» Clean Water Current Archive

June 8, 2012

NACWA Money Matters Task Force Meets to Discuss Next Steps on Integrated Planning

In anticipation of the release of EPA's final integrated planning (IP) framework, now expected early next week, NACWA's Money Matters Task Force, along with other NACWA members who are tracking the integrated planning effort, met Tuesday via conference call to discuss the Association’s next steps and current efforts underway throughout the clean water community to explore integrated planning initiatives.  Communities across the country are evaluating how the integrated planning framework might help them. The majority of these communities are already in enforcement proceedings with the government and are attempting to incorporate integrated planning elements into an eventual agreement.  The draft consent decree for one community in EPA Region 10, currently under review, could be the first to specifically reference integrated planning (see related story).

While state regulators and permit writers are aware of and have expressed an interest in the integrated planning initiative major differences between wastewater and stormwater permitting practices are presenting roadblocks.  EPA remains very interested in getting a few examples of integrated planning in the permit context and is planning to hold monthly meetings with state regulators and regional personnel going forward to help with implementation issues.  At least one NACWA member is currently looking at the IP framework from outside the enforcement world and the Association would be interested in hearing from other members who may be also looking at the IP framework in the permitting context. During this week’s conference call, the Task Force also discussed potential legislative action to provide funding for communities to pilot the framework, especially in the permitting context.  NACWA’s next steps on the EPA and Congressional fronts will hinge on what the final framework looks like.  At this point, NACWA understands that the final framework will contain only minor revisions, but will include a new element, element 6, focused on adaptive implementation and how integrated plans can be modified in the future to accommodate changing circumstances.

Proposed Seattle Consent Decree Includes Integrated Planning Language

A recently negotiated wet weather consent decree between NACWA member Seattle Public Utilities and EPA includes explicit language allowing for a modification of the decree’s requirements if the utility develops a wet weather integrated plan, signaling a critical step forward in the overall integrated planning effort.  In addition to embracing an integrated planning approach, the decree also contains language providing the utility with flexibility to revise the priority and sequencing of projects under the decree and potentially extend the deadline for the decree due to future changed economic circumstances, both of which can be done independently of any integrated plan the utility may develop.  This federal decree is the first one to include such positive language, and NACWA believes it can open the door to similar flexibility in future decrees and enforcement actions.

The type of flexibility provided in this decree is completely in line with the approach advocated by NACWA over the last two years as part of the Association’s Money Matters… Smarter Investment for Clean Water™ campaign (see related story), and NACWA is extremely pleased to see that this sustained advocacy effort is helping to produce tangible benefits to provide clean water utilities with more flexibility and cost savings.   The Association applauds Seattle and EPA for reaching such a significant agreement.  Combined with recent, similarly positive developments in enforcement actions for Philadelphia and Atlanta, Seattle’s consent decree shows that NACWA’s message to EPA about the need for a more flexible and cost-effective approach to meeting Clean Water Act requirements is resonating and leading to positive results.   

Among the key highlights of the Seattle consent decree:

• It allows the city to extend its combined sewer overflow (CSO) decree obligations beyond the current 2025 deadline if it can develop and receive approval of an integrated plan with stormwater control projects that “will result in significant benefits to water quality beyond those that would be achieved by implementation of the approved CSO Controls Measures only.” The city would still have to complete all of the agreed-upon CSO control measures as outlined in its Long Term Control Plan (LTCP), but could potentially delay them to a point beyond the current consent decree end date if an integrated plan with stormwater projects is approved.  The city has until 2015 to complete its LTCP and 2018 to submit its integrated plan, but intends to develop both documents simultaneously to take maximum advantage of the integrated planning option.

• It contains language allowing the city to “revise the priority and sequencing” of the CSO control measures if it can demonstrate a good reason to do so.  The city can do this regardless of whether it submits an integrated plan, but still would have to complete all CSO work by 2025 in the absence of an approved integrated plan.

• It contains language stating that if “the City experiences significant adverse changes to its financial circumstances or other financial or budgetary issues, the City may request a modification of a CSO Control Measure and/or an extension of a CSO Critical Milestone up to a maximum of five years.”  Again, this could be done regardless of whether there is an integrated plan in place.

The consent decree is expected to be reviewed for approval by the Seattle City Council in the coming weeks, and will then be lodged with the court and released for public comment.  Additional information on the decree is also available in recent reports from the Seattle area media.  NACWA will continue to keep the membership updated on this and similar developments.

NACWA Provides Clean Water Perspective at Great Lakes Summit on Pharmaceutical Waste

While emerging contaminant issues have not been in the national spotlight lately, active efforts across the country continue on the source control and research fronts to address this growing water quality and public health challenge.  Among the source control initiatives underway, product stewardship efforts focused on preventing the abuse of prescription drugs and on preventing expired and waste pharmaceuticals from entering the environment are garnering significant attention.  NACWA addressed more than 30 officials from state and local government, as well the environmental NGO community, law enforcement and academia during the Great Lakes Pharmaceutical Stewardship Summit in Chicago, Ill., this week.  The summit was convened to discuss policy issues and barriers to pharmaceutical source control efforts including collection/take-back programs in the Great Lakes Region.

During remarks at the Summit, NACWA highlighted the importance of a multi-pronged approach to addressing pharmaceuticals and other trace organics in the Nation’s waters, including more research on impacts, source control, drug use and toxics reform, with potential wastewater treatment playing a role only where controls are deemed necessary and other options have been exhausted.  NACWA highlighted the important Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) research that continues to look at treatment capabilities, but stressed that regulation of clean water agency discharges is not warranted at this time.  Serious questions remain regarding the efficacy of treatment, the processes available to remove trace organics, which trace organics need to be targeted, the potential consequences and environmental trade-offs associated with treatment, the point at which treatment makes the most sense (the clean water utility, the drinking water intake, or both),  and ultimately the additional costs compared to any resulting benefits. Though treatment plants will continue to look for ways to do their part, including spearheading some of the most successful pharmaceutical collection programs in the country, NACWA stressed that the existing regulatory and financial burdens already facing the clean water community demand that any additional control requirements be an option of last resort, after a careful analysis of all potential alternatives. 

Join Us for the Following NACWA Conferences & Web Seminars

• Make your plans today to join your clean water colleagues at NACWA's 2012 Summer Conference & 42nd Annual Meeting, Transformational Leadership...Changing the Game for the Next 40 Years of Clean Water, July 15-18, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency Philadelphia at Penn's Landing in Philadelphia, Pa.  The Summer Conference's focus on transformational leadership will showcase innovative work now underway at clean water agencies, and look ahead at how water quality protection and utility management will change in the coming months and years. Registration and a preliminary agenda  are now available, so make your plans to join us in Philadelphia!

The Hyatt Regency Philadelphia at Penn's Landing Hotel is offering a room rate of $179 per night (single/double), plus applicable taxes. Reservations must be made by Monday, June 25, 2012, to receive the special rate. To ensure a hotel room, contact the Hyatt Regency Philadelphia at Penn's Landing Hotel at 215.928.1234. Be sure to identify yourself as a NACWA attendee.

• Let us bring NACWA to you this June with our next two-part web seminar series – Coming Soon to a Permit Near You . . . the Next Generation of Nutrient Management:

Nutrients – Are Technology Controls the Solution? – Wednesday, June 20, 2012, 2:00 pm Eastern
Since petitioning EPA to modify secondary treatment to include nutrient removal requirements, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has continued to push for these nationwide-requirements.  A recent NRDC lawsuit seeks to compel EPA to respond to the petition.  Representatives from the NGO community and state representatives will be on hand to discuss these new requirements.

Nutrients – Give Water Quality a Chance – Wednesday, June 27, 2012, 2:00 pm Eastern
Since 1998, EPA has made it clear that it prefers that states use numeric water quality criteria to address nutrient-related impacts and that preference has spawned more than a decade of work by EPA and the states.  Representatives from EPA and state government will be on hand to discuss efforts to secure more meaningful and equitable reductions of nutrient loads from nonpoint sources like agriculture.

For members, registration is $250 for the two-part series and $350 for non-members. We invite you to gather your staff together in a group learning environment for these exceptional, high-value seminars.  Don’t delay, register today!