After more than a month away from Washington, DC in their home states and districts, Members of Congress return to Capitol Hill next week for what is expected to be a busy fall. While several hot button issues are part of the mix, the legislative calendar includes several items that impact public clean water utilities.

During meetings on Capitol Hill and at EPA August 22, the lead authors of the joint NACWA, American Water Works Association (AWWA) and Water Environment Federation (WEF) report, Developing a New Framework for Household Affordability and Financial Capability Assessment in the Water Sector, provided additional background on a proposed new approach to evaluate household affordability and utility financial capability to replace EPA’s current method that relies on median household income

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) released a new policy memo August 21 that significantly restricts the use of Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs) in settlement agreements with state and local governments, including wet weather consent decrees. The new DOJ position comes despite strong pushback from EPA to limiting the use of SEPs.

NACWA submitted comments August 23 to EPA on a proposed new analytical procedure for validating 24 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) using liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry analysis.

NACWA was active at the Water Finance Conference in Washington, DC last week, serving as the lead sponsor of the event and speaking on a number of topics including affordability and low-income ratepayer water assistance programs.