A Clear Commitment to America’s Waters
5 3
Farm Bill
The RCPP specifically calls out municipal water and wastewater utili-
ties as eligible entities to form regional partnerships with farmers,
and provides an excellent opportunity for interested utilities to im-
plement innovative nutrient management solutions with agricultural
nonpoint sources to improve local water quality.
In March, NACWA met with the Natural Resources Conservation
Service (NRCS) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture to discuss
the RCPP and its schedule for implementation. During this meet-
ing, NRCS indicated they are very interested in working with non-
traditional agricultural partners, such as the clean water sector, to
help make the RCPP a success. While NRCS is in the very early stages
of implementing the program, staff indicated that they would so-
licit applications through a request-for-proposal process that will
likely be released later this spring. Staff also indicated that USDA
will likely designate Critical Conservation Areas prior to the release
of the RFP. A minimum amount of funding each year will be set
aside for projects located within these critical areas, such as projects
within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the Great Lakes watershed,
or the Mississippi River basin. NRCS encouraged utilities interested
in coming forward with a RCPP project to contact their
to seek his/her assistance it pulling a project proposal
together.
Water Quality & Nutrient Management
Issues Considered Key Priorities
While the RCPP attempts to address a variety of natural resource is-
sues, water quality and nutrient management issues factor high on
the priority list as areas of concern and will likely play a dominant
role in program implementation. Specifically, program elements
such as prioritizing projects that help farmers avoid potential regu-
latory requirements and provide for outcome-based performance
measures; enabling the Secretary to provide special payments over
five years to producers undertaking nutrient management activities;
and, targeting funds to critical conservation areas that would benefit
from water quality improvement all suggest that water quality con-
cerns will likely be a top conservation priority for RCPP partnership
agreements.
NACWA will continue to monitor the implementation of the pro-
gram and provide information to interested utilities to develop RCPP
proposals. For more information, please contact Patricia Sinicropi,
NACWA’s Legislative Director, at
.
In March, utility leaders from around the country gathered at the
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill for the fourteenth annual
Water & Wastewater Leadership Center. Hosted by a Joint Venture of
NACWA, AMWA, AWWA, and WEF, in collaboration with NAWC and
APWA, students participated in an intensive 11 – day executive educa-
tion program focused on enhancing their management skills and pre-
paring them to lead their utilities with the highest level of service, qual-
ity and efficiency.
Water & Wastewater
Leadership Center
U
.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy will provide remarks at the
Water Resilience Summit
, hosted
by NACWA and the Association of MetropolitanWater Agencies on April 9-10. The invitation-only
Summit
will bring together a select
number of key municipal, state, federal, and industry leaders to explore the climate resilience challenges that water and wastewater
utilities face and develop viable collaborative approaches and solutions. Federal agency officials from the EPA, the Department of the
Interior, the Department of Energy, the Department of Commerce, the White House Council on Environmental Quality and others are expected to
participate in the dialogue, as well.
Administration Budget Includes Climate Resiliency Fund
This
Summit
comes at an ideal time, only weeks after the Obama Administration released its FY 2014 budget request. The budget request includes a
$1 billion “climate resiliency fund” to provide grants and technical assistance to state and local governments for infrastructure upgrades and other
actions to address community vulnerabilities to climate change. The fund would also include federal dollars for climate research, including sea-
level rise analysis, and disaster relief.
As key first responders to climate change, NACWAMember Agencies play a critical role in helping the nation adapt to extreme weather events. As
such, the Association will be working to ensure that the wastewater sector is fully engaged, and its expertise called upon, as the Administration im-
plements its climate change agenda and related efforts to address the challenge.
Gina McCarthy to Speak at NACWA/AMWA Water
Resilience Summit
