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This edition of NACWA’s Legislative Update, current through November 2, 2010 provides information on the activities of the 111th Congress of interest to the nation’s public clean water agencies.  For more detailed information regarding NACWA activities, click on the web links in selected news items, visit NACWA’s website, or contact Pat Sinicropi at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or John Krohn at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

During October, Congress was adjourned and Members returned to their District’s in advance of the 2010 mid-term elections.  As a result, NACWA staff was busy focusing on developing priorities and strategies for consideration in the upcoming lame-duck session, as well as developing strategies for the upcoming 112th Congress.  With election-day upon us, NACWA will be watching the results closely and will provide members with an analysis of the results and their potential impact on national water policy in upcoming Clean Water Currents, Advocacy Alerts, and Legislative and Regulatory Updates.  Specifically, NACWA is taking advantage of the lame-duck session to develop strategies for, and build awareness on behalf of, our affordability/financial capability-related efforts as well as for passage of legislation requiring federal payment of local stormwater management fees.

Affordability

Congressional Correspondence Leads to Legislative Outreach on Affordability

NACWA has been pursuing key legislative support for a new federal approach to Clean Water Act (CWA) affordability/financial capability as part of its Money Matters — Smarter Investment to Advance Clean Water campaign.   Last month, a bipartisan group of Representatives sent a letter to the Chair and Ranking Member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee requesting their support and leadership in encouraging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to update its outdated 1997 financial capability guidance “Combined Sewer Overflows- Guidance for Financial Capability Assessment and Schedule Development”.  NACWA worked with Representatives Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.) and Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio) to secure the letter, which was signed by nine Members of Congress.  Following up on this correspondence, T&I Committee staff began working with NACWA to see what progress can be made with EPA on this matter and how the Committee can be helpful.  NACWA is pursuing a bi-partisan, bi-cameral letter from the Chairs and Ranking Members of the T&I Committee and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to the EPA Administrator asking EPA to undertake a policy review and development process to deal with affordability and financial capability matters in a comprehensive and sustainable way.

As the letter states:

“Wet weather discharges, including combined sewer overflows (CSOs), continue to be a top enforcement priority for the EPA.  It has come to our attention that in pursuing these enforcement actions, EPA often requires communities to undertake projects to correct these events that could lead to rate increases amounting to two percent of a community’s Median Household Income (MHI).  The practice of relying on MHI as the primary indicator of ratepayer affordability to carry out these projects may not accurately reflect a community’s ability to undertake these investments.  Many important factors such as socioeconomic status of sub-populations of residents, current and anticipated unemployment rates, and the impacts of the overall costs to incurring debt to pay for these projects on a community’s financial outlook may not be given sufficient consideration when making affordability or financial capability determinations.”

Importantly, the letter adds that by “using stakeholder input we are confident the EPA, through a more holistic affordability approach, can maximize environmental improvement and help guarantee that communities are investing public dollars as wisely as possible to meet the important objectives of the Clean Water Act.”  NACWA believes that the election will help bolster this bipartisan view and provide additional momentum to this effort. The Association has been sharing its Money Matters flyer broadly with Congressional, EPA and stakeholder staff and will continue this Congressional transition period to get the message out.  NACWA will also be holding a Money Matters — Smarter Investment to Advance Clean Water campaign Summit and Fly-In in early March (see below) to help ensure the new and returning Members of Congress and the Administration are fully aware of the clean water community’s concerns. For all documents related to the Money Matters campaign visit NACWA’s webpage.

Money Matters Summit and Fly-In to Take Place in Early March

During October, NACWA also began planning its Money Matters Summit and Fly-In to take place over a day-and-a-half in early March to highlight the financial challenges facing utilities and communities as they implement costly projects to meet increasingly stringent water quality criteria.  NACWA has planned the Summit for the beginning of March to help raise awareness of this issue early in the new Congressional session.  The Summit will feature sessions focused on municipal case studies illustrating the financial challenges confronting our members and a solid block of time will also be set aside for attendees to meet individually with officials from EPA and Congress.  Registration is free of charge and members are encouraged to attend as the discussions will set the tone for the Association’s broad regulatory and legislative agenda next year.  For more information please visit our Money Matters website.

Funding

NACWA Works Toward Solution Requiring Federal Payment of Stormwater Fees

Now that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a limited decision on federal facility payment of D.C.-based stormwater fees, NACWA has moved forward with efforts to require federal payment of all stormwater fees through national legislation.  NACWA staff met with Senator Ben Cardin’s (D-Md.) office to discuss next steps on getting Congress to act on this issue before they adjourn later this year.  Senator Cardin, Chair of the Water & Wildlife Subcommittee of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, has sponsored legislation requiring the federal government to pay these fees (S. 3481) and has included similar language in legislation focused on cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay (S. 1816).  Meanwhile, S. 1816 is now part of a larger package of bills focused on public lands and watershed restoration efforts in other parts of the country while S.3481 may be able to be moved as part of a broader omnibus budget package later this year.   Both pieces of legislation passed the EPW Committee in June.

Due to Congressional Budget Office (CBO) quirks, the stormwater fee provision contained in S. 1816 did not receive a CBO score, which means that CBO did not attach an implementation cost to the provision.  However, CBO will attach an implementation cost to the stand-alone bill, S. 3481, which will then require identification of an off-set under pay-go rules currently in effect.  Because of the CBO scoring issue, Senator Cardin’s staff believes it may be easier to pass the stormwater provision as part of the larger Chesapeake Bay bill.  However, this strategy may prove difficult because of the opposition the Chesapeake Bay bill has garnered from agricultural interests.  Therefore, an omnibus appropriations strategy (i.e., attaching the legislation to the end of the year budget bill) may be the only legislative vehicle available to address this issue if the CBO score does not present an insurmountable off-set hurdle.

Meanwhile in the House, NACWA worked with Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) to introduce companion legislation (H.R. 5724) to S. 3481.  NACWA will work with Senator Cardin, Rep. Norton, and other key Congressional offices to ensure passage of this language before the 112th Congress adjourns.

NACWA Organizes Water Quality Efforts for Next Farm Bill

Congress is expected to take up reauthorization of the 2007 Farm Bill during the 112th Congressional session.  As such, NACWA staff is beginning to lay the ground work for a legislative strategy focused on improving nutrient controls on agricultural lands.  As part of this effort, NACWA convened a group of organizations representing municipal water, wastewater, stormwater and environmental advocacy organizations focused on water quality to support nutrient control provisions in the 2012 Farm Bill.  Organizations participating in the meeting included the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA), the American Water Works Association (AWWA), the Water Environment Foundation (WEF), the California Association of Sanitation Agencies (CASA), the Northeast-Midwest Coalition, American Rivers, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF).

At the same time, staff is gathering and researching ideas for policy recommendations and is urging NACWA members who are interested in this effort to contact Pat Sinicropi, NACWA’s Legislative Director, to discuss how to become more involved and to submit ideas for policy recommendations.  Pat can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .