» Clean Water Current Archive

March 20, 2009

Save the Date for April 1st
Step up to the Stump! NACWA Seeks Member Input on Stimulus Package

NACWA welcomes comments from its public agency members on both the challenges and opportunities involved in accessing funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA or stimulus package). This important member agency input allows the Association to more effectively advocate as ARRA implementation issues arise.

To facilitate this exchange of information – and allow agencies to benefit from each other’s experiences – NACWA is planning two complimentary conference calls on Wednesday, April 1, 2009. The calls, The Stimulus Stump . . . Giving a Voice to Clean Water Utilities, will be offered at 10:00 am Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) and at 2:00 pm EDT — affording members the opportunity to choose the most convenient time for them to participate. NACWA asks that you visit its website, www.nacwa.org, to complete a registration form containing the call-in information, and indicate the call on which you plan to participate. It is especially important for the Association to hear from its members on April 1 so that Association staff can be well-informed when they meet with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials on April 2 to discuss stimulus package implementation issues. The information your agencies provide on the April 1 conference calls will help ensure a more targeted, productive discussion with the Agency.

As a complement to the conference calls, NACWA is launching a web-based portal that will allow members to share their stimulus package experiences with the Association as they occur. The web-portal, The Stimulus Stump . . . A Voice for Clean Water Utilities, will be available on the Association’s website early next week. The Association anticipates that it will be a key tool to help track the benefits of, as well as the impediments to, ARRA implementation over time. This, in turn, will ensure that NACWA’s advocacy initiative reflect members’ on-the-ground experiences and will bolster the Association’s efforts on future federal funding-related efforts. NACWA will be providing additional information next week on both the conference calls and the new web portal.

NACWA Testifies at House Hearing on Stormwater; Interest Seen in Revising CSO Policy

Howard Neukrug, the director of the Office of Watersheds at the Philadelphia Water Department, testified on behalf of NACWA at a hearing yesterday examining the challenges and opportunities municipalities face in controlling their stormwater. In his testimony , Neukrug told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment that Congress should direct EPA to revise the National Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) policy to remove regulatory and enforcement barriers to using green infrastructure. He outlined Philadelphia’s plan to transform itself into “the greenest city in America” and stressed that policymakers should shift their current thinking to focus on the interplay between land use and water quality. “If we are going to rebuild the drainage systems of America’s cities in order to harvest rain water and prevent stormwater from commingling with sanitary sewage in the first place, then the law needs to be revised to recognize the significant impacts land-use policies have on local water quality,” Neukrug said. He also touted the work of the Clean Water America Alliance in beginning to think about these issues on an integrated basis. The hearing opened with a panel of mayors from Dallas, Kansas City, and Milwaukee, who discussed green infrastructure programs in their cities and the challenges they face, including inadequate funding to control their stormwater.

After the hearing, NACWA met with committee staff who confirmed that they understood the critical leadership Philadelphia has provided on green infrastructure and said they were interested in potential legislation to revise the CSO Policy so that it does not interfere with communities’ efforts to use green infrastructure and other cost-effective and aesthetically pleasing approaches for managing their stormwater.

NACWA Meets with Key Appropriations Leader, Speaker Pelosi’s Office

NACWA met this week with Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, and staff for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to discuss priority clean water issues. At the meeting with Chairman Dicks, Dan Thompson, NACWA Board Member and the assistant public works director/environment services for the Tacoma Public Works Department, provided an overview of the opportunities and difficulties Tacoma has encountered in seeking stimulus funding. NACWA thanked Dicks for his help in ensuring that additional subsidization/grants were a key component of the stimulus package and encouraged him to use similar language and make grant funding available in the fiscal year 2010 appropriations bill so that the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) would be more attractive to cities and rural communities. NACWA also sought his support for Clean Water Trust Fund legislation, namely the draft trust fund bill that Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) expects to introduce soon. Chairman Dicks expressed his strong support and NACWA will continue to work with his office as this effort progresses.

NACWA also met this week with Speaker Pelosi’s staff primarily to discuss two critical issues: climate change and chemical security. Joining NACWA at the meeting was the California Association of Sanitation Agencies (CASA), which shares concerns on these issues. NACWA underscored the fact that climate change is very much a water issue and that public wastewater treatment agencies need to be able to participate in an offset or carbon trading market. NACWA also emphasized the need to include wastewater treatment plants in any adaptation funding program in upcoming climate legislation.

On the chemical security front, NACWA focused on the importance of having a single federal agency with jurisdiction for drinking water utilities and wastewater utilities. Currently, the Energy & Commerce Committee is drafting legislation for drinking water agencies that gives EPA jurisdiction over chemical security issues. Meanwhile, the Homeland Security Committee bill would put the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as the lead agency over chemical security at wastewater treatment plants. NACWA provided Pelosi’s office with a long list of NACWA members that are joint drinking water/wastewater treatment utilities and emphasized the importance of having EPA retain jurisdiction over both in order to ensure a consistent approach. NACWA continues to meet with the Transportation & Infrastructure (T&I) Committee staff, which has jurisdiction over Clean Water Act issues, to make sure they take a strong stance on this issue and ensure a consistent approach. NACWA and CASA also raised the importance of ensuring that the nation’s cities, including California cities, benefit equitably from stimulus package funding.

NACWA Briefed on EPA Study of Emerging Contaminants at POTWs

NACWA met this week with EPA officials who are working to finalize a report on a multi-year sampling effort at nine publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) examining influent and effluent concentrations of emerging contaminants (including pharmaceuticals and personal care products, steroids/hormones, flame retardants, pesticides, and alkylphenol ethoxylates). EPA’s report, which will be released early this summer, will include all of the analytical results and detailed information on each of the nine plants involved with the study. EPA indicated during the meeting, that it will report on its observations from the study effort, but not draw any conclusions based on the analytical results due to the small number of POTWs and limited number of samples at each plant. Nevertheless, the report is expected to garner significant interest when it is released and has already captured the attention of the Associated Press, which is currently working on another national story on pharmaceuticals in water.

EPA’s selection of the POTWs for sampling was not random and will not represent the characteristics of a typical secondary treatment plant. In fact, EPA sought out POTWs with a range of treatment levels, including plants with advanced treatment and a variety of disinfection processes. EPA also evaluated sludge samples of different ages to determine whether longer detention times would affect removal of the contaminants. When the study began several years ago, the Agency focused on POTWs with a large industrial component for its sampling. The original intent of the study was to collect data on more than emerging contaminants, including priority pollutants, in an effort to provide new information that might update the decades-old “50 POTW” study that has been used as the basis for pretreatment standards development. Midway through the study, however, EPA noted that it was not finding many of the contaminants, either because the high industrial flows were diluting the influent or because their analytical methods were not performing well. At that point, EPA worked to refine its analytical methods and began to focus solely on emerging contaminants and target treatment plants with more residential flows, specifically targeting areas such as retirement communities where prescription drug use may be higher.

EPA has not decided whether it will conduct an external peer review of the report before it is released, but NACWA has requested the opportunity to review the report before it is published. EPA also noted that it will soon release an online database comprised of information from a search of current literature on influent/effluent concentrations and removals of emerging contaminants using various wastewater treatment technologies. The database will be publicly accessible and should be available later this spring.

NACWA Advocacy Paper on Chemical Security Legislation Highlights POTW Concerns

NACWA released an advocacy paper this week discussing the unique concerns of the clean water community with regard to anticipated federal chemical security legislation, including the importance of maintaining flexibility for wastewater utilities in choosing disinfection methods. The document, developed as part of NACWA’s Critical Issues Action Initiative, responds to efforts in Congress to extend federal Chemical Facilities Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) to publicly owned treatment works (POTWs), including a mandate that POTWs consider and implement inherently safer technology (IST) as part of their site security plans. The application of IST could require certain utilities to switch disinfection techniques from gaseous chlorine to other methods. Such a requirement would present a host of public safety, public health, environmental, and economic concerns for some POTWs, and the advocacy paper emphasizes the importance of allowing individual utilities to choose the disinfection technology that works best for their facilities.

The paper highlights the many reasons why gaseous chlorine may be the most appropriate disinfection option for a given utility, based on a number of factors such as specific discharge limits under a Clean Water Act permit; environmental and public health requirements of the receiving waterbody; lack of availability or transportation of sufficient alternative treatment chemicals; local community considerations regarding transport and storage of chemicals in and around the facility; economic factors associated with plant operation costs; and, specific plant design of a POTW’s treatment process. A mandatory switch from chlorine to another disinfection method could adversely affect any one of these considerations. The paper emphasizes that local utilities must continue to have discretion over the choice of disinfection technology. Additionally, the white paper outlines the significant economic costs that POTWs will face if the clean water community is included under CFATS and IST requirements, and encourages Congress to appropriate sufficient federal funds to go along with any new federal mandates. The white paper will be an important tool in NACWA’s ongoing advocacy efforts to ensure the clean water community’s voice is heard during the upcoming chemical security legislation debate in Congress.

NACWA, WEF Gear Up for 2009 National Clean Water Policy Forum

NACWA and the Water Environment Federation (WEF) are cosponsoring the 2009 National Clean Water Policy Forum, to be held May 3-6 in Washington, D.C. This popular event attracts leading policymakers and top administration officials who will provide in-depth information about regulatory, legal, and legislative activities that can significantly affect the clean water community. This year’s event is especially timely because it will provide an opportunity to hear from those who will be setting the new direction at EPA now that the Obama administration is in place. Invited speakers include new EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and senior staff within the EPA Office of Water. Chairman James Oberstar, chair of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee and Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality are also included in the agenda.

Make your plans today to ensure the clean water community’s voice is heard on the issues being considered by our nation’s leaders today that may impact clean water utilities tomorrow. This year, for the first time, a discounted registration rate is available to public utilities with more than one individual attending. Registrants are requested to submit their registration forms together via paper copy to receive the discount. Visit NACWA’s website for additional registration information and to register for the 2009 National Clean Water Policy Forum.

Green Infrastructure Course Offers Timely Information on Funding Opportunities

NACWA’s upcoming course on green infrastructure will provide timely and important information to municipal clean water utilities looking to learn more about financing green infrastructure projects. The course, How Green Is My Infrastructure: A Regional Approach to Municipal Planning & Investment, is designed specifically for public utility managers and officials interested in implementing green infrastructure technologies, and was developed jointly by NACWA and The Conservation Fund. One of the course instructional sessions will focus exclusively on financing opportunities and how municipal utilities can take advantage federal funding and grant programs designed specifically for green infrastructure projects. This is especially critical given recent federal legislation passed by Congress that included a 20-percent set aside of clean water state revolving funds allocated in the recent stimulus package for green infrastructure. Additionally, EPA recently released a memo outlining how Water Quality Management Planning Grants and state and tribal assistance grants included in the stimulus package can be applied towards green infrastructure efforts. The upcoming course will inform participants how their communities can best access these federal funds for green projects. The course will be held April 14-16 at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, W.V. More information, including a copy of the course agenda and registration information, can be found by visiting NACWA’s Conferences & Professional Development page.