54
NACWA Pretreatment Workshop a
Resounding Success
Over 160 pretreatment professionals convened May 15 - 17 in
Portland, Ore. at NACWA’s 2013
National Pretreatment & Pollution
Prevention Workshop.
The Workshop, the only one specifically de-
signed for clean water utility pretreatment professionals, featured
sessions with key EPA enforcement and regulatory staff, and dis-
cussions on emerging trends in pretreatment programs across the
country.
The meeting also provided plenty of time for attendees to exchange
ideas during two round table sessions (pictured left). All the hand-
outs and presentations from the
Pretreatment Workshop
are available
on the Association’s
, and NACWA thanks all the partici-
pants for making this year’s Workshop a success.
Legal Advocacy
3
Integrated Planning
sidered when determining prioritization and sequencing of projects
within an integrated plan. The Association will continue to work
with ACWA, WEF and its Member Agencies to plan workshops in ad-
ditional regions throughout 2013.
Key House, Senate Members Support
Integrated Planning Pilot Program
NACWA continued its advocacy efforts in both the U.S. House of
Representatives and U.S. Senate to gain support for an integrated
planning (IP) pilot program to provide funding to communities
who wish to draft integrated plans. On April 26, Senator Sherrod
Brown (D-OH) submitted a letter to Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Chairman and Ranking Member of the
Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and
Related Agencies, requesting $5 million in the Fiscal Year 2014 EPA
budget for up to 50 integrated planning pilots in communities across
the country. Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR),
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) also
signed the letter. Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO), who sits on the Senate
Appropriations Committee, also submitted a personal appropria-
tions request to the Subcommittee in support of this pilot program.
Earlier in April, a number of members in the House of
Representatives also made requests for $5 million to establish an in-
tegrated planning pilot program. Representative Bob Gibbs (R-OH)
and Tim Bishop (D-NY), Chair and Ranking Member of the House
Water Resources & Environment Subcommittee, submitted a letter of
support to Representatives Mike Simpson (R-ID) and JimMoran (D-
VA), Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Appropriations
Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies.
Representatives David Joyce (R-OH), Steve Chabot (R-OH) and Tim
Ryan (D-OH) all made personal requests for the program, as well.
The House and Senate must now craft their FY14 EPA appropriations
bills in the coming months, and NACWA is hopeful an IP pilot pro-
gram will be included.
NACWA Active in Trading Case
NACWA filed a
April 22 in federal litigation over water
quality trading programs in the Chesapeake Bay, advancing the
Association’s efforts to defend trading in a lawsuit with potential na-
tional implications. The Association had previously
requested
, and
was granted, intervention in the case to help EPA defend trading as
an important tool to achieve water quality improvements through
the use of effective, verifiable market-based systems. NACWA’s par-
ticipation in this lawsuit will also push back against the plaintiffs’
misguided attack on trading programs, and ensure the perspective of
the municipal clean water community is aggressively represented.
The Association also met with EPA in early May to discuss the liti-
gation, as well as the need for a larger coordinated effort to defend
water quality trading programs nationwide from potential future
litigation. NACWA believes EPA is strongly committed to trading as
an important element of water quality improvement, and looks for-
ward to continued work with the Agency to ensure trading programs
remain a viable option for interested clean water utilities.
