6
I
n May, NACWA released two new powerful advocacy tools
to assist utilities nationwide with issues associated with wet
weather enforcement. The Association’s updated and enhanced
handbook,
, and online
will provide NACWA members with cutting-edge infor-
mation, analysis, and strategies on significant wet weather enforce-
ment issues including negotiation, renegotiation, implementation,
and modification of enforcement orders and decrees.
The new handbook will serve as the premier tool for the municipal
clean water community when addressing wet weather enforcement is-
sues, and includes an examination of key provisions from existing mu-
nicipal orders, along with a thorough analysis and explanation of the
major regulatory and legal documents that will form the framework
of enforcement discussions. The handbook also includes a number of
new sections on the mechanics of wet weather enforcement and how
to leverage tools like integrated planning to negotiate the best enforce-
ment order.
To accompany the handbook, NACWA has completely redesigned its
Consent Decree e-Library website, offering the most comprehensive
online collection of full municipal wet weather consent decree and
enforcement orders for further review and analysis. The site also pro-
vides users with new tools to
search for decrees, including by
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) region, state, or
search term via a new “search
box” function that allows us-
ers to create their own unique
search term or query.
Taken together, the re-
vised handbook and new
e-Library will serve as key
resources for the munici-
pal clean water community
on enforcement issues. NACWA is pleased to
offer both to Association members free of charge as a benefit of
Association membership. The Handbook is also available to for pur-
chase to individuals outside the membership for $200. More informa-
tion on both resources is available in
.
NACWA Releases New Advocacy
Tools on Enforcement Issues
N
ACWA has been front and center on key clean water legal
issues in recent weeks, filing briefs and comments on a
number of critical legal advocacy issues. More informa-
tion on all the Association’s litigation initiatives can be
found on the
webpage.
Municipal Partners File in Chesapeake Bay TMDL Litigation
NACWA joined with other municipal wastewater partners on April 21
to file a brief in litigation over the final Chesapeake Bay total maximum
daily load (TMDL), providing a strong defense of the watershed ap-
proach to achieve water quality improvements. The filing in American
Farm Bureau, et al. v. EPA defends a lower court
upholding the
TMDL and its inclusion of nonpoint source allocations. The brief ar-
gues that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) inclusion
of nonpoint sources in the TMDL was both legal and appropriate, and
reaffirms NACWA’s commitment to a holistic watershed approach as
the most equitable, cost-effective, and environmentally responsible way
to achieve water quality improvement. The Association also helped to
organize a second
from a group of six major U.S. cities – New York
City, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco
– supporting NACWA’s position and highlighting the importance of a
watershed approach to municipal governments.
NACWA Active on Clean Water Legal Issues
NACWA will be hosting its next
Legal Hot Topics web seminar
on June
18, 2014, from 2:00 – 3:30 pm Eastern Time. Designed to benefit
municipal utility attorneys and managers, the compliementary,
members only web seminar provides an excellent and convenient
opportunity to keep current on the latest clean water issues, devel-
opments, trends and case law.
The agenda will feature expert attorneys providing critical legal
and regulatory analysis and insight on two issues of great impor-
tance to the clean water sector – stormwater and construction law.
NACWA’s
Legal Hot Topics web seminars
provide valuable information
on a variety of issues including nutrient allocations in total maxi-
mum daily loads (TMDLs), biosolids management, defense of the
Clean Water Act (CWA) “permit shield,” the status of CWA jurisdic-
tion, and water quality trading. Registration and additional infor-
mation is available on NACWA’s
.
Next Legal Hot Topics
Web Seminar is June 18
