A Clear Commitment to America’s Waters
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ACWA’s 2013 Winter Conference,
Tomorrow’s Clean Water
Utility…Is the Future Already Here?
, February 3-6, in Miami
will provide an opportunity to explore some of the ex-
isting innovations and leading-edge practices that are
already helping shape the future of clean water. Early adopters are
creating success stories and identifying regulatory and economic
roadblocks to innovation that will no doubt confront other utilities.
The Winter Conference will highlight the successes and ongoing ef-
forts to address the challenges and begin to make the business case
for utilities.
As the future of the clean water community dawns, NACWA, along
with the Water Environment Federation (WEF) and the Water
Environment Research Foundation (WERF) – collaborators in con-
vening the Winter Conference – are completing an effort to help fa-
cilitate the transition to the utility of the future by identifying the
barriers and incentives for innovation and compiling a Blueprint for
Action. Speakers during the Conference will provide insight into the
Blueprint effort, key drivers, and next steps for each of the organiza-
tions involved.
Along with Innovation, Energy &
Resiliency to Receive Attention
Energy-related efforts continue to garner much of the attention-
among the early adopters. Recognizing that wastewater contains
more energy than is required to treat it, some utilities are now striv-
ing to become net-energy producers. As some work to generate elec-
tricity themselves, others are generating alternative gas products in-
cluding compressed natural gas for power production or vehicle use.
Conference speakers will discuss how their energy projects, together
with the use of traditional renewables like solar, wind and even hy-
dropower, are ‘plugging into clean water’s future’.
Winter Conference to Highlight Innovation and Ingenuity
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he 113th Congress was sworn-in January 3 and will deal
immediately with fiscal and budget issues as it decides
whether and by how much to lift the debt ceiling, how
much the government should spend for the remainder of
this fiscal year, and what to do about automatic spending cuts due
to take effect March 1. All of these decisions will be made before
April.
As part of the workload the 113th Congress is considering disaster
relief for victims of Hurricane Sandy, including money to help com-
munities and businesses rebuild. The House of Representatives
passed its $50 billion Hurricane Sandy relief package on January 15.
The legislation contains $600 million for wastewater and drinking
water utilities in New York and New Jersey to undertake measures to
build resiliency toward, and mitigate against, extreme wet weather
events and other natural disasters. It is the first time the House has
approved funding for resiliency work for these sectors, and is an im-
portant recognition of the critical services wastewater and drinking
water utilities provide. The House bill came close to equaling the
aid package passed by the Senate late in the 112th Congress. Now
that the 113th Congress has convened, the options for the Senate
include taking up the House package, or pursuing their own bill.
Congress’ vote on this package may reveal how it will approach other
important infrastructure investments.
Key Leadership Announced
There are new Republican leaders for the key Congressional com-
mittees with jurisdiction over clean water issues for the 113th
Congress. Congressman Bill Shuster (R-PA) will now Chair the
House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee (T&I), replac-
ing John Mica (R-FL); and Senator David Vitter (R-LA) will become
Ranking Member of the Senate Environment & Public Works
Committee (EPW), replacing James Inhofe (R-OK). Both are viewed
as somewhat more moderate than their predecessors on environ-
mental matters and Senator Vitter comes from a State will many
pressing clean water challenges. The Democratic leadership will
remain the same with Congressman Nick Rahall (D-WV) returning
as Ranking Member on House T&I and Senator Barbara Boxer (D-
CA) remaining Chair of EPW. Congressman Bob Gibbs (R-OH) will
remain Chairman of the House Water Resources & Environment
Subcommittee and though not yet confirmed, Congressman Tim
Bishop (D-NY) in anticipated to remain Ranking Member. Both
Members are strong supporters of infrastructure investment in
The 113th Convenes and Work Gets Immediately
Underway
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