NACWA President Kishia Powell has established a new standing Environmental Justice Committee that will be co-chaired by Andrew Lee, Interim General Manager/CEO at Seattle Public Utilities, and Sharise Horne, Director of Community Benefits & Partnerships at Louisville & Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District.

The U.S. Treasury – the federal department implementing the COVID-19 Relief for State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) program that was signed into law as part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) – published its final rule for the program on January 6.

NACWA led a water sector coalition letter this week to U.S. EPA urging that as the Agency moves forward in awarding Water Workforce Infrastructure Development Grants, utilities are given direct consideration as a potential recipient regardless of how they are locally structured.

In early December 2021, U.S. EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) published a proposed rulemaking for a "Revised Definition of Waters of the United States."

NACWA, along with various other partners, joined the California Association of Sanitation Agencies in a response to the Sierra Club’s Sludge in the Garden: Toxic PFAS in Home Fertilizers Made from Sewage Sludge.

NACWA held a virtual meeting January 6 with EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Radhika Fox and other senior EPA Office of Water staff to discuss implementation issues and distribution of funds from the recently passed bipartisan infrastructure legislation, also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

NACWA and other water sector organizations sent a letter this week to the Biden Administration regarding implementation of the Buy America, Build America (BABA) requirements that were signed into law as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

NACWA submitted initial comments to EPA on December 20, 2021 on the Agency’s Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to potentially develop regulations for pyrolysis and gasification units.

Just before Christmas, Senator Joe Manchin (R-WV) – a key moderate Democrat whose vote is critical for passage of the President’s Build Back Better Act – announced he could not support the reconciliation package in its current form, abruptly derailing Democratic leadership’s agenda and hopes to pass the bill in the Senate.