» Member Updates Archive

Many of the Association’s standing committees met in July as part of the NACWA Summer Conference in Milwaukee.   This Member Update provides a summary of the priority issues discussed during these committee meetings and provides insight into NACWA’s strategic next steps for those members who were unable to attend these meetings.  Many of the issues discussed in this Update will also be the building blocks for continued strategic committee discussions, including those taking place at NACWA’s upcoming Winter Conference, February 2-5, 2010, Transcending Tradition . . . the Expanding Roles & Relationships of the Clean Water Utility, in Austin, Texas.   NACWA’s committee structure forms the backbone of its advocacy efforts and the Association strongly encourages member agency participation.  Please note, that the committee leaders are listed based on their roles at the time committee met in July.  There have been several changes in the committee structure and leadership and an updated list of this information is available on the NACWA website.  To join NACWA committees, please contact Tim Jones, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Air Quality and Climate Change

Co-Chair, Gregory Adams, Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, Calif.
Co-Chair, Ed Torres, Orange County Sanitation District, Calif.

With the House approval of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (H.R. 2454), also known as the Waxman-Markey climate change bill) and the Senate now considering climate change legislation, the Air Quality and Climate Change Committee focused on NACWA’s efforts to impact this legislation and next steps in seeking to ensure the Senate version address the Association’s concerns.  NACWA worked with other water associations and environmental groups to amend the House bill with a program to help provide funding for utility mitigation and adaptation efforts.  Although it received significant support it was not ultimately included in the House legislation. There is, however, significant interest in the Senate to include similar language in its climate bill.  NACWA is also focused on seeking to ensure that utility energy recovery efforts also receive support in the Senate climate and energy bill.  NACWA will seek Committee input as this process moves forward.

The Committee received updates on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) actions related to greenhouse gases (GHGs) and climate change.  In April, EPA published proposed endangerment findings for GHGs, citing their indirect health effects.  This finding would allow these gases to be regulated under the Clean Air Act.  NACWA sent comments to EPA about the proposed findings, stating its objections to regulating GHGs under the Clean Air Act., noting that the Act was meant to control pollutants on a local or regional scale, and does not have the appropriate framework for dealing with the global nature of GHGs and climate change.  NACWA also stated concerns about potential conflicts with implementing existing Clean Air Act standards and recommended that control of pollutants with direct health effects take precedence over the indirect GHG health effects.

NACWA also submitted comments on EPA’s proposed reporting rule for GHGs.  The proposed rule specifically excluded the wastewater treatment process, but utilities could still be required to report other GHG emissions if their stationary combustion sources – including electricity generating units, boilers, and sewage sludge incinerators – generate over 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents a year.  NACWA recommended that EPA provide clearer instructions on when a facility is required to calculate its emissions and how to calculate the emissions.  NACWA also urged EPA to reconsider its timeline for implementing the reporting rule.

NACWA continues to work with EPA on refinements to the annual Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks and submitted comments on the public review draft of the Inventory in April.  NACWA will evaluate the Inventory again next year, as well as current research on emissions from wastewater treatment processes, and decide how to proceed with future work on the Inventory.  NACWA and five member agencies are also participating in an EPA project to develop a tool that could be used by utilities to assess climate change impacts and adaptation needs.

Biosolids Management Committee

Co-Chair – Bob Dominak, Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, Ohio
Co-Chair – Dave Taylor, Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District, Wis.

Representatives from the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District opened the committee meeting with an overview of their solids management operations, including the successful bagged product Milorganite, which has been marketed for over 80 years.  The Committee discussed the significant focus that remains on perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs, which have been detected in some drinking water wells in Alabama above an EPA provisional health advisory level.  The initial focus of the investigation has been on the biosolids from the local utility.  The utility is in compliance with the Part 503 requirements, but has ceased land application as a precaution.

A team of NACWA volunteers is now reviewing a draft report on the risk assessments EPA conducted on 10 pollutants found in biosolids to evaluate them for possible regulation.  NACWA plans to provide EPA with comments on the assessment document later this month.  NACWA is also tracking an EPA Office of Research and Development effort to revise the cancer slope factor for arsenic.  The current draft Agency figure, a five-fold increase in the existing value, could lead to a more stringent pollutant limit for arsenic in the Part 503 regulations.

During the meeting, the Committee discussed EPA’s activities on the definition of solid waste and how it will affect the regulation of sewage sludge incinerators under the Clean Air Act.  EPA recently informed NACWA that it has determined preliminarily that the domestic sewage exclusion for dissolved materials in sewage entering a treatment plant does not extend to the sewage sludge generated by the plant.  If the sludge is then ‘discarded,’ including destruction through incineration, then EPA intends to include those sludges in its definition of solid waste.  EPA is under a court-ordered deadline to propose the new definition by Sept. 15 in order to resolve a legal challenge involving EPA’s previous rulemakings on commercial and industrial solid waste incineration.  Though the implications for other management options for biosolids seem limited, the implications for incineration are major as the units would be pulled into more stringent Clean Air Act regulations for burning solid waste.  The Committee approved a Targeted Action Fund request (later approved by the Board of Directors) to continue the Association’s advocacy efforts.  The primary focus will be on EPA’s efforts to define solid waste to include biosolids.  In addition, the Committee is working to update EPA’s data on incineration to ensure that any regulations are based on the most current process and emissions information.

Facility and Collection System Committee

Co-Chair, Martin Umberg, Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati, Ohio
Co-Chair, Ben Horenstein, East Bay Municipal Utility District, Calif.

The Facility and Collection System Committee discussed several issues related to wet weather regulations and policies.  Committee members shared their experiences with peak wet weather flows permitting.  Problems are arising in several EPA Regions that are beginning to implement the proposed peak wet weather flows guidance, although it has never been finalized.  NACWA will raise this issue with Peter Silva, the newly confirmed EPA assistant administrator for water.  NACWA will also discuss with Silva the possibility of a sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) rule.  EPA recently indicated that the Agency does not have sufficient staff to work on a SSO rule, but NACWA believes that the new administration presents a new opportunity to pursue development of a rule.

The Committee discussed a recent memo from EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on improving water quality transparency and enforcement actions, particularly with respect to wet weather pollution.  While the memo indicates that EPA will work with the states and EPA Regions on these improvements, it does not mention working with municipalities and other regulated entities.  NACWA drafted a letter to Administrator Jackson and recently learned that EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) will be meeting with the Association to discuss municipal concerns.

Collection systems were a major topic of discussion for the Committee.  NACWA has been working with representatives from the Water Environment Federation (WEF) and the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) to develop a set of core attributes for collection systems, and EPA and the American Public Works Association (APWA) are now also interested in supporting these core attributes.  The core practices would give guidance to utilities and collection systems and provide consistency in management practices.  Committee members discussed their activities dealing with private laterals, including using their pretreatment program to control flow to all commercial laterals, using rate increases to provide loans or rebates for private lateral rehabilitation, and establishing ordinances that would require inspection of laterals at the time of sale.  The Committee will continue to follow developments in the management of collection systems, and provide more opportunities for members to share ideas and experiences.

The Committee was updated on NACWA’s joint efforts with other environmental organizations to ensure green infrastructure legislation is introduced this year in the U.S. House of Representatives and afterwards in the Senate.  The draft legislation would help to increase the viability of green infrastructure and include establishment of a new federal grants program for green infrastructure and integration of green infrastructure into EPA’s regulatory program.  Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) will sponsor the bill, and NACWA has asked members to assist in finding co-sponsors for the legislation.

Legal Affairs Committee

Chair, Lisa Hollander, Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, Ohio
Vice Chair, Roberta Larson, Somach, Simmons & Dunn

The Legal Affairs Committee provided updates on NACWA’s ongoing litigation activities, including the Association’s recent victory in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in the case of Friends of the Everglades v. South Florida Water Management District.  The Eleventh Circuit’s decision found  that transfers of natural, untreated water from one water body to another do not require a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit under the federal Clean Water Act (CWA).  In addition, the Association has filed a Motion with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to intervene in the case of Anacostia Riverkeeper v. EPA, which is challenging the Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for sediments and suspended solids for the Anacostia River.

Following these updates, Peg Kohring, Midwest Regional Director for The Conservation Fund, and James Petersen, Senior Project Attorney for the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD), spoke to the Committee about the legal challenges involved in developing  MMSD’s GreenSeams program, which has protected over 1,800 acres of undeveloped land alongside streams and rivers.

The Committee then discussed the recent mark-up of the Clean Water Restoration Act by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.  The consensus of the Committee was that it is critically important to codify the regulatory waste treatment exemption for manmade treatment structures contained in EPA and Army Corps of Engineers regulatory definitions of “waters of the United States” as found in 40 CFR 122.2 and 33 CFR 328 respectively.  It was suggested that the Association continue to work closely with the California Association of Sanitation Agencies (CASA) on this important issue.

Finally, the Committee announced that the annual Developments in Clean Water Law Seminar for Public Agency Attorneys and Managers will be held on November 11th -13th at the Marriott at Metro Center in Washington D.C.

Utility Management Committee

Chair, Jon Schellpfeffer, Madison Metrpolitan Sewerage District, Wis.
Vice Chair, Kurt Egelhofer, Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility

The Utility Management Committee meeting started with a discussion of procurement and issues associated with using new technologies, processes, or suppliers that present financing challenges or where there may be few or no competitive bidders.  New technologies for recovering phosphorus from wastewater treatment plant process streams, for example, are being explored by clean water agencies but the siting of equipment at the treatment plant and the sale of the phosphorus by a private entity have created procurement and financing challenges for some utilities.  In most cases, however, solutions have been found and the committee discussed how these issues may arise more in the future as additional resource recovery and energy options are explored by clean water agencies.

The Strategic Analysis of the CleanWater Central (CWC) database is now complete and the Committee discussed the findings of the analysis and potential next steps.  The report from the Analysis provides an overview of the competitive, economic, technological and other forces impacting broader CWC usage, as well as an examination of potential target users for the information in the system.   The Analysis examined current CWC marketing efforts and performance and assessed the strengths and weaknesses of the existing system for reaching new target markets and achieving broader use.  The Strategic Analysis concludes that there is an opportunity for more widespread use of the database, but that significant additional investment will be needed to meet the expectations of the potential user community.  NACWA staff will be meeting in the coming months to discuss next steps and will report back to the Committee.

The Committee discussed the recently completed Financial Survey and NACWA Index and how each of these may be improved in the future.  Questions about comparability were raised for both reports.  Findings in both reports are presented to show increases in sewer service rates and what, on average, customers pay, but this is done, to some extent, without critical contextual background.  While in some instances the actual dollar value of the increases may seem relatively low, the committee noted that it is important to compare small, medium and large facilities as well as differing levels of treatment at the spectrum of utilities. Otherwise, it is difficult to compare some of the benchmark values in a manner that provides a more complete picture.  Committee leaders will be doing additional analyses, especially for the next Index survey that begins this fall, to determine whether there are better ways to present the data to reflect the variability among utilities.

Updates on the Water and Wastewater Leadership Center and the Effective Utility Management effort were also provided during the Committee meeting.

Water Quality Committee

Chair, Keith Linn, Northeast Ohio Regional Sewerage District, Ohio
Vice Chair, Barbara Biggs, Metro Wastewater Reclamation District, Colo.

NACWA’s ongoing activities on nutrients again headlined the Water Quality Committee’s discussions.  NACWA continues to work on multiple initiatives, recently completing issue papers on the legal and technical reasoning against including limits for nutrients in the definition of secondary treatment.  NACWA met with EPA in June to discuss preliminary information from these papers and continues to meet with senior EPA officials to help the Agency understand why a one-size-fits-all technology based approach to controlling nutrients cannot work.   While EPA continues to evaluate the issue of a technology-based approach for nutrients, it is also center stage in a very active case on the water quality side in Florida.  Earlier this year, EPA committed to promulgating federal numeric nutrient criteria by the end of the year if the state does not.  This threat had accelerated Florida’s criteria process and has caused state managers to abandon its previous approach in favor of a reference condition approach.  The Committee voted to support a request for Targeted Action Funds for NACWA to engage on this important issue.  The Legal Affairs Committee and NACWA Board also approved this involvement.

Several updates were provided regarding ongoing water quality criteria development work.  NACWA continues to closely follow work to revise the ammonia water quality criteria for aquatic life.  At issue are new data regarding the sensitivity of freshwater mussels at key life stages.  NACWA met with EPA in early July to be briefed on the Agency’s activities over the past few years.  EPA is now conducting a peer review of its findings regarding the use of the mussel toxicity data and will publish a proposed reassessment of the ammonia criteria this fall.  NACWA anticipates that the new criterion value will be more stringent than the 1999 criteria, but is working to ensure EPA provides some flexibility for implementing the criteria.

EPA is also currently reviewing its guidance on implementing its fish tissue-based criteria for methylmercury.  The guidance was finalized earlier this year, but was put under review by the incoming Obama administration.  NACWA is not anticipating any major changes to the document, which the Association worked to ensure was finalized.  The guidance takes a reasonable approach to implementing the criteria and acknowledges the importance of pollutant minimization plans for de minimis sources of mercury.

Through NACWA’s Critical Issues Action Initiative, the first meeting of the pharmaceutical peer review panel was convened in Washington on July 9.  The panel of top experts from across the country is reviewing the current state of the science on the issue and will produce a set of recommendations for the water sector this fall.  Texas remains focused on whole effluent toxicity issues with EPA Region 6 pushing for chronic test requirements and limits in all Clean Water Act permits.  NACWA’s Board approved the Association’s engagement on this issue last year and the Water Quality Committee will be tracking things closely to see if NACWA needs to weigh in.