FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 30, 2009

Contact:
Susan Bruninga, (202) 833-3280
NACWA Director of Public Affairs

NACWA Applauds Water Adaptation Language in Boxer/Kerry Climate Bill

The National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) applauds Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) for introducing the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, designed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, and for recognizing that climate change is fundamentally about water.

“Climate change is one of the most significant challenges facing the clean water community today,” NACWA Executive Director Ken Kirk said.  “This bill is an important step in our efforts to address this issue in a responsible fashion while recognizing that a key concern is its impacts on water.  We look forward to working with the Senate in helping to shape this legislation.”

In particular, NACWA is pleased that the introduced bill contains an important program, the Water System Mitigation and Adaptation Partnerships program, to help communities mitigate and adapt to impacts to their water and wastewater systems that may result from climate change.  These impacts will vary by region of the country, but include more intense and frequent storms in some areas that will produce additional stormwater flows that will need to be controlled; drought, which already poses water supply challenges in many areas; sea level rise, which threaten water and wastewater treatment facilities that tend to be located in low-lying areas; higher water temperatures, which can expand hypoxic “dead zones;” and water quality degradation.

NACWA worked with the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies and other water sector groups to get the mitigation and adaptation program included in the bill.