Registration is now open for NACWA’S 2018 Winter Conference—February 6 – 9, in Napa, CA— which will address some of the most profound issues confronting the clean water sector as utilities continue to deal with increasingly complex regulatory challenges and more stringent standards.

Unlike many waterbodies in the United States, the Great Lakes pose unique opportunities and challenges. On one hand, its miles of coastline and open water provide a boon for economic activity and recreation. However, the challenges, such as addressing water quality concerns, are multi-faceted and require the coordination between numerous states, not to mention Canada.

Cooperative federalism became a recurring theme among the many critical legal issues addressed at the 2017 National Clean Water Law Seminar and National Water Enforcement Workshop last week in Savannah, GA, which drew clean water professionals from around the country.

NACWA provided oral comments November 14, during an EPA listening session on the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rulemaking. EPA is moving quickly with a two-step rulemaking process to first withdraw the 2015 Clean Water Rule and reinstate the regulatory regime that was in place prior to that rule; and second, to develop a new WOTUS definition.

NACWA joined with several other water sector organizations this week in a letter to Congressional Appropriators reiterating several important funding asks for the federal Fiscal Year 2018 (FY18) budget.

NACWA and 25 other partners joined a brief filed by the City of New York in an appeal pending in the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals, involving a basement backup that allegedly resulted in wastewater seeping into groundwater and then migrating into the Long Island Sound.

NACWA met with senior officials from EPA’s Office of Policy on Nov. 20 to discuss the Association’s comments on the Agency’s regulatory reform initiative.

NACWA participated in a roundtable discussion on November 14, led by Congressional Members of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus Infrastructure Taskforce, on ways to modernize and meet the nation’s critical infrastructure needs.

As reported last week, H.R. 1, the House Republican’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act tax reform bill, maintained the tax-exempt status on municipal bonds but repealed the ability for advance refunding.

Echoing NACWA’s advocacy on affordability issues over the past decade, a new report from the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) recommends major changes to EPA’s procedure for evaluating ratepayer affordability and utility financial capability.

NACWA and the Water Environment Federation (WEF) filed an amicus brief on November 13 to support DC’s Nonwoven Disposable Products Act of 2016, the first law in the US to address the problems caused by flushable and non-flushable wipes.