NACWA was pleased to give a national update at the Kentucky-Tennessee Water Professionals Conference in Lexington, Kentucky on July 11.

NACWA signed onto a letter July 5, with a broad coalition of water and engineering organizations, to raise concerns about federal “materials preference” legislation for water and wastewater projects.

NACWA asked EPA, in its July 7 comments, to consider impacts on wastewater treatment and the aquatic environment, in its environmental risk assessment of pyrethroid insecticides, which are found in many consumer products such as pet flea control treatments, lice and scabies treatment, and impregnated clothing.

EPA released a suite of online resource materials in early July, to assist public health officials and recreational water managers address the increasing occurrence of cyanobacterial blooms, or other harmful algal blooms (HABs) in freshwaters.

EPA Region 1 issued a formal postponement, on June 29, of the effective date (July 1) of the general National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for small municipal separate stormwater systems (MS4s) in Massachusetts.

As healthcare and federal spending debates loom on Capitol Hill, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) fast-tracked energy legislation straight to the Senate floor.

NACWA participated in a July 10 press conference organized by Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), the District of Columbia’s non-voting member in the House of Representatives, to defend local DC laws from being blocked or overturned by riders added to the Fiscal Year 2018 appropriations bill.

Through high-level conversations with Trump Administration officials and Congress in recent weeks, NACWA is learning more about the infrastructure package under development by the White House and key congressional committees.