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This week NACWA convened a dialogue with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and key stakeholder groups and testified in a Congressional hearing on EPA’s integrated planning and regulatory prioritization initiative.  This Advocacy Alert provides an update on NACWA’s progress on both the regulatory and legislative fronts related to the Association’s broader Money Matters. . . Smarter Investment to Advance Clean Water™ campaign, makes EPA’s PowerPoint presentation  at the meeting available to the membership, and seeks input from the membership on several key issues related to EPA’s proposed integrated planning framework.

As you read through this Alert, please be aware that NACWA is requesting the following input on a variety of items involving EPA’s integrated planning and regulatory prioritization approach.  Specifically, the Association would like by January 6, 2012:

• Comments and questions regarding the elements of EPA’s draft framework and how it may be implemented;
• Brief (one or two-page) summaries of integrated planning-type efforts you may have underway at your utility or descriptions of how you anticipate your utility would prioritize existing requirements pursuant to an integrated planning approach. This will help NACWA begin developing a database and collecting and tracking this information as the integrated planning effort progresses;
• Whether your public agency is interested in being an EPA pilot community for an integrated plan; and
• A list of which EPA Listening Sessions (see discussion below) your agency plans to participate in.

Please send the above information to NACWA’s Chris Hornback at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to the extent possible by January 6, 2012.

NACWA Hosts Integrated Planning Dialogue with EPA

Public utility leaders and representatives from key stakeholder groups gathered in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to discuss EPA’s new integrated planning initiative.  Convened by NACWA, the dialogue provided the clean water community with its first opportunity to hear details from EPA on the Agency’s framework for integrated planning and to provide comments and feedback directly to the Agency on its ongoing work.  The dialogue also provided an opportunity to hear from stakeholders, including state water regulators and environmental NGOs, who will be critical to the success of the initiative.

Before hearing from EPA, representatives from four NACWA member agencies presented case studies on the current Clean Water Act challenges they face and the potential for integrated planning to better help their communities address these challenges in a rational and affordable manner.  To varying degrees, these communities are already doing some form of integrated planning and the case study presenters stressed the importance of EPA embracing these types of efforts.  These case studies included New York City, Milwaukee, SD1 in Northern Kentucky, and Baltimore.  The case studies underscored the fact that while each city faced site-specific Clean Water Act and affordability-related challenges, each could benefit from an integrated planning approach.

EPA Outlines Guiding Principles, Elements of Integrated Planning Framework
Nancy Stoner, Acting Assistant Administrator for Water and Cynthia Giles, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA)  kicked off EPA’s portion of the dialogue by recognizing the need for better approaches and reaffirming their commitment to move forward with the effort aggressively.

It was clear, however, that the single most important issue was what implementation mechanism such a plan would utilize.  Specifically, would the plan be structured like a permit or would it take the form of a consent decree or even some type of a hybrid or even a new mechanism, such as a memorandum of understanding (MOU) or memorandum of agreement (MOA).   Addressing concerns that EPA’s initiative was merely an effort to expand federal clean water enforcement activities, Giles stressed that the framework is not about extending the reach of existing EPA enforcement.  Instead, EPA is looking for ways to implement the framework through the permitting program to the extent possible.  Both speakers also underscored the fact that this process would be available on an entirely voluntary basis to communities interested in pursuing it.  NACWA, however, will be watching this process closely to ensure that the integrated planning mechanism is more akin to a permit and does not get bogged down in a litigious, enforcement-style process.

EPA underscored that all current Clean Water Act regulatory requirements would still have to be met — a principle that NACWA has shared throughout discussion on this effort.  The integrated plan, which would be developed by the municipality, would, however, allow for a sequencing or prioritizing of the various Clean Water Act obligations in a manner that addresses the most pressing public health and environmental protection issues first, and allow communities to factor in the cost of projects when determining the order and schedule for making clean water investments.  EPA made it clear that, in its view, the plan would be limited to clean water obligations (e.g, wastewater permit requirements, combined and sanitary sewer requirements, and stormwater, etc), and would not include drinking water mandates.  Many of the joint water and wastewater utilities participating in the dialogue, however, stressed that for them isolating wastewater from drinking water did not make sense in the context of assessing community financial capability and in broader utility strategic planning efforts.

In a PowerPoint presentation  during the dialogue, EPA outlined three overarching principles and eight guiding principles providing the conditions under which integrated planning could take place.  EPA also outlined what it believes to be the five key elements of an integrated plan including: 1) a description of the water quality, human health and regulatory issues to be addressed in the plan; 2) a description of the existing wastewater and stormwater system or systems under consideration in the plan and a summary of system performance; 3) the process for meaningful public involvement at all stages of plan development; 4) the process for evaluating and selecting alternatives and proposed implementation schedules; and 5) a plan for measuring progress and success.  The heart of the plan, according to EPA, is element four, which includes the criteria, such as cost and projected pollutant reductions, used for comparing alternative projects. This element also would include a financial capability assessment and a financial strategy for ensuring investments are sufficiently funded, operated, maintained and replaced over time.  EPA stressed that this is only its current thinking for the framework and that it welcomes input on the elements.  It is therefore critical that NACWA members review the EPA PowerPoint  and provide us with their input by January 6, 2012.

EPA to Collect Input on Draft Framework through Key Listening Sessions
Through the input EPA obtained from the December 13 dialogue, the Agency plans to continue drafting its framework over the next six weeks, with the goal of releasing a draft framework in late January.  EPA is already planning the following series of regional meetings to seek further input on the framework and NACWA is encouraging its members in these areas to attend these sessions.  Though many NACWA members will be attending the NACWA Winter Conference in Los Angeles February 12-15, which overlaps with two of these meetings, we encourage you to send staff to attend and participate in these discussions.

• Atlanta, Georgia - January 31, 2012, at EPA Region 4 Office
• New York City, New York - February 6, 2012, at EPA Region 2 Office
• Seattle, Washington - February 13, 2012, at EPA Region 10 Office
• Kansas City, Kansas - February 15, 2012, at EPA Region 7 Office
• Chicago, Illinois - February 17, 2012, at EPA Region 5 Office

NACWA will be working closely with its members leading up to these listening sessions to ensure a consistency of message and NACWA staff will be attending each of these sessions both to observe and provide input as necessary.  NACWA also plans to provide members with a list of issues to help members form their comments during these sessions.

NACWA to Help EPA Identify Pilot Communities; Build Key Database

Perhaps the most important component to the overall success of this effort will be the successful use of pilot communities to demonstrate that an integrated planning approach is workable.  EPA mentioned its interest in finding four or five communities to act as pilots in the near-term, following its February listening sessions.  NACWA will be working closely to help identify these communities and ensure they constitute an appropriate cross-section of communities that will help fine-tune EPA’s framework and serve as strong examples for other communities.

NACWA, as discussed above, will also be seeking data and short summaries from its members regarding existing efforts that agencies have engaged in that resemble this type of integrated planning approach as well as continuing to gather information on affordability studies and other data that can be used to move the integrated planning effort in a direction that maximizes flexibility.

NACWA will be working through its Standing Committees, its newly formed Legal Workgroup, and the Money Matters Task Force to provide relevant information and input to EPA.

NACWA Testifies on EPA’s Integrated Planning and Permitting Framework

NACWA testified at a December 14 hearing — Integrated Planning and Permitting: An Opportunity for EPA to Provide Communities with Flexibility to Make Smart Investments in Water Quality — before the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure’s Subcommittee on Water Resources & Environment.  Dave Williams, NACWA President and Director of Wastewater for the East Bay Municipal Utility District in Oakland, California, provided testimony  on behalf of the Association.  Also, Carter Strickland, NACWA Board Member and Commissioner of the NewYork City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP) provided testimony at the hearing.

The other witnesses were Mayor Jim Suttle, City of Omaha, for the U.S. Conference of Mayors; Mayor Joe Reardon, Mayor and CEO, Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, on behalf of the National League of Cities; Todd Portune, Commissioner, Hamilton County, Ohio Board of Commissioners; Walt Baker, Director, Division of Water Quality, Utah Department of Environmental Quality on behalf of the Association of Clean Water Administrators; and Katherine Baer, Senior Director of the Clean Water Program with American Rivers.  EPA testified on the second panel with Nancy Stoner, Acting Assistant Administrator for Water, and Cynthia Giles, Assistant Administrator for OECA, representing the Agency. The testimony of all witnesses is available on the Subcommittee’s website.

Williams applauded EPA’s new integrated CWA planning initiative and urged the Subcommittee to encourage EPA’s efforts.  He focused his testimony on the discussion from the Dec. 13 dialogue with EPA and expressed some concerns the clean water community raised at that meeting with the Agency’s proposed framework and which are discussed above.  Williams stated that, if done properly, integrated CWA planning can provide real flexibility in terms of compliance with rules and guidance, can apply relief mechanisms in an effective way, and used EBMUD as an example of how a changing regulatory landscape can directly affect community financial capability.  Williams also discussed the potential need for targeted legislation that can ensure the use of long-term compliance schedules in the permitting context and expressed NACWA’s commitment to continue to work with the Subcommittee on legislation as necessary.

Overall, there was agreement among all witnesses that the time is now for an integrated planning approach and Representatives from both parties encouraged EPA to move forward expeditiously.

Please note that this Advocacy Alert will take the place of this week’s Clean Water Current. The next Clean Water Current will be sent to members on January 6, 2012.