Water Week 2020 is underway! While we regret that we are unable to gather in person this year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the public clean water sector is nonetheless closely engaged with Congress.

The Senate Environment & Public Works (EPW) Committee released its bipartisan draft version of the 2020 Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) this past week, which includes several top clean water priorities that NACWA has been advocating for over the past year.

NACWA joined with the Water Environment Federation (WEF), the Water Research Foundation (WRF), and the WateReuse Association to host a webinar April 22 providing an update on key clean water sector advocacy issues.

In a highly anticipated Clean Water Act (CWA) decision, the U.S. Supreme Court this week held that discharges originating from point sources that reach navigable waters through groundwater and other diffuse media are subject to CWA National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting requirements if they are the “functional equivalent” of discharges made directly into those waters.

Congress moved this week to advance another emergency supplemental spending package to provide more funding for COVID-19 testing, hospital aid and small business loans, as it struggles to support overwhelmed health systems and contain the national economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a Notice published in the Federal Register on April 21, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of the Army (Army) finalized the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, which provides updated regulations on what waters fall under the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act.

As part of the ongoing mediation for Massachusetts and New Hampshire’s small municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s) general permits, EPA published a Notice of Availability in the Federal Register of the proposed permit modifications on April 23.