Washington State became the first state with a wipes labeling law on March 25, when Gov. Jay Inslee signed Washington’s HB 2565.

NACWA met with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) via conference call on March 19 to discuss the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS), the regulatory program that manages security of high-risk facilities that possess any of 300 chemicals of interest above a specified threshold.

In a recent report released March 9, NACWA corporate affiliate Arcadis reviewed readily available fate and transport models for groundwater leaching, surface water runoff, and plant uptake as they apply to PFAS in land applied biosolids and residuals. NACWA and the Water Environment Federation (WEF) partnered with the American Forest and Paper Association (AF&PA) and the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement (NCASI) to complete this modeling review.

NACWA submitted comments March 13 on EPA’s Draft Inventory of US Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2018. The annual Inventory provides nationwide estimates for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for different sectors, including wastewater treatment, and is intended to be used only for informational purposes.

Congress continues working around the clock to reach agreement on its next round of coronavirus stimulus legislation – and NACWA is pleased that proposals under consideration include water/wastewater assistance.

As the impacts from the COVID-19 outbreak continue to spread across the country, NACWA is committed to providing the highest level of service and resources to its members during this difficult time. Member utilities are doing incredible things to keep their staff and communities safe and their utilities providing service without disruption that all clean water agencies can benefit from.

As the economic impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic further reverberate throughout the entire U.S. economy, NACWA staff have been in continual engagement with Congress to advocate that any legislative stimulus package must include assistance for hard-hit public clean water utilities.

As part of the ongoing federal response to COVID-19, the President yesterday signed into law the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (HR 6201). This $100 billion law is considered “Phase 2” of the COVID-19 response.

Given the significant public health and travel restrictions in place as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, NACWA’s Executive Committee and executive staff made the difficult decision this week to cancel or postpone all of the Association’s in-person meetings through the end of July.