Clean Water Current Archive

July 18, 2008

Marian Orfeo Elected 2008-2009 NACWA President

Marian Orfeo, director of planning and coordination for the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) in Boston, was elected NACWA president for 2008-2009 during the Association’s 2008 summer conference this week in Anchorage, Alaska.  The Board also elected Kevin Shafer, executive director of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, as vice president; Jeff Theerman, executive director of the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District, as treasurer; and Dave Williams, director of wastewater at the East Bay Municipal Utility District in Oakland, Calif., as secretary.

With the theme, The Future of Water is Now! How Next Generation Issues Are Impacting Utilities Today, NACWA’s 2008 Summer Conference attracted a large and engaged audience eager to gather information on how to manage 21st century challenges that are rapidly affecting how clean water agencies operate their utilities.  In addition to programs addressing sustainable water planning, climate change, nutrient control, and the efficacy of the Clean Water Act to meet new challenges, NACWA’s committee meetings were well- attended by utility leaders interested in updates from Washington, D.C., on the regulatory, legal, and legislative affairs involving clean water.

In one conference session, Lajuana Wilcher, the former EPA assistant administrator for water, examined the gains made in the 36 years since the Clean Water Act became law.  She noted that water quality improvements have remained flat since the early 1990s, raising the question of whether the act in its current form can adequately address the challenges of nutrient control, nonpoint source runoff, and other issues.  “The Clean Water Act has stagnated,” she said. “We will fail to ever, ever, ever meet water quality standards under the Clean Water Act as it is currently written and implemented.”  NACWA’s Strategic Watershed Task Force believes the solution lies in a 21st Century Watershed Act, which it is currently drafting.  Other speakers addressed the need for water sector agencies to mount coordinated efforts to address challenges through sustainable water planning efforts and questioned whether “myriad laws should be reconciled” to address challenges in a more integrated manner.

Another panel identified new regulatory challenges that some member agencies are facing.  For example, in California, some cities are being asked to divert their dry weather stormwater flows to their sanitary sewer system for treatment, a measure some said amounted to the creation of a combined system.  The conference generated significant enthusiasm as member agencies plan for the future and try to stay a step ahead in their daily work as environmental stewards.  NACWA thanks all the participants for making this conference a success.  Presentations from NACWA’s summer conference will be posted today on the Association’s Conferences and Meetings website.

NACWA Letter to Senate Seeks Key Changes to Sewer Overflow Bill

NACWA’s Board of Directors met this week in Anchorage and approved a letter to the Senate detailing the Association’s remaining concerns with the Sewage Overflow Community Right-to-Know Act (S. 2080).  The letter sets out recommended changes based on the Association’s review of the House-passed version of the legislation (H.R.2452), which the Senate expects to use as its baseline for an Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee markup of its legislation tentatively scheduled for July 24.

The legislation would establish national standards for monitoring, reporting, and notifying the public of sewer overflows.  The House legislation was the product of several months of negotiations among NACWA,  American Rivers, and key staff from the House Transportation & Infrastructure (T&I) Committee and Rep. Timothy Bishop’s (D-N.Y.) office.

NACWA’s letter to the Senate sets out key remaining concerns with the bill, including the need to amend language that redefines the Clean Water Act’s definition of what constitutes a sanitary sewer overflow (SSO); additional clarity on the need for maximum municipal flexibility in developing monitoring program; and the need for funding to implement the program’s requirements.  NACWA will be discussing the concerns set out in the letter with key Senate staff, as well as American Rivers, and is confident the Association’s concerns will be addressed in any substitute bill should it go to markup.

NACWA, Water Sector Urge USDA to Develop Sound Farm Bill Program Rules

NACWA joined other water sector organizations, including the Water Environment Federation (WEF), the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA), and the American Water Works Association (AWWA), in sending a letter to the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), the branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that would implement the Agricultural Water Enhancement Program (AWEP), created in the recently enacted 2008 Farm Bill.  The letter expresses strong support for the program and recommends several items for inclusion or clarification in the rulemaking.  Specifically, the groups ask that the regulations identify water and wastewater organizations as partners eligible to enter into an agreement with farmers and other stakeholders to implement an AWEP project; provide at least $60 million annually for partnership-based water quality and conservation programs; and ensure that the list of eligible activities under the program include things of importance to the clean water community, such as manure management.  NACWA and the other groups also signed on to a draft letter sent by conservation organizations supporting the program and highlighting ways to improve the draft regulation.  Both letters are posted on the Legislative Correspondence & Outreach section of NACWA’s website.  NACWA will continue to work closely with its partner organizations in the development of this important program and welcomes comments from its public agency members on the draft regulation.  Please direct comments or questions to Susie Bruninga at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .