FEBRUARY/MARCH 2012
Inside
NACWA Prominent at Integrated
Planning Workshops, Files
Comments on EPA Framework ..... 2
Senate Legislation Makes Biogas
Eligible for Energy Credits............. 2
Healthy Water Coalition Release
Policy Recommendations .............. 2
Williams Testifies on Need for
Federal Support............................. 3
NACWA Busy in the Courtroom ... 3
2012 Winter Conference ............... 5
NACWA Honors Agencies............. 6
New Members ............................... 8
NACWA President, David Williams, Director of
Wastewater for the East Bay Municipal Utility
District, Calif. testified in February before
the House Water Resources and Environment
Subcommittee on the need for greater support of
innovative projects taking place at utilities across
the country.
A
s Washington ramps up for an election year, NACWA’s
National Environmental Policy Forum
is well-timed, bringing
together policy makers and clean water professionals
to discuss the country’s most urgent clean water issues.
Held April 22 – 25 at the Washington Marriott in Washington,
D.C., the
Forum
will examine the latest legislative, regulatory and
legal issues confronting our country and its leaders today.
The
Policy Forum
will feature high level discussions and NACWA
committee meetings on hot topic issues important to all
Association members, including integrated planning and
affordability, controlling agricultural run-off, opening
National Environmental Policy Forum to
Examine Critical Clean Water Issues
NACWA Acts Swiftly,
Plans Intervention in Secondary
Treatment/Nutrient Control Lawsuits
O
n March 23, NACWA’s Board of
Directors approved intervention by
the Association in two recent lawsuits
involving nutrient issues that could
have significant impacts on NACWA members –
and clean water utilities nationwide. This action
on
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) et al. v.
EPA
and
Gulf Restoration Network (GRN) et al. v. EPA
paves the way for the Association to move forward
aggressively and defend its members’ legal interests
in these two critical cases. NACWA anticipates
filing its intervention papers within the next few
weeks.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
and a number of environmental activist groups
filed two key lawsuits in March. The first, a fed-
eral
lawsuit
filed on March 13, challenges the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) failure
to respond to a
2007 NRDC petition
requesting
that the Agency add nutrient removal to the cur-
rent Clean Water Act (CWA) secondary treatment
requirements. A similar group of activist organiza-
tions filed a
second lawsuit
the same day in federal
court in New Orleans challenging EPA’s recent de-
nial of a
2008 petition
filed by non-governmental
organization (NGO) groups, including NRDC, to
establish numeric nutrient criteria for all waters
nationwide where such criteria had not been devel-
oped but, at a minimum, to establish such criteria
for all waters in the Mississippi River watershed and
the Gulf of Mexico.
Impacts Possible for POTWs Nationwide
The outcome of these lawsuits could have signifi-
cant impacts on NACWA Member Agencies and on
all publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) na-
tionwide, including a technology-based treatment
limit for every wastewater treatment plant in the
nation – regardless of a demonstrated water quality
need. Such an outcome would come at an astro-
nomical financial cost, with conservative NACWA
financial estimates reaching in excess of $280 bil-
lion nationally. An effort by EPA to establish nu-
meric nutrient criteria for states in the Mississippi
River watershed – comparable to what the Agency
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
»
A
Clear
Commitment to America’s Waters
CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
»
National Association of
Clean Water Agencies
1816 Jefferson Place, NW
Washington DC 20036-2505
p
202.833.2672
f
202.833.4657
info@nacwa.org •
www.nacwa.org
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