» Clean Water Current Archive

December 9, 2011

NACWA Briefs Key House Subcommittee Chair in Advance of Integrated Permitting Hearing

At his request, NACWA provided Congressman Bob Gibbs (R-Ohio), Chair of the House Water Resources & Environment Subcommittee with a briefing this week on the clean water community’s views on integrated permitting and regulatory prioritization issues. The briefing took place in advance of the Subcommittee’s hearing on this subject, scheduled for Wednesday, December 14. Julius Ciaccia, NACWA Treasurer and General Manager for the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD) and Lisa Hollander, Chair of NACWA’s Committee and NEORSD’s Special Liaison for Legislative & Regulatory Affairs, met with Gibbs and detailed the fact that their community is now at the limits of its affordability due to their sewer overflow consent decree, and unable to afford additional regulatory requirements. They shared that EPA has demonstrated a willingness to provide greater flexibility in the consent decree context, as witnessed by their 25 year compliance schedule, but that an integrated permitting approach – looking at all Clean Water Act requirements – would better allow them to ensure their community, and others across the country, get the greatest water quality benefits for increasingly limited dollars.

NACWA staff also provided Chairman Gibbs with an update on NACWA’s Money Matters™ campaign, the Association’s December 13 meeting with EPA on the Agency’s integrated planning framework, and the anticipated thrust of its testimony for his hearing on the 14th (see December 2, 2011 Clean Water Current). The Association also discussed the potential for legislation on this issue, with Chairman Gibbs expressing a willingness to support such legislation should it be necessary to help guide EPA’s efforts. Chairman Gibbs also noted his belief that the planning process that EPA pursues be driven by the municipal agencies and that it must maximize flexibility to ensure limited local dollars are not being wasted. NACWA underscored the importance that EPA’s integrated planning framework be permit-driven rather than a legally-driven, litigious, consent decree-style process. In meetings this week with EPA Office of Water staff, the Agency re-confirmed its intent to follow a permitting-based approach with a willingness to consider new types of planning tools such as memoranda of agreement or understanding. The Association will provide members with an update on key developments coming out of the December 13 meeting and the December 14 House hearing next week.

NACWA Briefs State Water Regulators on Ammonia Criteria Revisions

NACWA briefed state water quality standards officials this week on EPA’s pending revisions to its water quality criteria for ammonia. During the call with representatives from the Association of Clean Water Administrators (ACWA), NACWA outlined EPA’s efforts over the past eight years to revise the 1999 ammonia criteria to better account for toxicity to freshwater mussels. EPA released draft criteria recommendations in 2009 that employed two sets of criteria – one for waters where mussels are present, and the other for waters where there are no freshwater mussels. Since 2009, EPA has worked to bolster the underlying data supporting the criteria and has addressed many of NACWA’s concerns first raised in 2004.

Lingering issues remain, however, over the use of certain data including toxicity data from invasive species. During a November 2 meeting with NACWA, EPA indicated that it was abandoning the bifurcated criteria approach in favor of a single set of acute and chronic criterion values designed to protect waters where freshwater mussels are present – essentially applying the more stringent criteria values from the 2009 proposal to all waters, not just those where mussels are found. EPA indicated that instead of the bifurcated approach, it would rely on the states to develop alternative, site-specific criteria where appropriate to address the absence of mussels. While EPA has signaled that it intends to include language in the criteria document on implementation, NACWA encouraged the states to reach out to the Agency and work with them as the criteria document is finalized to ensure these implementation issues are adequately addressed. EPA is expected to release the final criteria recommendations in early spring 2012.

Senate Hearing to Focus on Water Infrastructure Funding, NACWA to Provide Testimony for Record

The Senate Environment & Public Works (EPW) Committee will hold a hearing on ‘Our Nation's Water Infrastructure Funding Crisis’ on Tuesday December 13th at 10:00 am. In meetings this week with Committee staff, NACWA learned that the hearing is a precursor to a push for water infrastructure funding/financing legislation next year, the details of which, however, remain uncertain. According to Committee staff, NACWA and Water Infrastructure Network (WIN) meetings earlier this year with Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Ranking Member of the Water & Wildlife Subcommittee and also of the Senate Budget Committee, helped lead to the decision to hold this hearing. The witnesses at the hearing will include EPA, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the State of Oklahoma Water Resources Board, a company that provides stormwater-related products and services, and an Alabama-based iron pipe company. NACWA will be providing a written statement for the record, which will be made available to Association members next week along with a summary of relevant details from the hearing.

Responses to NACWA Service Charge Index Survey Needed by December 23

NACWA has published the NACWA Service Charge Index annually since 1992 to track average annual single-family residential service charge increases as measured against the rate of inflation. It is a critical component of NACWA’s advocacy activity and also vital benchmarking tool for utilities nationwide. NACWA e-mailed each member agency its individualized one-page survey questionnaire in mid-November and requests that all utilities make every effort to respond by December 23. The Index survey results, which will be distributed to the membership in April 2012, will compare national service charge changes on an annual basis since the mid-1980s – as well as service charges among the EPA regions – and include projected rate increase information for the next five years.

The brief Index survey, which should take less than 15 minutes to complete, requests the average annual single-family residential charge for sewer services and the service area population of each NACWA utility respondent, as well as information on future rate changes. Contact Chris Hornback at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you need a copy of your agency’s survey form or information on completing the survey online via www.cleanwatercentral.org. The more responses NACWA receives the more representative the Index will be of the wastewater treatment community as a whole, so we urge you to complete the survey by December 23.

NACWA 2012 Winter Conference to Explore Wastewater, Stormwater Intersection

Join NACWA February 12 – 15, 2012 at the Omni Los Angeles Hotel at California Plaza for its Winter Conference, Watershed Moment in the Making...Conquering the Challenges of the New Regulatory Frontier. Whether dealing with too much water or not enough, stormwater is playing an increasingly important role in the management of a community’s water resources. This year’s Winter Conference program will include an in-depth look at managing ‘one water’ and the role that stormwater will play as communities work to address their water quality and quantity challenges. From efforts to decrease combined sewer overflows to water quantity planning initiatives, stormwater management is gradually being integrated into broader water resource efforts. The Conference will provide an excellent opportunity to analyze the likely impactsof new rules and requirements, including the forthcoming overhaul of the existing stormwater regulations.

The Conference will also examine recent efforts by EPA to provide utilities with more flexibility to balance existing mandates and prioritize investments through an integrated CWA planning approach. Other sessions during the Conference will explore nutrient trading, green infrastructure, and how clean water agencies are embracing a more prominent role in their communities and with their ratepayers.

Registration and agenda information is now available. Be sure to call (213.617.3300) or make reservations online with the Omni Los Angeles Hotel at California Plaza to guarantee the special conference rate of $199 single/double. When reserving your room by phone please be sure to mention that you are a participant in NACWA’s 2012 Winter Conference. The hotel reservation deadline is Monday, January 20, 2012. Visit www.nacwa.org/12winter for more details.