» Clean Water Current Archive

July 18, 2014

NACWA Releases Utility of the Future Report at 2014 Summer Conference

NACWA released a new report this week titled, Today's Clean Water Utility – Delivering Value to the Ratepayer, Community, and Nation  at its 2014 Summer Conference in Portland, Oregon (see related stories). The report highlights the billions of dollars in savings and return on investment from innovative projects at the Nation's clean water agencies. This burgeoning innovation has come about as a result of a number of key trends.

Clean water utility leaders have amassed more than four decades of experience implementing the complex requirements of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and are redefining their role by reconsidering the economic value of their inputs, like water, nutrients, and organic matter, as well as their own ability to create direct value for the Nation. The Utility of the Future (UOTF) can separate, extract, reuse and generate valuable water, energy, nutrients and other commodities from wastewater while using utility assets in innovative ways to reduce costs, increase revenue, and strengthen the local and national economies. This new report offers a valuable tool to help utility leaders tell their UOTF stories and provides economic and financial data pointing to the hundreds of billions of dollars in added value that the UOTF is unleashing.

But the full potential of the transition to the UOTF will be unleashed when regulators and governing boards acknowledge the substantial returns associated with making this transition and, based on that, support new ways of doing business locally and in the Nation’s Capital. NACWA looks forward to making this new paradigm a reality. To learn more, read NACWA’s Water Voice blog of the week.

Congress Focuses on Integrated Planning with Money and Hearing; NACWA to Testify

The House Appropriations Committee FY15 spending package for EPA includes $2 million in grant financing to help interested communities develop integrated plans under EPA’s Integrated Municipal Stormwater and Wastewater Planning Approach Framework, augmenting the $335,000 EPA identified earlier this year to help provide technical assistance to communities seeking help with developing these plans. The U.S. House of Representatives will vote on the package next week. In addition, the House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Subcommittee on Water Resources and the Environment will hold a hearing on July 24 to examine EPA’s Integrated Planning Framework and three legislative proposals that promote integrated planning and new approaches to determining Clean Water Act affordability/financial capability. Stephen Meyer, Director of Environmental Services for the City of Springfield, Missouri will be testifying on NACWA’s behalf at the hearing entitled “Integrated Planning and Permitting Framework: An Opportunity for EPA to Provide Communities with Flexibility to Make Smart Investments in Water Quality”. The hearing is scheduled for 10:00am EST and will be live-streamed from the T&I Committee website.

The hearing will examine H.R. 3862, The Clean Water Affordability Act, which is co-sponsored by Representatives Bob Latta (R-OH) and Tim Walz (D-MN) and would codify EPA’s Integrated Planning approach, extend permit terms for communities with an approved Integrated Plan, and require EPA to revise its guidance on financial capability. The hearing will also look at H.R. 2707, The Clean Water Compliance and Ratepayer Affordability Act, co-sponsored by Representatives Steven Chabot (R-OH) and 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 worked to ensure H.R. 3862 and H.R. 2707 reflect utility member priorities and will update members on the hearing in next week’s Clean Water Current.

Chart a Path to the Utility of the Future with a September NACWA Web Seminar Series!

Join us in September on three Wednesdays (the 10th, 17th, and 24th) at 2:00 PM Eastern Time for NACWA’s newest Web Seminar Series, Charting a Path to the Utility of the Future. Designed as a central component of NACWA’s Water Resources Utility of the Future (UOTF) campaign, this series will highlight how utilities are providing leadership through innovative approaches and new technologies to change the clean water paradigm. Featuring utility and private sector experts throughout the series, the initiatives highlighted can be emulated by utilities across the country, regardless of size, and will inspire new ways of solving utility management challenges and compelling ways to tell your UOTF story. The topics for the three web seminars are as follows:

• September 10: Resource Recovery – From Waste Stream to Goldmine
  Clean water agencies are increasingly being looked to as leaders on energy conservation and production, sources of water for drinking, agricultural and industrial use, as well as providers of phosphorus that can help solve an impending worldwide fertilizer shortage. Utility facilities are being looked to as resource-rich enterprises that can help solve national and global challenges in a way that was never considered by the Clean Water Act or other environmental statutes. Utility leaders are also generating cost savings and new revenue streams through innovative resource recovery activities. This web seminar will explore this evolution in both perception and practice.

• September 17: Sustainable Infrastructure – Resiliency, Gray, Green & the Regulatory Regime
  There has been significant attention paid to what it means to manage a “sustainable utility”. This seminar will explore how sustainable management incorporates the suite of growing regulatory demands on utilities – and the associated compliance costs – as well as the need to upgrade and replace aging infrastructure systems. How can utilities balance daily management responsibilities with the fact that climate change is demanding that utilities become more resilient and think increasingly about the long-term? What is the appropriate mix of gray and green infrastructure to ensure long-term sustainability? Hear how other utilities are successfully telling their “sustainability story” and getting the support of their ratepayers – and local appointed and elected officials at this interactive web seminar.

• September 24: Innovative Financing & Rates – Finding New Revenue & Stretching Each Dollar
  Part of becoming a Water Resources Utility of the Future is a motivation to provide ratepayers with the biggest environmental bang for the buck. Urban and rural utilities alike are seeing growing percentages of ratepayers falling below the poverty line, resulting in unprecedented affordability concerns. These pressures are demanding innovation in terms of rate–setting, more flexibility in terms of bonding, and openness to new financial instruments and collaborations. NACWA and its members have been engaging in discussions with the private sector to determine whether there are opportunities to get trillions of private capital off the shelf and put to work in the water sector. Learn about creative financing techniques and share what your utility may be doing to maximize investment dollars on this interactive web seminar.

The registration rate for all three seminars is only $600 per location, while the registration rate for one seminar is $250 per location. Prior to the seminar, you’ll receive a call-in line for your utility, so don’t forget to engage key members of your staff. Register today!

NACWA Conference Explores Innovative Utility Leadership

NACWA’s 2014 Summer Conference & 44th Annual Meeting, Executive Utility Leadership . . . Today & Tomorrow, took place this week in Portland and focused on the sophisticated leadership, management and financing techniques that utility leaders are using to ensure their sustainability. The conference also featured strategic advocacy discussions at lively and well-attended committee meetings, an array of informative speakers and panels, the release of a key document on telling the Utility of the Future(UOTF) story, actions by NACWA’s Board of Directors and membership to build on the Association’s record of leadership, and a ceremony for Association member award winners (see related stories).

The conference theme was exemplified in the welcoming remarks of the Honorable Charlie Hales, Mayor of the City of Portland, who focused attention on the innovative work being done in Portland to take care of the water needs of a growing city and ensure local development . The Mayor also touted the importance of NACWA, mentioning specifically the Money Matters . . . Smarter Investment to Advance Clean Water campaign, and the need for local flexibility to prioritize utility projects.

NACWA’s committees explored a number of key issues, with the UOTF and integrated planning and regulatory prioritization efforts receiving significant attention. The Water Resources Reform and Development Act’s (WRRDA) WIFIA loan guaranty and Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) provisions were also explored and discussed in detail as were technical issues in the areas of biosolids management, nutrients, resiliency, and stormwater control. The committee meetings also benefitted from several compelling presentations, including one from the Mayor of Spokane, Washington, David Condon, who discussed the details of their integrated plan — one of the first, publicly available integrated plans, which will be implemented through the city’s Clean Water Act permit. Summaries of the committee meetings will be made available through an upcoming Member Update.

NACWA thanks all the attendees, speakers, sponsors, and our host city, Portland, for making this Summer Conference such a success. Presentations from the conference will be available soon on NACWA’s website.

Karen Pallansch Elected as NACWA President

The Board also took action to elect NACWA’s slate of officers for the 2014-2015 term. NACWA welcomes its newly elected officers:

President —
Karen Pallansch
Chief Executive Officer
Alexandria Renew Enterprises, VA

Vice President —
Adel H. Hagekhalil
Assistant Director
City of Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation, CA

Treasurer —
Ray Marshall 
Executive Director
Narragansett Bay Commission, RI

Secretary —
Cathy Gerali
District Manager
Metro Wastewater Reclamation District
Denver, CO

The membership also elected or re-elected several new and returning Board Members. The new and re-elected members of the Board of Directors are as follows: representing Region 1, Scott Jellison, Chief Operating Officer, The Metropolitan Council, CT; representing Region 2, Emily Lloyd, Commissioner, New York City Department of Environmental Protection, NY; representing Region 3, Ted Henifin, General Manager, Hampton Roads Sanitation District, VA; representing Region 4, Dave Rager, Executive Director, Sanitary District No. 1, KY, and Jo Ann Macrina, Commissioner, City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management, GA; representing Region 5, Julius Ciaccia, Executive Director, Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, OH; representing Region 6, Raj Bhattarai, Division Manager, City of Austin, TX; representing Region 7, John O’Neil, General Manager, Johnson County Wastewater, KS; representing Region 8, Susan Tanner Holmes, Chairwoman, Central Davis Sewer District, UT; representing Region 9, Ben Horenstein, Director of Wastewater, East Bay Municipal Utility District, CA; representing Region 10, Daniel Thompson, Division Manager, Business Operations, City of Tacoma, WA; and Diane Taniguchi-Dennis, Deputy General Manager, Clean Water Services, OR; and Tim Houghton, Deputy Director, City & County of Honolulu Department of Environmental Services as an at-large member.

NACWA Board Takes Key Budgetary Actions, Approves TAF Projects, MOU

NACWA’s Board of Directors took several significant actions this week at the Summer Conference to ensure the Association is on a solid financial and programmatic path going forward. The Board voted to approve the fiscal year 2014 General Fund and Targeted Action Fund budgets. The Board also took action on several key Targeted Action Fund (TAF) and collaborative efforts to help ensure a successful advocacy agenda.

The Board approved two nutrient-related TAF projects, including funding for NACWA’s development of a peer-reviewed journal publication outlining the major flaws in EPA’s use of statistics to set toxicity and nutrient permit limits. The publication would include: 1) a review of the statistical underpinning of EPA’s current equation, and the publication of a theoretically correct equation; 2) a case study on toxicity permit limits; and, 3) a case study on nutrient permit limits. The case studies, which will be based on actual data and provide detailed comparisons to document the errors in EPA’s methodology, will take significant effort and account for the relatively high cost of this effort. The resulting paper based on the case studies would focus on the need for sound statistical methods for environmental decision-making.

The second TAF request approved by the Board will support a survey, workshop and analysis of innovative nutrient regulatory/permitting approaches. The project will seek to influence EPA permitting approaches to nutrients using innovative methods from outside the U.S. Statistical-based permitting, which allows for more flexible permit limits and greater use of innovative technologies, is being used successfully in other countries. This collaborative project with involvement from the Water Environment Federation (WEF) and the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) will dovetail with existing NACWA advocacy efforts related to nutrient permitting, including the recently completed technical review of EPA’s use of the Technical Support Document in the nutrient context (also funded through the TAF).

Both of these TAF projects align with the elements of NACWA’s Strategic Plan (Regulatory Objectives and Strategies) that seek to:

• Ensure that decisions concerning water quality improvements are based on valid science, encourage flexible implementation approaches, consider community financial capability, and better allow for innovation by the clean water community; and
• Advocate for reasonable, science-based regulatory initiatives at EPA that are designed to meet water quality standards and encourage innovation.

The Board also approved a NACWA-National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that would advance collaborative efforts between the organizations and their members to advance better ways to manage the nutrient-rich waste (e.g., manure) from the production of milk. NMPF has identified anaerobic digestion (AD) coupled with nutrient separation technologies and energy generation equipment as a potential way of both harnessing the nutrient and energy potential of their waste and generating water quality offsets or credits that can be made available to other discharges in the watershed. This collaboration would offer enormous benefits to both organizations’ membership and a signing ceremony is expected to take place in DC in September.

Permit Shield Upheld by Fourth Circuit in Line with NACWA’s Amicus Brief

On July 11, 2014, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling in an appeal of a July 2013 lower court decision in Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards v. A&G Coal Corp. regarding the scope of the protection afforded by Section 402(k) of the Clean Water Act (CWA), commonly referred to as the “permit shield.” The term “permit shield” means that compliance with a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit constitutes compliance with the CWA.

The Fourth Circuit ruled that the mining permittee could not avail itself of the permit shield but reinforced the validity of EPA’s guidance on the shield. The court also upheld its previous decision in Piney Run Pres. Ass’n v. Cnty. Comm’rs of Carroll Cnty , in which the court found that the shield extends to pollutants that are not expressly listed in the permit so long as the discharge was within the reasonable contemplation of the permitting authority at the time the permit was granted.

NACWA achieved its objectives in the A&G case as an amicus because the ruling: 1) narrowed the holding of the lower court decision which had the potential to erode the defense and 2) limited the decision to the facts of the case. The determinative factor in the Fourth Circuit decision was that A&G Coal failed to report selenium, stating it had no reason to believe, at the time of permitting, that it would discharge selenium. The court held that there was no question that A&G was discharging selenium and no question that they had a duty to report the discharge on the permit application. NACWA’s amicus brief argued that permittees who fill out the application completely and in good faith should be covered by the shield. The Fourth Circuit ruling is in line with this interpretation.

NACWA believes this decision maintains the key elements of EPA’s permit shield policy and the Piney Run decision, and preserves the permit shield as a robust defense. The key lesson from this decision for NACWA members going forward is that clean water utilities should provide complete and accurate responses for all information requested on a discharge permit application. Additional information on the case can be found on NACWA's Litigation Tracking webpage.

Awards Ceremony Recognizes Member Excellence

NACWA honored ten Member Agencies with Excellence in Management (EIM) Recognition Awards during an Awards Ceremony & Reception that took place on Tuesday evening during the Association’s Summer Conference in Portland.  The 2013 Peak Performance Platinum award-winning Member Agency facilities were also honored. These award winners included 17 facilities from 14 Member Agencies that, for their first time, achieved five consecutive years of perfect compliance with their National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit limits.  The Peak Performance Platinum awards also featured 140 Member Agency facilities that had achieved perfect compliance for six or more years.  Peak Performance multi-Platinum award-winning utilities were featured in a video presentation depicting the sophistication of our Members’ facilities and the pride that is inherent in the hard-working men and women who ensure clean water for their communities every day.  All of the honorees will be acknowledged in an upcoming issue of The Clean Water Advocate and on the NACWA website.