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As Congressional negotiators turn their attention to finalizing a Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 spending bill for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), NACWA is urging its members in the Great Lakes and elsewhere to call or write their Senators and Representatives to urge opposition to including a $70 billion policy rider requiring elimination of combined sewer overflows to the Great Lakes and prohibiting the discharge of blended effluent. This language will have severe consequences for utilities in the Great Lakes and will also set a precedent that will be very harmful to utilities nationwide. It is imperative that the entire municipal clean water community express its opposition to this language.

The policy rider was inserted into the Senate’s proposed FY16 spending package at the request of Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL), one of the Senate’s most endangered Republican facing reelection next year. In a recent profile in the Politico newspaper, Senator Kirk pointed to this policy rider as an example of his credentials as an environmental champion. If enacted, the bill would cost ratepayers throughout the Great Lakes nearly $70 billion  and would set a dangerous precedent for communities across the country facing wet weather challenges. The proposed policy rider would also undercut over twenty years of clean water law, regulation and policy without any hearings or debate. Making such a sweeping change to the Clean Water Act should not be done through the appropriations process.

Several national and local stakeholders have weighed in against this policy rider. If you have yet to contact your Congressional delegation, now is the time to do so. If you have already written to your member, please remind them that you need them to stand firm against this proposal.

You can find contact information for your House and Senate member by clicking on these links. You can also find talking points and examples of letters by going to NACWA’s Great Lakes Resources webpage.

The deadline for finalizing FY16 EPA appropriations is December 11th – less than six weeks away – and negotiations on what will be included in the bill are already underway.

PLEASE CONTACT YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES TODAY!