Today, NACWA is celebrating Imagine a Day Without Water. An awareness event designed to center and shine a spotlight on clean water and drinking water sector personnel and the services they provide, Imagine a Day Without Water (IADWW) efforts are driven by the Value of Water Campaign, of which NACWA is a proud member.

NACWA submitted comments October 19 on the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA's) proposed 2020 Financial Capability Assessment for Clean Water Act Obligations (2020 FCA Document).

The US Senate is focused this week on advancing the pending Supreme Court nomination and the looming Congressional and Presidential elections. Last-ditch negotiations on COVID-19 relief are also continuing as of this writing between the White House and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

President Trump issued an Executive Order October 13 outlining a series of steps his administration will take to modernize the nation’s water resource management and water infrastructure.

The Missouri Product Stewardship Council held a Virtual Pharmaceuticals Stewardship Stakeholders Meeting on October 14 and 15 to discuss how to implement and encourage pharmaceutical take-back programs in the state.

The US Department of Agriculture is seeking applications for grants under a pilot program to help develop innovative treatment solutions of regional wastewater systems in rural America.

Industry trends indicate that an increasing number of tenured treatment plant operators are reaching retirement age, so developing a new generation of water and wastewater treatment plant operators has become an urgent need. The Knoxville Utilities Board’s (KUB) Operator Qualification Program was established to meet this need. The program ensures a consistent knowledge base for all operators, reduces the probability and potential of incidents caused by human error, and improves plant and operator efficiency.

This special edition of the Current will begin with a note from our Chief Executive Officer, Adam Krantz:

In the past week, two widely read and respected media outlets with a focus on Washington, DC policymaking ran in-depth stories on two critical clean water issues.

While there continues to be some back and forth between the White House and Congress on a potential COVID-19 relief package, it remains very unlikely that any final comprehensive bill comes together before the election, regardless of the pandemic’s continuing impact and devastation around the country.

The Southeast Stormwater Association (SESWA) held their 15th annual regional stormwater conference October 7-9 virtually this year.

NACWA is pleased to release to the membership today a new white paper on considerations around utility governance issues, especially in light of the impacts to utilities and ratepayers resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.