» Clean Water Current Archive

October 31, 2013

NACWA Meets with EPA Administrator, Agency to Focus on Water

NACWA met this week with EPA Administrator, Gina McCarthy, to discuss the top clean water priorities with a focus on areas where public utilities and EPA might collaborate. While the Administrator previously served as the Agency’s Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air & Radiation, she made it clear that – for the remaining three years of the current Administration – EPA will be increasingly devoted to water. NACWA’s Executive Director, Ken Kirk, and Managing Director of Government & Public Affairs, Adam Krantz, set out the Association’s forward–leaning agenda focused on the Water Resources Utility of the Future (UOTF), the need to advance EPA’s integrated planning and affordability frameworks, the importance of strengthening collaboration on green infrastructure, and the need to cooperate on climate/resiliency-related challenges.

NACWA and EPA agreed on the need to bring together municipal, state, federal, and industry leaders to explore the challenges that water and wastewater utilities face in a climate-driven world. The envisioned early 2014 Resiliency Summit would also develop viable approaches and solutions to these challenges. The Administrator acknowledged that she and her staff were aware that clean water agencies are challenged with more rules, regulations, and laws than could possibly be complied with – asserting that the Agency needs to continue to challenge itself to think more systematically about how the goal of sustainability should drive its decision-making. Administrator McCarthy emphasized that EPA will not be a bystander in implementing the integrated planning framework and upcoming affordability framework, and noted that utilities will not be on their own to simply come forward with integrated plans. The Administrator also noted that the time is now to ensure strong support from all stakeholders to implement green infrastructure programs. NACWA will provide updates on these collaborative efforts as they unfold.

Key Dialogue Focuses on Nutrient Management

Representatives from several NACWA member agencies, including Barbara Biggs, Chair of NACWA’s Water Quality Committee and Government Affairs Officer for the Metro Wastewater Reclamation District in Denver, Colorado, along with the Association’s Regulatory Affairs Director, Chris Hornback, participated in a dialogue this week convened by the Water Environment Federation (WEF), the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), and the Johnson Foundation to explore development of a framework for smarter nutrient management. Using its Energy Roadmap as a model, WEF initially convened a February 2013 meeting with EDF and the Johnson Foundation to explore development of a nutrient roadmap.

The intent of the initiative, as further outlined in the dialogue held this week, is to provide utilities with information on nutrient removal and recovery technology – ranging from basic, low-cost alternatives to cutting edge treatment processes – and how and when these technologies may be best deployed at a particular utility. The final product is intended to help utilities better meet regulatory objectives, while reducing energy consumption and chemical use, and increasing resource recovery. It was clear from the discussions this week that the term ‘roadmap’ might send the wrong message, implying a more prescriptive, one-size-fits-all pathway forward, when in reality circumstances may dictate completely different approaches to controlling nutrients. Many of the stakeholders shared NACWA’s view that a technology-only document, without consideration of the regulatory drivers and impacts involving nutrients, would not be well-received by the clean water community.

This week’s dialogue included a much broader group of stakeholders than were present in February to better ensure that all perspectives would be provided. An initial nutrient document, based on the discussions this week, is expected to be released in late January 2014. NACWA will work through its Water Quality Committee to provide comments and input on the development of the document.

EPA’s Draft Affordability Framework Discussed with Mayors, Other Stakeholders

NACWA met today with representatives of the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM), the National League of Cities (NLC), the National Association of Counties (NACo), and a number of water sector organizations to discuss a new draft affordability framework EPA shared with the Mayors for comment and reaction. EPA describes the new framework as intended to serve as a bridge between the Agency’s 1997 affordability guidance and its June 2012 Integrated Planning Framework. The new framework emphasizes that the 1997 guidance will remain the foundation of EPA’s financial capability assessments, but provides additional clarity on the type of information utilities can submit to supplement the baseline assessment and the extent to which that information will be considered. NACWA’s initial impression was that the new framework, while providing additional clarity on the factors EPA will consider, did little to address the Association’s overall concerns with the underlying methodology. The Agency did include reference to cash flow modeling – an approach recommended in NACWA’s most recent white paper – but EPA underscores that this type of information was already considered ‘additional information’ that could be submitted by a utility. NACWA will be continuing to discuss the content of the framework with USCM, NACo, and NLC, and will be providing comments to EPA.

EPA, National Organizations Recommit to Green Infrastructure

NACWA and five other national organizations met with EPA Office of Water (OW) staff today to determine how to best support the Agency in furthering Green Infrastructure (GI) implementation. In line with the recently released EPA Green Infrastructure Strategic Agenda  which emphasized collaboration, NACWA joined EPA, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Water Environment Federation (WEF), American Rivers, the Low Impact Development Center, and the Association of Clean Water Administrators (ACWA) to re-invigorate their partnership, which was originally formalized in 2007 with the GI Statement of Intent . EPA Office of Water Acting Assistant Administrator Nancy Stoner, Director Office of Wastewater Management Andrew Sawyers, and Special Advisor Ken Kopocis, reiterated the Agency’s continued interest in partnering with the groups in advancing GI goals. The attendees agreed on an informal strategy to make their combined support for GI more visible, pull in additional GI partners, and plan a GI commitment event in the spring to possibly coincide with Earth Day, or the NACWA, WEF and WERF National Water Policy Forum & Fly-In during Water Week 2014 in April. NACWA will be taking a prominent role as this partnership continues to evolve.

Court Denies Rehearing Request in SSI Case; New Lawsuit Filed Over POTW Emissions

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected  requests on Oct. 24 from the Sierra Club for rehearing of the court’s August decision in NACWA’s legal challenge  to EPA’s sewage sludge incinerator (SSI) rule. This decision preserves NACWA’s partial legal victory in the case, including the court’s remand of the rule to EPA to correct a number of significant technical flaws in the final SSI regulations. Sierra Club requested rehearing of the case on Oct. 4, asking the court to reconsider its decision not to require more stringent emission limits as part of the remand process. The fact that the court rejected Sierra Club’s request so quickly – and that no member of the court requested a vote on rehearing – indicates the judges saw little merit in the activist group’s position. NACWA is currently formulating an advocacy plan for consideration by the Association’s SSI Advocacy Coalition to continue engagement on the SSI issue during the remand effort.

Group Sues EPA Over Review of POTW NESHAP

The Sierra Club also filed a new lawsuit  against EPA in a Washington, DC federal court on Oct. 24 alleging that the Agency has failed to review and, if necessary, revise the national emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) for POTWs as required by the Clean Air Act. The lawsuit seeks to force EPA to carry out a statutorily mandated review to determine if the current POTW NESHAP is sufficient, and to issue new standards if the review determines them to be necessary. EPA was last due to review the POTW NESHAP in 2007 but has failed to do so. NACWA is currently reviewing the lawsuit and evaluating appropriate next steps to ensure the POTW community is adequately represented in the litigation.

Farm Bill Conference Begins; NACWA Seeks Inclusion of Senate Nutrient Provisions

Forty-one lawmakers from the House of Representatives and Senate began conversations this week to merge the Farm Bills passed this summer into one piece of legislation. The Farm Bill sets agriculture policy for five years, including working lands conservation policy with implications for water quality. NACWA, as part of the Healthy Waters Coalition, circulated a letter  to all of the Farm Bill conferees on Tuesday, urging the conferees to include provisions related to nutrient management and water quality goals that were successfully secured in the Senate Farm Bill as part of a newly established Regional Conservation Partnership Program. Specifically, the provisions would ensure that nutrient management activities on the farm receive priority conservation funding, allow farmers that are part of a partnership agreement to receive five-year contracts and special payments for nutrient management-related activities, clarify that municipal water and wastewater entities are eligible partners, and explicitly state that partnerships which execute innovative water quality improvement measures are eligible for conservation funding. It remains uncertain whether House and Senate conferees will be able to bridge the policy differences that exist between the chambers, primarily with respect to spending on the food stamp program. NACWA will monitor the discussions and continue to provide updates on these negotiations as they occur.

NACWA Members Explore Utility of the Future in Johnson Foundation Discussion

As a follow-up to the August meeting on Building Resilient Utilities: How Can Water and Electric Utilities Co-Create their Future?, The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread has posted a discussion focused on “What happens when water and energy mix?” on its Inspiring Solutions webpage. Featured on the webpage are representatives of two NACWA member agencies who also participated in the August meeting, Chris Peot, DC Water’s Director of Resource Recovery and Andy Kricun, Executive Director/Chief Engineer of the Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority, who is also a NACWA Board Member. Both discuss the water utility of the future and what will be required for utilities to make the shift from only wastewater treatment to full energy and resource recovery facilities. A report from the August meeting will be released soon, and the Inspiring Solutions discussion is another step in the dialogue to find solutions to integrate water and electric utilities.

The Water Resources Utility of the Future initiative and energy recovery will be topics of discussion at the NACWA 2014 Winter Conference, Compliance, Collaboration & Cost . . . Drivers for Clean Water’s Future, February 2-5 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

NACWA Blog of the Week:
The Farm Bill and the Fight to Reduce Nutrient Run-Off

Want to know more about NACWA’s efforts to ensure agricultural interests take important steps forward by including key water quality policy provisions in the Farm Bill? The Water Voice blog features these efforts this week. With a new posting each Wednesday, The Clean Water Voice is the perfect way to receive overviews and opinions on issues of importance to the clean water community. Subscribe today!

Attending NACWA’s Law Seminar? Hotel Reservation Deadline Extended

NACWA’s 2013 National Clean Water Law Seminar will be here before you know it! Join us November 20 - 22 in San Antonio, Texas for the only conference specifically designed for clean water lawyers and municipal managers. The Hilton Palacio del Rio has extended the reservation deadline and will continue to honor the discounted rate until November 8. Be sure to indicate that you are a NACWA Seminar attendee when you make your reservation in order to receive the discounted rate of $169 per night (single/double) plus applicable. Reservations must be made by November 8 to secure this special rate.