» Update Archive

This edition of NACWA’s Legislative Update, current through June 30, 2014, provides information on the activities of the 113th 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.

It’s Summer – And Congress Is Back Home

With summer here and Members of Congress returning to their home districts for the month of August, it is an ideal time to invite your Congressional delegation and their staffs to visit your facilities, educate them about the clean water services you provide, and brief them on the clean water issues facing their constituents. In-person facility tours and meetings are the most effective way to ensure that clean water issues become a Congressional priority.  To assist you in your outreach, NACWA’s Congressional Toolbox contains fact sheets on NACWA’s legislative advocacy work, information on how to schedule meetings, and other useful links. Contact information for your Member of Congress can be found on the House and Senate websites, and appointments can be arranged by calling their schedulers at a main office number. If you have any questions or need additional assistance please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

ISSUE AREAS

Clean Water Funding and Financing

Obama Signs Water Resources Bill into Law, Includes Overhaul of the CWSRF Program

President Obama signed the bipartisan Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA) into law last month.  The $12.3 billion package reauthorizes flood control projects around the country and includes a major overhaul to the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) program. NACWA has been urging Congress and the Administration to demonstrate their commitment to the CWSRF as a core investment tool for municipal wastewater agencies, and the changes in the WRRDA bill reflect this work.  Specifically, WRRDA will 1) extend the CWSRF loan repayment period from up to 20 to up to 30 years; 2) codify additional subsidization provisions enabling economically distressed communities to receive more affordable financing; 3) incentivize investments through additional subsidization eligibility for projects related to energy efficiency, water efficiency, reuse, and sustainable infrastructure practices – in line with the Water Resources Utility of the Future campaign; 4) incentivize partnerships between municipal wastewater utilities and upstream property owners to collaboratively tackle non-point source pollution and improve water quality, and 5) incentivize wastewater utilities to undertake practices to ensure increased resiliency against man-made and/or natural disasters.  These new provisions offer significant benefits to NACWA Member Agencies – and the Association will provide updates on their implementation.  For more information on the WRRDA bill, please see NACWA’s Advocacy Alert and contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with any questions.

Integrated Planning and Affordability

House Subcommittee Likely to Hold Hearing on Integrated Planning and Affordability

The House Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee is likely to hold a July 24 hearing examining three legislative proposals to promote Integrated Planning and affordability issues, including H.R. 3862, the Clean Water Affordability Act sponsored by Representative Bob Latta (R-OH) and Representative Tim Walz (D-MN). The hearing is an opportunity to brief members on the provisions contained in these proposals and urge action on them before this session of Congress adjourns later this year. The main elements of H.R. 3862 are codification of EPA’s Integrated Planning approach including extension of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit terms for communities that have an approved Integrated Plan and a requirement that EPA revise its 1997 Combines Sewer Overflows-Guidance for Financial Capability Assessment and Schedule Development. NACWA will have a witness testifying. The other proposals that will be discussed during the hearing include H.R. 2707, Clean Water Compliance and Ratepayer Affordability Act, co-sponsored by Representative Steven Chabot (R-OH) and Representative Marcia Fudge (R-OH) and a proposal by the U.S. Conference of Mayors referred to as the Water Quality Improvement Act that has yet to be introduced. NACWA has been asked to testify at this hearing.

Utility of the Future

Senate Poised to Hold Hearing on the Water Resources Utility of the Future

Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife, has expressed interest in holding a Senate Environment & Public Works Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife hearing on the Water Resources Utility of the Future (UOTF) initiative. The hearing would spotlight the transformation wastewater utilities are making into resource recovery facilities by adopting innovative technologies and approaches to effectively manage their systems and address new challenges like population growth, climate change, and energy demand while still being conscious of the already-stretched ratepayer.

The hearing would feature several “Utilities of the Future” from around the country that are using cutting-edge methods to reclaim and reuse water, extract and find commercial uses for nutrients, capture waste heat and generate renewable energy on-site, use green infrastructure to manage stormwater, and work upstream with agricultural entities to better manage nutrients more cost-effectively. NACWA will be working with Senator Cardin’s office over the next month to nail down specifics. The Association will provide updates on this hearing as more information becomes available but it underscores the impact the UOTF campaign is having with key policy-makers.

Nutrients

NACWA Urges Support for Funding for USDA Conservation Programs

NACWA signed a June 11 letter  with other water and conservation groups that was delivered to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees urging them to reject cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) conservation assistance programs when the agricultural appropriations bills come up for full chamber votes. The Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), which encourages partnerships between agricultural producers and municipal entities to help farmers tackle various conservation and environmental issues on a regional scale, was authorized in the 2014 Farm Bill for five years and provides financial and technical assistance to conservation efforts through USDA’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Conservation Security Program, Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, and Healthy Forests Reserve Program.

While $400 million will be available in the first full year to support this work, funding levels for future years will be subject to the Congressional appropriations process. Over the last several weeks, the Senate and House passed out of committee their FY 2015 agricultural appropriations bills both of which included deep cuts to these vital programs. NACWA will continue to advocate for maintaining funding for these programs to ensure that new enrollments do not decline and that the RCPP has an opportunity to succeed. The Association continues to provide updates on the RCPP and agricultural conservation funding as they become available.

Stormwater

Senator Cardin Introduces Stormwater Legislation as Highway Bill Negotiations Loom

Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), Chair of the Senate Environment & Public Works Subcommittee on Water & Wildlife, introduced legislation on June 12 to establish highway stormwater management programs to better control polluted runoff generated from federal aid highways.  S. 2457 , The Highway Runoff Management Act, would require states to analyze the hydrological impact that federal aid highways have on water resources, and look at development approaches to reduce the destructive effects of heavy stormwater flows.  This bill was introduced in the midst of debate over reauthorizing the current highway bill, The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, which is set to expire on October 1, 2014.   While Senator Cardin was unsuccessful at including S. 2457 as an amendment to the highway bill, he has helped spotlight the importance of improved stormwater management in federal highway projects.  The transportation bill offers clean water utilities another good opportunity, as in the Farm Bill and the Water Resources Reform & Development Act, to not only raise awareness of the impacts from other infrastructure sectors on the nation’s water quality but to make lasting legislative improvements toward more sustainable practices across infrastructure sectors.

HEARINGS

NACWA Endorses Bill that Recognizes Important Energy-Water Nexus

• • The House Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources and the Environment held a June 11 hearing to examine the potential impacts of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ draft Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule which addresses the jurisdictional reach of the Clean Water Act.  Among those testifying were Bob Perciasepe, EPA’s Deputy Administrator and Jo-Ellen Darcy, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works. The hearing focused on whether ponds, ditches, and other wet areas would be subject to CWA jurisdiction if this draft rule was to be finalized and implemented. Although Perciasepe and Darcy assured members that the proposed rule was intended only to add greater clarification to the existing rule and that no new waters would be regulated, many Republican members of the Subcommittee remained skeptical of this assertion.  NACWA will be closely monitoring developments on the WOTUS proposal, and urges members to keep in touch with NACWA staff should this issue raises any concerns for their agencies.

Members seeking more information or related legislation in their state can access NACWA’s State Action Track web tool, here.