» Clean Water Current Archive

February 17, 2012

Winter Conference Focuses on Regulatory Landscape, Highlights Move Toward the Water Resources Utility of the Future

NACWA held its Winter Conference, Watershed Moment in the Making . . . Conquering the Challenges of the New Regulatory Frontier, in Los Angeles, Calif., this week. The meeting included informative committee meetings that were held consecutively (rather than concurrently).  This format allowed participants to attend all the committee meetings, which helped to ensure robust member discussions on issues ranging from EPA’s integrated planning effort, collaboration as a strategy for success, and NACWA’s move toward a “2020 Vision of the Water Resources Utility of the Future."

EPA’s Integrated Planning Initiative Yields Significant Member Discussion, Input

The Regulatory Policy Committee featured a very lively discussion on EPA’s integrated planning effort, the workshops that EPA is holding regarding this effort, and NACWA’s strategic next steps to ensure public agency members receive as much flexibility and benefit from it as possible.  Members underscored the importance of keeping the pressure on EPA to ensure the best possible final framework (due by the end of March) and to make sure that public agencies are prepared to provide EPA with draft integrated plans that the Agency must respond to.  Jim Hanlon, Director of EPA’s Office of Wastewater Management, discussed the integrated planning effort during Tuesday’s General Session, noting that EPA has no pre-conceived ideas as to what an integrated plan should look like and that municipalities can take a targeted issue-based approach or, alternatively, a very broad utility-wide approach in drafting these plans.  George Hawkins, General Manager of DC Water and Chair of NACWA’s Money Matters Task Force responded to Hanlon by noting that Clean Water Act permits are increasingly getting into very minute aspects of municipal activities and that agencies, like DC Water, need more flexibility to deal with a growing array of costly requirements, including sewer overflow and nutrient control.  NACWA has participated in all of EPA’s integrated planning workshops (including today’s workshop in Chicago) and will be providing an update of these discussions through an upcoming Regulatory Update.

Speakers Focus on Collaboration to Address Complex Regulatory Landscape

The welcoming remarks by Enrique Zaldivar, Director of the City of Los Angeles’ Bureau of Sanitation, set the stage for the theme of collaboration that would continue throughout the conference.  Zaldivar discussed not only the collaboration that was needed at the local level to ensure the success of innovative, green projects in Los Angeles, but also the importance of collaboration at the national level as exemplified by NACWA’s Money Matters. . .Smarter Investment to Advance Clean Water™ campaign.   Felicia Marcus, Western Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), also discussed the benefits of collaboration between state and regional regulatory agencies, NGOs, and municipal leaders.  She underscored the importance of bringing the federal government closer to where the local issues are playing out as well as the idea that collaboration is an issue of “common humanity” and that relationships take hard work, a serious time commitment, and personal attention to enhance mutual understanding.   This theme was also expanded on in Tuesday’s Industry Leader Roundtable Discussion between the CEOS of Brown and Caldwell and MWH Global in the context of providing complex services to municipal clients.

Conference Panels Explore the “Water Resources of the Future” Concept

With NACWA advancing its “2020 Vision for the Water Resources Utility of the Future,” presentations at the conference made it clear that this effort is both timely and necessary.  From panel discussions on “Nutrients and the Role of Trading” to “Managing One Water — What Role Will Stormwater Play,” new ideas about the evolving and expanding role of the Nation’s clean water agencies in advancing innovation were front and center.  The issues of resource recovery and innovative/adaptive management were examined in many of the conference presentations and NACWA is embarking on an ambitious effort to develop an advocacy agenda that can support clean water agencies as they tackle these new challenges and opportunities.

The Board of Directors also provided significant support related to this effort, including the approval of Targeted Action Fund (TAF) requests for three key projects: 1) the development of a white paper  to assess specific advocacy actions NACWA can take to add value in the arena of water reuse; 2) the retainer of an economist to support staff in helping assess the economic benefits and barriers to innovation and resource recovery while also assessing related financing mechanisms being discussed on Capitol Hill;  and 3) support for NACWA’s ongoing collaboration with the U.S.  Conference of Mayors on EPA’s integrated planning and regulatory prioritization efforts as well as related legislative initiatives on Capitol Hill.

NACWA thanks all of the participants in this year’s Winter Conference for making it such a success.  All conference PowerPoints and presentations are available on NACWA’s website and the conference’s committee materials are available by clicking here.

Obama Administration Releases FY2013 Budget Request: Several Key Programs See Cuts

The Obama Administration announced its fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget package on Monday, which includes a funding request of $8.3 billion for EPA.  This request includes a cut of 1.2 percent, or $105 million, from EPA’s FY 2012 budget, which comes as no surprise as all federal agencies have been directed to cut spending.  Specifically, funding for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) took a heavy hit, decreasing by $268,806,000 and $59,363,000 respectively.  Based on a press conference the Agency held this week, EPA estimates this will lead to 370 fewer SRF projects around the country.  See Advocacy Alert 12-01 for further details.

In addition, the U.S. Department of Agriculture budget saw a reduction of almost $700 million from the 2012 enacted level.  Funding for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), which provides incentive payments and cost-sharing to induce farmers to begin conservation practices to support ongoing stewardship of agricultural land and help reduce nutrient run-off, was decreased by $347 million.  The U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program, which provides consistent monitoring of waterbodies to determine the levels of key pollutants and contaminants as well as their pollution sources, also took a significant hit in the FY2013 proposed budget.  This would mean the closing of hundreds of water quality monitoring sites and threaten the success of NAWQA’s SPARROW modeling tool.

President Obama’s FY2013 budget request will serve as a baseline for Congressional budget negotiations in the coming months and House Republicans are expected to present their budget request in the next few weeks.  NACWA will be promoting all of the programs mentioned above on Capitol Hill throughout the course of the year to help Members understand the value of these programs and ensure further cuts are not taken.  We will keep members apprised on the budget as developments occur.

NACWA WISHES ALL OF ITS MEMBERS A HAPPY AND SAFE PRESIDENTS’ DAY WEEKEND