This edition of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies’ (NACWA) Legislative Update, current through Oct. 12, 2007, provides information on the activities of the 110th Congress that are of interest to the nation’s clean water agencies.  For more detailed information regarding NACWA activities related to specific legislation, click on web links in selected news items, or contact Susan Bruninga at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or 202/833-3280.

NACWA’s Bill Tracker provides a direct link to congressional websites where bill texts and summaries are posted.  You can find NACWA letters, alerts, updates and related documents under Legislative in the Member Pipeline section of the NACWA website.

Top Story

NACWA to Testify on Overflow Notification Bills

NACWA has been asked to testify at a hearing before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment on the Raw Sewage Overflow Community Right-to-Know Act (H.R. 2452) introduced by Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) in May.  The Association also met with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and American Rivers, who strongly back the bill, to outline NACWA’s position.  NACWA believes that although the legislation has been written with the admirable goal of public notification for overflows that could pose a public health threat, the bill’s objectives would be better addressed through work on a comprehensive sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) regulation that EPA has thus far refused to propose.  The Association will work with NRDC and American Rivers to get their help in pressuring EPA to move forward with the rule, rather than addressing elements of a policy through piecemeal legislation such as H.R. 2452.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Transportation Safety, Infrastructure Security, and Water Quality, also introduced sister legislation to H.R. 2452 that would require clean water agencies to monitor their systems for overflows and notify the public when they occur.  The Sewage Overflow Right-to-Know Act of 2007 (S. 2080) is similar to the bill introduced by Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) and would impose similar requirements.  NACWA alerted several of its committees about Bishop’s bill, when it was introduced in May and has received a variety of comments on the legislation.  NACWA raised these issues at meetings with Lautenberg’s staff and were able to alter the bill’s title and several of the findings in the Senate version of the legislation.  NACWA will continue to work with key congressional staff to ensure the right approach to monitoring and notification is taken.  For further analysis of these bills along with a breakdown of differences, please refer to the Legislative Alert 07-3 which was sent out on October 5, 2007.

Funding

NACWA a Key Player in Flurry of Congressional Activity on Infrastructure Funding

Since returning from its August recess, Congress is focusing significant attention on the nation’s infrastructure challenges, including those affecting water and wastewater and NACWA has played a key role in voicing its members’ concerns.

NACWA Voices Clean Water Agency Perspectives on the Hill
NACWA President Chris Westhoff, assistant city attorney – public works general counsel for the City of Los Angeles, testified Sept. 19 before the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Subcommittee on Transportation Safety, Infrastructure Security, and Water Quality at a hearing examining the nation’s burgeoning water infrastructure funding needs and how to address them.  He focused on the federal withdrawal in the face of expanding investment needs stating, “Local communities now pay more than 95 percent of the cost of meeting their Clean Water Act obligations and, in effect, are on their own to address the ever-increasing challenges of aging infrastructure, population growth, demands for better service, and more expensive federal regulations.”  This message resonated with members of the subcommittee as they pledged to introduce legislation authorizing increased water infrastructure funding.

At the same time that Chris Westhoff was testifying before the Senate, NACWA Vice President Marian Orfeo, director of planning and coordination for the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority in Boston, participated in a Congressional briefing for U.S. House of Representatives’ staff.  The briefing, The Next 35 Years of Clean Water: What Will the Future Hold?, was organized by the Water Environment Federation (WEF) and the Energy and Environment Study Institute (EESI) to provide an overview of the direction the country must move in to address 21st century clean water challenges.  Orfeo said that local communities are doing “the lion’s share of the work to address and try to improve the nation’s waters,” yet continue to face more mandates and declining financial support.  She focused her comments on the fact that 21st century challenges, including climate change, are going to require a move to a holistic watershed approach.

Events Shed Light on Clean Water Needs
NACWA’s participation in these important events took place in conjunction with the Sept. 18 Water Infrastructure Network (WIN) rally, which NACWA helped organize in the Senate.  EPW Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) spoke at the rally, and discussed her support for a stronger federal commitment to clean water and, more specifically, to the need for the swift introduction of a Senate companion bill to the Water Quality Financing Act of 2007 (H.R. 720).  H.R. 720, which was passed by the House in March, would reauthorize the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) at $14 billion over four years and seeks a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study of revenue sources for a clean water trust fund.

NACWA also led the organizing effort for, and participated in, the Clean Water America Gala Celebration the evening of Sept. 18.  The event drew about 450 people and celebrated the 35th anniversary of the Clean Water Act by recognizing key leaders and initiatives critical to the Act’s success while focusing on the importance of a re-commitment to address 21st century water sector challenges (see the August-September Clean Water Advocate for additional information).  NACWA will build upon the momentum created by these events to continue work with Senator Boxer and other key members of Congress on introduction and passage of a companion bill to H.R. 720 in the Senate.

EPA Funding Bill Stalls in Senate

The Senate has not set a date for floor debate on its version of the fiscal year (FY) 2008 Interior-Environment spending bill that sets funding levels for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Democratic leadership may choose to add it to an omnibus spending package instead of trying to pass it as a stand-alone bill.  The Senate’s committee-approved bill, S. 1696, would cost less than the House-passed version, H.R. 4623, but it contains more earmarks, and fiscal conservatives have challenged those projects.  Controversy is also likely on the Senate floor over provisions in the House bill for a $50 million commission for studying ways to mitigate the potential impacts of climate change.  The White House opposes this language, arguing that such a commission would duplicate existing efforts on climate change.

Funding Levels Exceed Presidential Budget Requests – Spark Talk of Veto
H.R. 2643, passed in late June, has prompted a veto threat from the White House because of its spending level. The bill would fund the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at $8 billion, $887 million above the president’s budget request and $361 million more than fiscal year (FY) 2007.  The Senate bill, S. 1696, would fund EPA at $7.77 billion, a $574 million increase over the president’s request and $48 million more than FY 2007.  The Senate bill includes $399.8 million in member-requested earmarks, compared with $119 million in the House bill, according to figures provided by the Appropriations committees.  H.R. 2643 also provides $1.125 billion for the clean water state revolving fund (CWSRF) and $140 million in earmarked funds for specific water, wastewater, and stormwater projects.  S. 1696, as passed by the Senate Appropriations Committee in June, would provide $887 million for the CWSRF but as yet contains no earmarked funds specific to water projects. 

This increased funding for EPA, and the CWSRF in particular, are the main sticking points driving the administration’s veto threat.  The Senate bill’s provisions on State and Territorial Assistance Grants (STAG) program does not include infrastructure projects in line with the House recommendations, but did include $204 million for States to use for nonpoint source control projects to improve water quality and reduce contamination.  These projects and funding levels will be worked out in conference after the Senate passes its funding bills sometime this fall.  There is a real prospect for delay however as there has been little movement to date by Democratic leaders to seek a deal with the administration on an acceptable funding level.

NACWA Addresses Proposed EPA Permit Fee Rule in Senate Bill
H.R. 2643 left intact Appropriations Committee language blocking a permit fee rule proposed by the EPA.  The proposal would have encouraged states to fund more of their National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) programs through user fees from permit applicants.  NACWA was concerned the proposal would ultimately result in cuts to Section 106 funds used for Clean Water Act programs and worked with other groups to voice its opposition (PDF) to the proposed rule both in comments (PDF) submitted to EPA in March and in a recent letter (PDF) that was sent to all House and Senate Appropriations Committee Members on September 7.  NACWA continues to work with other municipal groups to ensure legislative language blocking the EPA plan is included in the Senate legislation.

Farm Bill

Senate Action on Legislation Stalls over Funding for Conservation Programs

The Senate Agriculture Committee will again delay its markup of the farm bill that had been scheduled for this week.  Members have been meeting to negotiate a general agreement before going into markup, but their decisions rely in part on the outcome of the Senate Finance Committee’s “farm bill tax bill” which determines the levels of farm bill funding available to the Agriculture Committee.  Under the tax package approved by the Finance Committee this week, conservation programs would get more than $3 billion.  This is almost $1 billion less than previously estimated and is short of the $5 billion conservation groups and NACWA had been vying for to help continue programs that would otherwise expire at the end of the current farm bill’s authorization.  The bill does add nearly $3 billion in tax benefits for farmers who enroll their land in existing farm bill conservation programs but it is unclear how the tax benefits would play out as a practical matter in terms of leading to actual conservation activity.  The passage of the tax bill delayed the markup in the Agriculture Committee as it forced a new wrinkle into Chairman Tom Harkin’s (D-Iowa) attempts to secure funding for the bill.  Because of the Columbus Day recess the week of Oct. 8, the Senate Agriculture Committee will now have to wait at least another week to begin its markup.

In the Senate Agriculture Committee, pre-markup negotiations have continued with some convergence on competing farm bill plans, but substantial differences remain.  A major source of disagreement on the Democratic side of the aisle is how much money can be moved from direct payments for commodity production to help meet the needs of the conservation programs that are beneficial to NACWA members.  Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, has been joined by Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Robert Casey (D-Penn), and others, to argue for as much as 12.5 percent or $4.5 billion over five years to be moved out of direct payments into other areas, including conservation.  Others argue that $1 billion is the most that can be moved.  The outcome of these negotiations could determine the fate of many NACWA farm bill priorities, perhaps most importantly, the new Regional Water Enhancement Program (RWEP).

In the House bill, $60 million annually is provided for RWEP, to fund cooperative agreements between the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), agriculture producers, and other entities including local government units, to improve regional water quality or quantity in certain areas selected by USDA.  Half of these funds would be targeted toward the Chesapeake Bay, Klamath basin, the Everglades, and Upper Mississippi River basin.   The fate of RWEP in the Senate is somewhat more tenuous with some opposition to the program coming from Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) who is concerned it will take money away from groundwater and surface water programs in his state.  Questions remain about how much consensus exists between Senate Agriculture Committee members as there are still wide differences worth several billion dollars over the proposed five year budgets for farm bill programs dealing with conservation, rural development, research, energy, beginning farmers, minority farmers, organic, and farmers markets.  NACWA will continue to work with congressional staff to ensure the inclusion and full funding of these important new water quality conservation and collaborative opportunities in the farm bill.

Water Resources

Senate Passes WRDA Conference Bill Despite Presidential Veto Threat

The U.S. Senate approved the conference report on the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) Sept. 24 by an overwhelming vote of 81-12.  The WRDA legislation was also approved by the U.S. House of Representatives Aug. 1 by a similarly strong vote of 381-40.  As a result, both the House and the Senate have the two-thirds margin required to override the threatened presidential veto and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle hope to avoid what has been described as a needless fight.  President Bush opposes the WRDA bill because of its funding levels that include more than $20 billion for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects.   These funding levels are unusually high as WRDA bills are normally considered every two years, but none has been enacted since 2000.

President Bush also opposes the bill because for the first time, it  authorizes direct funding in the form of earmarks for wastewater, drinking water, combined sewer overflow and mine cleanup projects that have traditionally only fallen under the purview of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  WRDA includes over 100 wastewater and drinking water infrastructure projects totaling $794 million in 21 states.  This illustrates the mounting attempts within Congress to find alternate funding sources for water infrastructure outside the traditional avenues of funding like the CWSRF.  NACWA will continue to work with Congress to find new and innovative ways, akin to the earmarks in the WRDA bill, to increase funding for clean water infrastructure while redoubling our efforts in support of more traditional revenue sources.

Bipartisan Congressional Water Caucus Created

Congress has established a Water Caucus to promote a dialogue about water issues and provide timely, scientific information about water resources and water use.  Reps. John Linder (R-Ga.), Jim Costa (D-Calif.), Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.), and Rep. George Radanovich (R-Calif.) will co-chair the Congressional Water Caucus, which will  focus on water supply, distribution, and water quality.  The Water Caucus will play an important role in educating other members of Congress about these complex issues to help build support for a sound national policy for managing the nation’s water resources.

The “Twelve Principles of Water Policy” developed by the Water Caucus largely focus on measures for ensuring adequate supplies of water.  The Caucus does however have an interest in water quality issues that would directly benefit NACWA members.  For example, the principles call for supporting adequate funding to implement water re-use strategies wherever appropriate; streamlining  local, state, and federal government efforts  to reduce the bureaucratic red tape associated with  trying to build water reservoirs and other infrastructure needs; and collecting and sharing data related to water use and water quality to determine effectiveness of policy.

This new caucus has the potential to be a strong voice on water issues and is the only one of the more than 200 congressional caucuses to focus exclusively on water.   Rather than serving as a conduit for water legislation, however, the Water Caucus will act more as a clearinghouse for water resources experts, scientists, and academics to communicate, coordinate, and provide solutions to 21st century water issues.  NACWA applauds the leadership and commitment of the caucus members and stands ready to provide information or assist in achieving these goals.