» Update Archive

This edition of NACWA’s Legislative Update, current through May 2012, provides information on the activities of the 112th Congress of interest to the nation’s public clean water agencies.  For more detailed information regarding NACWA activities, click on the web links in selected news items or visit NACWA’s website.  Please contact NACWA’s Pat Sinicropi at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   or Hannah Mellman at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   with any questions or information on the Update topics.

ISSUE AREAS

Hot Topics

NACWA Provides Feedback to House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform

Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Chair of the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform, requested NACWA’s input on federal regulations the Association believes are unnecessarily costly or burdensome to the Nation’s clean water agencies.  NACWA responded to the Chairman’s request with a letter  highlighting three issue areas where regulatory or enforcement activity is inflexible and places unnecessary costs on clean water agencies without sufficient environmental benefit.

Specifically, NACWA’s three concerns included 1) EPA’s regulations under §129 of the Clean Air Act for air emissions from incinerators burning domestic sewage sludge at POTWs; 2) EPA’s overzealous enforcement posture on sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) despite the lack of a policy on SSOs; and 3) the need to ensure that EPA’s integrated planning framework actually helps communities better address the growing financial and compliance challenges posed by the Clean Water Act (CWA).

The Chairman has stated that he and his Committee plans to use this information as part of a broader effort to look for ways to ensure that regulations are not hampering economic and job growth.  Should the Committee plan any hearings regarding the wastewater sector or if it seeks additional input, NACWA will be sure to inform the membership.

NACWA Weighs in on Bills Restricting Federal Agency Participation at Conferences

NACWA sent a letter  to Congress urging lawmakers to revise amendments passed in separate bills that would place severe restrictions on federal government employees attending meetings and conferences.  The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (H.R. 2146) and the 21st Century Postal Service Act (S. 1789) would hinder the federal municipal government partnership and could deny the Association’s membership the ability to meet with government officials on federal clean water policy and regulatory matters.  The bills were drafted in an attempt to address excesses related to the Government Services Administration’s conference spending but, whether inadvertently or by design, the language in the legislation is being interpreted to severely curtail federal agency participation at association meetings.  NACWA’s letter expressed that the bill would inappropriately chill the ability of municipal and federal representatives to work together on Clean Water Act-related issues and restrict the ability to ensure maximum environmental and public health protection for communities across the country.  In addition to its own letter, NACWA joined with over 2,000 other associations and organizations from an array of interests on the American Society of Association Executives’ (ASAE) letter seeking to ensure the provisions of concern are removed or changed. ASAE has been taking the lead on this issue on behalf of the association community.  NACWA will continue to follow this issue and will keep the membership updated on any developments.

Climate and Energy

NACWA Highlights Wastewater’s Energy Potential in Senate Hearing Statement

NACWA submitted a statement for the record  to the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee in follow-up to a hearing held by the Committee on Senator Jeff Bingaman’s (D-N.M.) proposed legislation to establish a National Clean Energy Standard (CES).  A CES would set annual targets for electricity from clean energy sources and is intended to promote a diverse set of sources of low-carbon electricity generation in the U.S.  As the bill is currently written, energy from biogas produced in the wastewater treatment process would be eligible for clean energy credits, while energy derived from biosolids as a separate renewable biomass feedstock would not.

NACWA’s statement highlighted the enormous energy potential contained in wastewater and encouraged Congress to include both biogas and biomass-based energy production in any final legislative package.  NACWA’s statement explains that a CES would encourage greater energy production within the sector that communities across the country could take advantage of.   While prospects for the bill’s passage this session are dim, having the wastewater sector listed as a clean energy source would set a precedent for future clean energy legislation and provide some momentum to utilities advancing clean energy production projects.

NACWA Discusses Energy Potential in Wastewater at Congressional Briefing

The American Biogas Council, along with the Congressional Biomass Caucus, held a briefing on Capitol Hill to discuss the role of anaerobic digestion and biogas production in generating clean energy, increasing environmental sustainability, and economic development.  NACWA staff spoke about the current use of digesters at municipal wastewater treatment plants and the potential for increasing production of biogas at these facilities – and provided examples of Member Agencies that generate energy from the biogas and biosolids produced during the wastewater treatment process.

The energy potential from the wastewater sector is, however, much greater than current rates of production.  According to an EPA report, there are currently 1,500 wastewater treatment plants in the U.S. that use anaerobic digestion, but only 104 have combined heat and power (CHP) systems to convert biogas into energy.  EPA estimates that CHP systems are technically feasible at an additional 1,351 plants.  A Clean Energy Standard, like the one laid out in Senator Jeff Bingaman’s (D-N.M.) proposal mentioned above, would likely encourage municipal wastewater treatment plants to implement these types of systems.

Nutrient Issues/Farm Bill Reauthorization

Senate Agriculture Committee Reports Farm Bill, Nutrient Management Included in Committee Mark

The Healthy Waters Coalition, convened by NACWA, scored a modest but important victory as the Senate Agriculture Committee reported its proposed 2012 Farm Bill and included, at the request of Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), nutrient management within a newly-created Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP).  The Healthy Waters Coalition met with Senator Brown’s office several times and asked him to intervene to ensure that language be included in the Farm Bill that raised the issue of nutrient management and targeted funding for it.  The original Senate Agriculture Committee legislative draft did not identify nutrient management as an area of concern for focus in the RCPP.  Senator Brown’s action ensured that nutrient management was considered a ‘water quality issue of concern’, as was sediment and erosion control in the RCPP.

The Healthy Waters Coalition will continue to seek opportunities to ensure that nutrient management receives targeted funding support from the resources allocated under the Farm Bill.  The Senate Agriculture Committee package, approved on a 16 to 5 vote, will likely be considered by the full Senate after the Memorial Day recess.    The current Farm Bill expires at the end of the 2012 fiscal year.  Congress will need to act before then to ensure that funding continues for certain Farm Bill-related programs.  For more information about the activities of the Healthy Waters Coalition, contact NACWA’s Legislative Director, Patricia Sinicropi at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Wet Weather

NACWA, DC Water Talk CSOs at Senate Briefing

NACWA’s Executive Director, Ken Kirk; General Manager of DC Water, George Hawkins, and Katherine Baer with American Rivers discussed combined sewer overflow (CSO) issues at a Senate briefing hosted by Senator Sherrod Brown’s (D-Ohio) office and the Northeast-Midwest Institute.  The briefing underscored the need to address affordability issues, provide municipalities with more flexibility through a viable integrated planning/regulatory prioritization approach, and the use of green infrastructure as a technique to limit runoff and flow to combined sewer systems. DC Water provided a compelling case study on the massive cost of its own combined sewer system upgrades and the importance of EPA’s regional and national offices being willing to provide greater flexibility to ensure its work remains within the bounds of very real affordability constraints.  NACWA acknowledged Senator Brown’s leadership on these issues and his introduction of the Clean Water Affordability Act of 2012, which seeks to ensure that EPA revise its financial capability and affordability guidance, provide grant funding for CSO control projects and opportunities to reopen existing consent decrees, while also helping to ensure the viability of EPA’s integrated planning initiative.  NACWA and DC Water’s presentations are available on NACWA’s website.

NACWA Establishes Wet Weather Task Force to Develop Legislative Package

NACWA is establishing a task force to develop a legislative package of reforms to the Clean Water Act to better address wet weather-related issues.  The legislative package will be developed to present to Congress next year.  The task force will be chaired by John O’Neil, General Manager of Johnson County Wastewater in Kansas and member of NACWA’s Board of Directors.  Vice-chairing the task force will be Ben Horenstein of East Bay Municipal Utility District and Lisa Hollander of Sanitation District 1 in Kentucky.  The first meeting of the task force will likely be at the end of June.  Public agency members interested in joining the task force should contact Patricia Sinicropi, NACWA’s Legislative Director at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Hannah Mellman, NACWA’s Legislative Manager at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

RECENTLY INTRODUCED CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION

• Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) introduced the Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2012 (S. 3240) on May 24 to reauthorize agricultural programs through 2017, and for other purposes.  See above discussion on Farm Bill for more information.

• Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) introduced the Coordinating Water Research for a Clean Water Future Act of 2012 on May 18 to implement a National Water Research and Development Initiative to ensure clean and reliable water for future generations, and for other purposes.  The legislation is currently cosponsored by Donna Edwards (D-Md.).

• Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) introduced the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2013 (S. 2375) on April 26 to make appropriations for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2013, and for other purposes.  The legislation currently does not have any cosponsors.

• Representative Ron Kind (D-Wis.) introduced the Upper Mississippi River Basin Protection Act (H.R.4458) on April 19 to promote Department of the Interior efforts to provide a scientific basis for the management of sediment and nutrients in the Upper Mississippi River Basin, and for other purposes.  The legislation currently does not have any cosponsors.

• Senator Robert Casey, Jr. (D-Pa.) introduced the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Fairness Act of 2012 (S. 2294) on April 18 to provide for continued conservation efforts in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, increase energy production from animal waste, improve transparency of Federal restoration efforts, and expand agricultural opportunities to participate in State voluntary water quality credit trading programs.  The legislation currently has four cosponsors.

• Representative Brian Higgins (D- N.Y.) introduced the Nation Building Here at Home Act of 2012 (H.R. 4352) on April 16 to direct the Secretary of Transportation to establish a transformational infrastructure competitive grant program, and for other purposes.  The legislation currently has the following two cosponsors: Representative John Conyers, Jr. (D-Minn.) and Representative Janice Hahn (D- Calif.).

CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS

• The House of Representatives Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management held hearings entitled Formulation of the 2012 Farm Bill: Commodity Programs and Crop Insurance on May 16 and 17. For more information on the hearings, please see the Committee’s website.

• The House of Representatives Subcommittee on Conservation, Energy and Forestry held a hearing entitled Formulation of the 2012 Farm Bill: Conservation Programs on April 26. For more information on the hearing, please see the Committee’s website.