July, to assist public health officials and recreational water managers address the increasing occurrence of cyanobacterial blooms, or other harmful algal blooms (HABs) in freshwaters.

EPA Region 1 issued a formal postponement, on June 29, of the effective date (July 1) of the general National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for small municipal separate stormwater systems (MS4s) in Massachusetts.

As healthcare and federal spending debates loom on Capitol Hill, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) fast-tracked energy legislation straight to the Senate floor.

NACWA participated in a July 10 press conference organized by Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), the District of Columbia’s non-voting member in the House of Representatives, to defend local DC laws from being blocked or overturned by riders added to the Fiscal Year 2018 appropriations bill.

Through high-level conversations with Trump Administration officials and Congress in recent weeks, NACWA is learning more about the infrastructure package under development by the White House and key congressional committees.

Congress continued preparing to address major Administration priorities throughout the month of June, including an infrastructure package and tax reform which could impact clean water agencies.

NACWA sent a letter June 22 to Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia’s non-voting member in the House of Representatives, supporting the wipes law passed by the D.C.

The Energy Workgroup will convene on Thursday, June 29, from 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm ET to discuss the cross-cutting issue of Renewable Identification Number (RINs) credits issued under EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

NACWA held a collaborative roundtable workshop on June 22 with the Western Coalition of Arid States (WESTCAS) in San Diego, CA, as part of the WESTCAS Annual Meeting.

NACWA was pleased to help sponsor The Conservation Fund’s National Summit on Infrastructure and the Environment, June 19-20.

NACWA offices will be closed July 3 – 4 in observance of Independence Day, 2017, and there will be no Clean Water Current issued during the week of July 3.

NACWA provided its initial thoughts, in a June 19 letter to EPA, regarding the Agency’s new effort to redefine “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS).

NACWA joined with a coalition of water sector organizations June 15 on a letter to oppose proposed cuts in the Trump Administration’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 budget to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Water and Wastewater Loan and Grant program.

The wipes industry is trying to block the District of Columbia’s wipes legislation, the Nonwoven Disposable Products Act of 2016, through the Congressional appropriations process. DC’s legislation is the first in the US to address the problems caused by flushable and non-flushable wipes.

EPA has taken action in a legal case involving development of total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) that could have national legal ramifications, and in which NACWA will soon be participating.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt sought to defend the Administration’s proposed EPA budget last week as he testified before the House Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations subcommittee.