» Clean Water Current Archive

April 15, 2011

Budget Compromise Averts Government Shutdown; Cuts Clean Water Funding

This week, the fiscal year (FY) 2011 budget was finalized after tense negotiations between Congress and the White House that avoided a federal government shut-down.  The final budget agreement includes approximately $39 billion in spending cuts from FY10 spending levels.  Included in these cuts was a $1.6 billion funding reduction for EPA, the majority of which (approximately 66%) were taken from the Clean and Safe Drinking Water Revolving Funds (SRFs).  Following the announcement of the compromise, NACWA sent Advocacy Alert 11-13 to its members detailing cuts to specific federal programs designed to improve water quality.  NACWA also issued a press release stating that the cuts to the SRF are misguided and ignore the financial challenges facing states and municipalities in meeting a growing array of costly Clean Water Act (CWA) requirements.  In its statement, NACWA called on Congress to restore the federal partnership that existed when the CWA was passed in 1972, and to reverse the trend of requiring local communities to shoulder the majority of the burden of improving the nation’s water quality.  Specifically, NACWA called on Congress and the Administration to work closely with the clean water community, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and state regulators in developing a more flexible and cost-effective approach to CWA compliance in line with the Association’s Money Matters™ campaign.   NACWA also called on Congress to enact a dedicated, deficit-neutral and sustainable source of funding for the SRFs so that these programs are no longer subject to yearly discretionary budget fluctuations.

NACWA Discusses New Rules, Regulatory Reform with EPA Office of Water

NACWA organized a municipal sector association meeting with Jim Hanlon, Director of the Office of Wastewater Management in EPA’s Office of Water (OW), and other OW staff to discuss a variety of clean water issues this week.  Hanlon reiterated that EPA has slowed its work on a comprehensive sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) rule due to budget and resource issues.  He re-emphasized his commitment, however, to holding a one-day, facilitated workshop with NACWA and other stakeholders on the SSO issue, and to pulling it together in the next three to four months.  The workshop would help EPA determine the issues that are of most importance to stakeholder groups and find points of consensus.  NACWA’s SSO Workgroup – which worked on a draft petition for an SSO rulemaking last year – believes that blending must be part of a new SSO rule proposal, and Hanlon agreed that blending would be part of the conversation at the workshop.

On nutrients, EPA provided an update on its efforts to develop a permit writer's guidance on nutrients.  The focus of the guidance will be on how to conduct reasonable potential determinations and write permit limits for point sources when a state only has narrative nutrient criteria.  EPA indicated that beyond the few states where EPA has permitting authority, this type of analysis and permit limit development for nutrients based on narrative criteria is not occurring.  The Agency hopes to have a draft of the guidance completed in the next six months, but has not decided whether it will release the guidance as a draft for comment, or simply release the guidance as "interim" and seek feedback on an ongoing basis.  NACWA expressed a strong preference for the former approach and indicated that it would like an opportunity to comment on the document as soon as possible.  Also on nutrients, EPA confirmed that it has asked the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to review the costs associated with the Agency's numeric nutrient criteria in Florida.  EPA hopes the NAS review will be finished before the new criteria become effective early in 2012.

NACWA also discussed its Money Matters™ campaign and the necessity of prioritizing regulations in this time of a struggling economy and reduced federal budget for water and wastewater infrastructure.  NACWA stressed that EPA’s plan for regulatory review under Executive Order 13563 is an important opportunity to examine the Clean Water Act rules and consider their affordability, science, and environmental benefits and their cumulative impacts on utilities.  Hanlon noted that OW would likely put approximately ten rules or policies on the review list and that the scope of this review would include all existing and even prospective policies, including guidance documents and criteria, rather than being limited to actual finalized rules.  Hanlon also noted that a number of comments raised the issue of looking at the 1997 combined sewer overflow financial capability guidance and that this was on table, as was looking at the need for a comprehensive SSO policy.  Other issues discussed with EPA included an effort between OW and the enforcement office to clarify support for green infrastructure approaches and potential work to detail how to draft permit provisions for clean water agencies that are accepting wastewater from the hydro-fracking process.

NACWA again reiterated and underscored its Money Matters™ campaign objectives and related regulatory reform priorities in a municipal meeting with Nancy Stoner, EPA’s Acting Assistant Administrator for Water, that also took place this week.  Many of the issues discussed above will be the subject of strategic discussions at NACWA’s National Environmental Policy Forum next month.

NACWA and Key Municipal Groups Meet with EPA, Urge Changes to Stormwater Memo

NACWA met with top EPA Office of Water officials this week to discuss the Agency’s controversial November 2010 memo on stormwater permitting and total maximum daily load (TMDL) issues.  Also participating in the meeting were the American Public Works Association (APWA) and the National Association of Flood & Stormwater Management Agencies (NAFSMA).  The meeting was productive, with EPA acknowledging that they should have consulted more closely with the regulated community prior to issuing the memo and indicating that they are considering a number of potential clarifications and revisions based on concerns expressed by the municipal stormwater community.   Such changes could include clarifying that the document is not meant to require numeric end-of-pipe effluent limits for municipal stormwater permits.  EPA also agreed to pursue a more formal dialogue with the municipal community regarding the concepts outlined in the memo.  Although NACWA, APWA, and NAFSMA still do not share EPA’s interpretations of several important legal issues outlined in the document, the opportunity for additional discussion on these topics is a positive development.

As a result of pressure from NACWA and others, including a municipal letter sent to EPA in January, the Agency last month announced that it was opening up a formal comment period on the memo with a May 16 comment deadline.  This will provide EPA with the opportunity to consider changes to, or withdrawal of, the memo.  NACWA will be submitting additional comments to the Agency, including comments based on the meeting this week, again asking that the Agency withdraw the memo or make substantial changes to it.  NACWA stormwater members are also encouraged to comment on the memo and to share these comments with Nathan Gardner-Andrews at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  This issue will be discussed in greater detail at the Stormwater Management Committee’s upcoming meeting as part of NACWA’s National Environmental Policy Forum next month.

Senate Holds Hearing on Natural Gas Fracking Operations; NACWA Survey Closes

The Senate Environment & Public Works Committee (EPW) and Water & Wildlife Subcommittee this week held an oversight hearing on natural gas drilling – and the potential public health and environmental impacts that may occur as a result of the practice of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”.  The hearing included a diverse cross-section of federal and state elected and regulatory officials, as well as representatives from academia and the non-governmental community.

Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Chair of the Water & Wildlife Subcommittee, expressed concern over aspects of deep shale gas recovery that can potentially have negative impacts on the environment, such as the practice of treating produced hydraulic fracturing fluids at publicly owned treatment works (POTWs).  Senator Cardin pressed EPA Deputy Administrator Robert Perciasepe on this issue, asking whether the Agency is moving toward limiting POTW acceptance of these fluids because of the lack of national pretreatment standards for treating this waste.  Perciasepe pointed to a recent letter sent by U.S. EPA Region 3 Administrator to Michael Krancer, Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Environment, which asked Krancer to reopen the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits of those POTWs currently accepting gas drilling wastewater for treatment.

Pennsylvania Senator Robert Casey (D-Pa.) testified at the hearing in support of legislation, the FRAC Act (S. 587), which he introduced on March 15, 2011 with 7 co-sponsors, including Senator Cardin.  The legislation seeks to remove the exemption provided in the Safe Drinking Water Act for fracking fluids and would require industry to disclose the chemicals contained in these fluids – which remains an issue central to whether and under what circumstances POTWs should be accepting fracking fluid.

In related news, NACWA’s hydraulic fracturing member survey closed last week.  Thirty two public agency members responded to the survey with two indicating that they treat produced fracking wastewater.  While this number may appear small, it is clear that POTW involvement will only expand as the fracking industry expands.  For example, some POTWs are providing their treated effluent to be used in the fracking process, providing a new source of revenue.  NACWA has also learned that POTWs in approximately seven states are allowed to accept fracking fluid, and that EPA is in the process of providing guidance to POTWs regarding this process.  The Association will continue gather information to guide any potential efforts on this important issue.  NACWA thanks its member utilities who responded to the survey.

NACWA, Healthy Waters Coalition Send Fact Sheet to Congress Highlighting Nutrient Pollution Issues

The Healthy Water Coalition, a diverse group of municipal water, wastewater, and conservation organizations, state agencies, and agriculture and forest operations led by NACWA, sent a fact sheet to Congress this week highlighting the negative public health and economic impacts that can occur as a result of nutrient pollution, with a focus on agricultural sources.  The fact sheet urges Congress to develop a 2012 Farm Bill that takes a serious approach to improving the nation’s water quality as a key component of preserving the health and viability of our nation’s agricultural working lands.  The fact sheet describes the nutrient contamination challenges facing the nation and includes statistics showing that over 50% of water impairment is the result of the over-enrichment of nutrients.  The fact sheet is designed to raise awareness of this issue among policy-makers – and provide a basis for discussion with Members of Congress interested in finding common-sense policy reforms in federal agricultural programs to effectively achieve reductions in nutrient run-off from agricultural lands.