Advocacy & Analysis
For more than 40 years, NACWA has been the leader in national clean water advocacy, and the strongest voice for publicly owned wastewater and stormwater utilities. Whether educating lawmakers on key clean water issues in the halls of Congress, advancing critical regulatory priorities with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or other federal agencies, or litigating in courts across the nation on behalf of municipal clean water interests, NACWA is always at the forefront of the advocacy effort, representing clean water utilities, their communities and their ratepayers.
We invite you to learn more about NACWA’s current advocacy initiatives and read in-depth analyses of how current legislative, regulatory, and legal developments will impact public clean water agencies. From late-breaking news in our Advocacy Alerts to more comprehensive coverage of key advocacy priorities in our Updates, NACWA’s resources provide a comprehensive source of clean water information. This page also highlights current NACWA advocacy campaigns and contains critical advocacy tools to help clean water agencies add their voice to that of others around the country in elevating clean water as a national priority.
Advocacy
Alerts
Build Support for Clean Water: Engage with Your Congressional Delegation During August Recess
As August approaches, utilities have a valuable opportunity to make their voices heard and advocate for critical clean water solutions. During the Congressional August recess, when members of Congress return to their home states and districts for extended work periods, utilities can engage directly with their federal elected representatives to highlight the importance of clean water investment and the challenges utilities face in safeguarding public health and the environment.
Why Engage During August Recess?
The August recess provides a unique window to connect with Congressional Delegations on a more personal level. During this time, legislators are more likely to be in their home districts, away from the hustle and bustle of Washington, D.C., and open to meeting with their constituents. By taking advantage of this opportunity, we can effectively raise awareness about the pressing issues impacting our communities and advocate for meaningful solutions before legislators return for end-of-the-year dealmaking on important issues including federal funding and PFAS.
Consider a Facility Tour to Showcase the Impact of Clean Water Efforts
One powerful way to convey the importance of clean water initiatives is to invite your Congressional Delegation members to tour your facilities. As many utilities know, tours showcase the essential work utilities provide 24/7/365, and allow you to offer firsthand insights into current water quality challenges and the innovative solutions utilities employ to protect our water resources.
Think about emphasizing the following key points with your delegation:
- Environmental Impact: Highlight the leading role clean water facilities play in safeguarding the environment and protecting our shared natural resources.
- Public Health: Demonstrate how clean water agencies are critical entities in their communities doing the work necessary every single day to protect public health and well-being.
- Investment in Infrastructure and Water Affordability: Highlight the impact that federal infrastructure investments will have for the water sector generally and your community specifically, and showcase the need for continued investment in water infrastructure to address aging systems, prepare for future challenges, and help keep rates more affordable.
- The Need for Workable, Science-Driven Policy: Discuss emerging challenges your utility and community face from today’s most high-profile water issues – perhaps PFAS, nutrients, or climate resilience. Share the steps you are taking and the constraints you face in trying to address challenges for which there is no easy clean water solution. These issues garner lots of attention in Washington but it is critical that policymakers hear from you as utilities confronting these issues on the ground in their local districts.
- Job Creation: Illustrate how clean water projects support local economies and provide valuable job opportunities within the community.
- Offer Specifics: No one knows the challenges your utility faces better than you. Don’t shy away from getting into more detail on issues with particular importance to your utility. Please reach out to a member of NACWA’s government affairs team with questions or help on specific topics. A more in-depth overview of NACWA’s legislative priorities is provided in our 118th Congressional priorities letter.
Engagement Tips
To ensure successful engagement with your Congressional Delegation, consider the following tips:
- Plan in Advance: Reach out to your legislators' offices early to schedule the facility tour and meetings. NACWA has developed a Congressional Toolbox - your ultimate resource for engaging with your U.S. Congressperson or Senator. Here, you'll find everything you need to prepare, contact, and arrange a meeting with your elected representatives. Additionally, we offer comprehensive resources to help you plan and execute a compelling facility tour with lawmakers.
- Be Clear and Concise: Prepare a short and impactful message about the critical issues you wish to discuss, focusing on your specific challenges and needs.
- Offer Data and Evidence: Support your claims with data and evidence, demonstrating the positive impact of clean water initiatives on the local community. Your unique story will resonate most with your elected leaders, but feel free to access NACWA’s Advocacy Priorities page to learn more about specific areas of national clean water concern, including: PFAS, integrated planning, environmental justice, and more!
- Collective Voice: Collaborate with other NACWA members in your area to present a united front and emphasize the broad impact of clean water efforts.
Share Your Experience
After your meetings and facility tours, share your experiences with the NACWA community. By exchanging insights, we can learn from one another and strengthen our collective advocacy efforts.
Together, We Can Make a Difference
By taking advantage of the August recess to engage with our Congressional Delegations and inviting them to tour our facilities, we have an opportunity to underscore the significance of clean water initiatives for our communities, the environment, and the essential services the public clean water sector provides.
Your commitment to clean water advocacy can influence policy decisions and bring about positive change. Let's seize this moment to amplify our voices and work together towards a sustainable and clean water future!
Please contact any member of NACWA’s government affairs team with any questions or to discuss your plans for August recess.
Regulatory Updates
Build Support for Clean Water: Engage with Your Congressional Delegation During August Recess
As August approaches, utilities have a valuable opportunity to make their voices heard and advocate for critical clean water solutions. During the Congressional August recess, when members of Congress return to their home states and districts for extended work periods, utilities can engage directly with their federal elected representatives to highlight the importance of clean water investment and the challenges utilities face in safeguarding public health and the environment.
Why Engage During August Recess?
The August recess provides a unique window to connect with Congressional Delegations on a more personal level. During this time, legislators are more likely to be in their home districts, away from the hustle and bustle of Washington, D.C., and open to meeting with their constituents. By taking advantage of this opportunity, we can effectively raise awareness about the pressing issues impacting our communities and advocate for meaningful solutions before legislators return for end-of-the-year dealmaking on important issues including federal funding and PFAS.
Consider a Facility Tour to Showcase the Impact of Clean Water Efforts
One powerful way to convey the importance of clean water initiatives is to invite your Congressional Delegation members to tour your facilities. As many utilities know, tours showcase the essential work utilities provide 24/7/365, and allow you to offer firsthand insights into current water quality challenges and the innovative solutions utilities employ to protect our water resources.
Think about emphasizing the following key points with your delegation:
- Environmental Impact: Highlight the leading role clean water facilities play in safeguarding the environment and protecting our shared natural resources.
- Public Health: Demonstrate how clean water agencies are critical entities in their communities doing the work necessary every single day to protect public health and well-being.
- Investment in Infrastructure and Water Affordability: Highlight the impact that federal infrastructure investments will have for the water sector generally and your community specifically, and showcase the need for continued investment in water infrastructure to address aging systems, prepare for future challenges, and help keep rates more affordable.
- The Need for Workable, Science-Driven Policy: Discuss emerging challenges your utility and community face from today’s most high-profile water issues – perhaps PFAS, nutrients, or climate resilience. Share the steps you are taking and the constraints you face in trying to address challenges for which there is no easy clean water solution. These issues garner lots of attention in Washington but it is critical that policymakers hear from you as utilities confronting these issues on the ground in their local districts.
- Job Creation: Illustrate how clean water projects support local economies and provide valuable job opportunities within the community.
- Offer Specifics: No one knows the challenges your utility faces better than you. Don’t shy away from getting into more detail on issues with particular importance to your utility. Please reach out to a member of NACWA’s government affairs team with questions or help on specific topics. A more in-depth overview of NACWA’s legislative priorities is provided in our 118th Congressional priorities letter.
Engagement Tips
To ensure successful engagement with your Congressional Delegation, consider the following tips:
- Plan in Advance: Reach out to your legislators' offices early to schedule the facility tour and meetings. NACWA has developed a Congressional Toolbox - your ultimate resource for engaging with your U.S. Congressperson or Senator. Here, you'll find everything you need to prepare, contact, and arrange a meeting with your elected representatives. Additionally, we offer comprehensive resources to help you plan and execute a compelling facility tour with lawmakers.
- Be Clear and Concise: Prepare a short and impactful message about the critical issues you wish to discuss, focusing on your specific challenges and needs.
- Offer Data and Evidence: Support your claims with data and evidence, demonstrating the positive impact of clean water initiatives on the local community. Your unique story will resonate most with your elected leaders, but feel free to access NACWA’s Advocacy Priorities page to learn more about specific areas of national clean water concern, including: PFAS, integrated planning, environmental justice, and more!
- Collective Voice: Collaborate with other NACWA members in your area to present a united front and emphasize the broad impact of clean water efforts.
Share Your Experience
After your meetings and facility tours, share your experiences with the NACWA community. By exchanging insights, we can learn from one another and strengthen our collective advocacy efforts.
Together, We Can Make a Difference
By taking advantage of the August recess to engage with our Congressional Delegations and inviting them to tour our facilities, we have an opportunity to underscore the significance of clean water initiatives for our communities, the environment, and the essential services the public clean water sector provides.
Your commitment to clean water advocacy can influence policy decisions and bring about positive change. Let's seize this moment to amplify our voices and work together towards a sustainable and clean water future!
Please contact any member of NACWA’s government affairs team with any questions or to discuss your plans for August recess.
Legislative
Updates
Build Support for Clean Water: Engage with Your Congressional Delegation During August Recess
As August approaches, utilities have a valuable opportunity to make their voices heard and advocate for critical clean water solutions. During the Congressional August recess, when members of Congress return to their home states and districts for extended work periods, utilities can engage directly with their federal elected representatives to highlight the importance of clean water investment and the challenges utilities face in safeguarding public health and the environment.
Why Engage During August Recess?
The August recess provides a unique window to connect with Congressional Delegations on a more personal level. During this time, legislators are more likely to be in their home districts, away from the hustle and bustle of Washington, D.C., and open to meeting with their constituents. By taking advantage of this opportunity, we can effectively raise awareness about the pressing issues impacting our communities and advocate for meaningful solutions before legislators return for end-of-the-year dealmaking on important issues including federal funding and PFAS.
Consider a Facility Tour to Showcase the Impact of Clean Water Efforts
One powerful way to convey the importance of clean water initiatives is to invite your Congressional Delegation members to tour your facilities. As many utilities know, tours showcase the essential work utilities provide 24/7/365, and allow you to offer firsthand insights into current water quality challenges and the innovative solutions utilities employ to protect our water resources.
Think about emphasizing the following key points with your delegation:
- Environmental Impact: Highlight the leading role clean water facilities play in safeguarding the environment and protecting our shared natural resources.
- Public Health: Demonstrate how clean water agencies are critical entities in their communities doing the work necessary every single day to protect public health and well-being.
- Investment in Infrastructure and Water Affordability: Highlight the impact that federal infrastructure investments will have for the water sector generally and your community specifically, and showcase the need for continued investment in water infrastructure to address aging systems, prepare for future challenges, and help keep rates more affordable.
- The Need for Workable, Science-Driven Policy: Discuss emerging challenges your utility and community face from today’s most high-profile water issues – perhaps PFAS, nutrients, or climate resilience. Share the steps you are taking and the constraints you face in trying to address challenges for which there is no easy clean water solution. These issues garner lots of attention in Washington but it is critical that policymakers hear from you as utilities confronting these issues on the ground in their local districts.
- Job Creation: Illustrate how clean water projects support local economies and provide valuable job opportunities within the community.
- Offer Specifics: No one knows the challenges your utility faces better than you. Don’t shy away from getting into more detail on issues with particular importance to your utility. Please reach out to a member of NACWA’s government affairs team with questions or help on specific topics. A more in-depth overview of NACWA’s legislative priorities is provided in our 118th Congressional priorities letter.
Engagement Tips
To ensure successful engagement with your Congressional Delegation, consider the following tips:
- Plan in Advance: Reach out to your legislators' offices early to schedule the facility tour and meetings. NACWA has developed a Congressional Toolbox - your ultimate resource for engaging with your U.S. Congressperson or Senator. Here, you'll find everything you need to prepare, contact, and arrange a meeting with your elected representatives. Additionally, we offer comprehensive resources to help you plan and execute a compelling facility tour with lawmakers.
- Be Clear and Concise: Prepare a short and impactful message about the critical issues you wish to discuss, focusing on your specific challenges and needs.
- Offer Data and Evidence: Support your claims with data and evidence, demonstrating the positive impact of clean water initiatives on the local community. Your unique story will resonate most with your elected leaders, but feel free to access NACWA’s Advocacy Priorities page to learn more about specific areas of national clean water concern, including: PFAS, integrated planning, environmental justice, and more!
- Collective Voice: Collaborate with other NACWA members in your area to present a united front and emphasize the broad impact of clean water efforts.
Share Your Experience
After your meetings and facility tours, share your experiences with the NACWA community. By exchanging insights, we can learn from one another and strengthen our collective advocacy efforts.
Together, We Can Make a Difference
By taking advantage of the August recess to engage with our Congressional Delegations and inviting them to tour our facilities, we have an opportunity to underscore the significance of clean water initiatives for our communities, the environment, and the essential services the public clean water sector provides.
Your commitment to clean water advocacy can influence policy decisions and bring about positive change. Let's seize this moment to amplify our voices and work together towards a sustainable and clean water future!
Please contact any member of NACWA’s government affairs team with any questions or to discuss your plans for August recess.
Legal
Updates
Build Support for Clean Water: Engage with Your Congressional Delegation During August Recess
As August approaches, utilities have a valuable opportunity to make their voices heard and advocate for critical clean water solutions. During the Congressional August recess, when members of Congress return to their home states and districts for extended work periods, utilities can engage directly with their federal elected representatives to highlight the importance of clean water investment and the challenges utilities face in safeguarding public health and the environment.
Why Engage During August Recess?
The August recess provides a unique window to connect with Congressional Delegations on a more personal level. During this time, legislators are more likely to be in their home districts, away from the hustle and bustle of Washington, D.C., and open to meeting with their constituents. By taking advantage of this opportunity, we can effectively raise awareness about the pressing issues impacting our communities and advocate for meaningful solutions before legislators return for end-of-the-year dealmaking on important issues including federal funding and PFAS.
Consider a Facility Tour to Showcase the Impact of Clean Water Efforts
One powerful way to convey the importance of clean water initiatives is to invite your Congressional Delegation members to tour your facilities. As many utilities know, tours showcase the essential work utilities provide 24/7/365, and allow you to offer firsthand insights into current water quality challenges and the innovative solutions utilities employ to protect our water resources.
Think about emphasizing the following key points with your delegation:
- Environmental Impact: Highlight the leading role clean water facilities play in safeguarding the environment and protecting our shared natural resources.
- Public Health: Demonstrate how clean water agencies are critical entities in their communities doing the work necessary every single day to protect public health and well-being.
- Investment in Infrastructure and Water Affordability: Highlight the impact that federal infrastructure investments will have for the water sector generally and your community specifically, and showcase the need for continued investment in water infrastructure to address aging systems, prepare for future challenges, and help keep rates more affordable.
- The Need for Workable, Science-Driven Policy: Discuss emerging challenges your utility and community face from today’s most high-profile water issues – perhaps PFAS, nutrients, or climate resilience. Share the steps you are taking and the constraints you face in trying to address challenges for which there is no easy clean water solution. These issues garner lots of attention in Washington but it is critical that policymakers hear from you as utilities confronting these issues on the ground in their local districts.
- Job Creation: Illustrate how clean water projects support local economies and provide valuable job opportunities within the community.
- Offer Specifics: No one knows the challenges your utility faces better than you. Don’t shy away from getting into more detail on issues with particular importance to your utility. Please reach out to a member of NACWA’s government affairs team with questions or help on specific topics. A more in-depth overview of NACWA’s legislative priorities is provided in our 118th Congressional priorities letter.
Engagement Tips
To ensure successful engagement with your Congressional Delegation, consider the following tips:
- Plan in Advance: Reach out to your legislators' offices early to schedule the facility tour and meetings. NACWA has developed a Congressional Toolbox - your ultimate resource for engaging with your U.S. Congressperson or Senator. Here, you'll find everything you need to prepare, contact, and arrange a meeting with your elected representatives. Additionally, we offer comprehensive resources to help you plan and execute a compelling facility tour with lawmakers.
- Be Clear and Concise: Prepare a short and impactful message about the critical issues you wish to discuss, focusing on your specific challenges and needs.
- Offer Data and Evidence: Support your claims with data and evidence, demonstrating the positive impact of clean water initiatives on the local community. Your unique story will resonate most with your elected leaders, but feel free to access NACWA’s Advocacy Priorities page to learn more about specific areas of national clean water concern, including: PFAS, integrated planning, environmental justice, and more!
- Collective Voice: Collaborate with other NACWA members in your area to present a united front and emphasize the broad impact of clean water efforts.
Share Your Experience
After your meetings and facility tours, share your experiences with the NACWA community. By exchanging insights, we can learn from one another and strengthen our collective advocacy efforts.
Together, We Can Make a Difference
By taking advantage of the August recess to engage with our Congressional Delegations and inviting them to tour our facilities, we have an opportunity to underscore the significance of clean water initiatives for our communities, the environment, and the essential services the public clean water sector provides.
Your commitment to clean water advocacy can influence policy decisions and bring about positive change. Let's seize this moment to amplify our voices and work together towards a sustainable and clean water future!
Please contact any member of NACWA’s government affairs team with any questions or to discuss your plans for August recess.
Advocacy Priorities
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Stormwater
As the nation’s leading advocacy voice for municipal stormwater utilities across the country, NACWA is dedicated to protecting water quality; addressing large scale watershed impacts, such as flooding and erosion; and solving related modern-day challenges, such as water quality impairment from stormwater runoff and land-use impacts.
The Association and its individual members are committed to advancing robust, innovative programs and working collaboratively with regulators and stakeholders. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) MS4 General Permit Remand Rule, issued in early 2017, represents a change in the development and issuance of National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for small Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s).
COVID-19 Congressional Advocacy Resources
Since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, NACWA has been working with our clean water agency members and our partner organizations across the water and municipal sector to urge Congress to act to provide federal relief to utilities and assistance to households unable to pay their water bills. NACWA’s ongoing advocacy encompasses direct funding for utilities for lost revenues and COVID-19-related expenses, assistance to households unable to pay their water bills, support for essential employers and workers, stabilizing and improving municipal financing tools, and engaging with the utility perspective in the conversation around water shutoffs.
With the pandemic persisting far beyond initial expectations, Congress has continued to negotiate the terms of another round of major COVID-19 relief, with many twists and turns over the summer and fall. As of late October 2020, differences between Congress and the White House appeared irreconcilable until after the election. NACWA remains engaged with Congressional staff in the meantime as is preparing for further action on the next round of “relief” or “recovery” in late 2020 or early 2021.
Climate Adaptation & Resiliency
Climate change impacts are already affecting clean water agencies and are projected to grow in the years ahead. Increased intensity of storm events and flooding, the threat of sea level rise at treatment works—traditionally located on low-lying coastal land in a community—and increased attention to water scarcity and reuse are just some of the ways in which clean water agencies are seeing impacts from a rapidly changing climate. As the public and government at all levels becomes more concerned, legislative, regulatory and legal pressures to control greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change impacts will grow. Given the critical services clean water agencies provide in their communities, our sector needs to be closely engaged in climate and resiliency conversations.
NACWA believes that climate change is primarily a water issue. The Association’s advocacy focuses on the interrelationships between water resources and climate change. NACWA is also committed to ensuring that greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater treatment are accurately estimated, and that any efforts that impact the wastewater sector are reasonable.
Toilets Are Not Trashcans
NACWA's Toilets Are Not Trashcans campaign is focused on protecting the pipes, pumps, plants, and personnel of wastewater utilities across the nation by reducing the materials that are inappropriately flushed or drained into the sewer system.
Products such as wipes, paper towels and feminine hygiene products should not be flushed, but often are, causing problems for utilities that amount to billions of dollars in maintenance and repair costs—costs which ultimately
pass on to the consumer. Other consumer products contain ingredients, such as plastic microbeads and triclosan, which may harm water quality and the environment. Fats, oils and greases (FOG) and unused pharmaceuticals should also be kept
out of the sewer system.
Nutrients & Farm Bill
Pursuing New Tools to Address Nutrient-Related Water Quality Challenges
Nutrient pollution remains a substantial challenge to the water resources of the United States. Deficiencies in the federal regulatory and policy framework, as well as the lack and inflexibility of financial resources, have constrained needed progress. These factors are driving a strong interest across nutrient management stakeholders in developing and implementing alternative nutrient management approaches.
At the same time, as outlined in more detail below, NACWA played a leading role in securing legislative language in the 2018 Farm Bill that will help public clean water utilities better engage upstream with agricultural partners to achieve meaningful water quality improvements through a holistic, watershed approach.
Integrated Planning
Over the last 45 years, communities have been responding to a growing list of Clean Water Act (CWA) regulatory mandates to improve the nation's water quality. Often taking on compounded wastewater and stormwater responsibilities, many communities are struggling to adequately allocate strained financial resources to these clean water needs.
Thanks to advocacy efforts by NACWA, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and others, EPA recognized the regulated community’s need for flexibility, and developed its Integrated Municipal Stormwater and Wastewater Planning Approach Framework (IP Framework) in 2012. NACWA and its members have been working with EPA and state water regulators ever since to ensure the Framework can be utilized by communities when appropriate.
Affordable Water, Resilient Communities
There is no issue more central to NACWA’s advocacy than increasing the availability of infrastructure funding for public clean water utilities, which includes increased federal funding to support this critical infrastructure sector.
Originally founded in 1970 as an organization focused on ensuring appropriate distribution of federal construction grant dollars under the Clean Water Act, the Association has maintained a strong commitment to advancing federal clean water funding.
At the same time, NACWA has also evolved over the years to recognize the importance of other water infrastructure funding mechanisms including municipal bonds, innovative financing approaches, and public-private partnerships.
PFAS
Publicly owned clean water utilities are “passive receivers” of PFAS, since they do not produce or manufacture PFAS but de facto “receive” these chemicals through the raw influent that arrives at the treatment plant. This influent can come from domestic, industrial, and commercial sources and may contain PFAS constituents ranging from trace to higher concentrations, depending on the nature of the dischargers to the sewer system.
Although the influent is not generated by the utility, the utility is responsible for treating it under the Clean Water Act. Municipal clean water utilities were not traditionally designed or intended with PFAS treatment capabilities in mind. Today, there are no cost-effective techniques available to treat or remove PFAS for the sheer volume of wastewater managed daily by clean water utilities.
NACWA’s advocacy priorities on PFAS include urging source control, empowering the Clean Water Act pretreatment program, preventing public utilities and their customers from unintended liabilities and costs of PFAS management, and advancing research to support sound rulemaking that protects public health and the environment.
Congressional Toolbox
NACWA encourages all of its public utility members to arrange regular meetings with their Senators and Representatives.