Clean Water Current Archive

NACWA Board to Consider Support for Overflow Notification Bill Passed by House

The U.S. House of Representatives approved by voice vote on Monday legislation to establish national standards for monitoring and reporting sewer overflows.  What the House passed was a substitute amendment for the Sewage Overflow Community Right-to-Know Act (H.R. 2452), which NACWA negotiated over several months with American Rivers and key staff from the House Transportation & Infrastructure (T&I) Committee and Rep. Timothy Bishop’s (D-N.Y.) office.  The House bill is similar to the previous version, which NACWA’s Board of Directors agreed to support in April, but does contain several key changes, which are detailed in a summary (PDF)  made available for NACWA members.  While the resulting bill and its accompanying report (PDF) do not address all of the concerns raised by the clean water community, the National Office believes it represents a good-faith effort to set up a workable program.  NACWA’s Board of Directors will convene by conference call early next week to discuss the legislation.

NACWA will develop a strategy for next steps with the Board and will continue to work closely with the Legislative Policy and Facility & Collection System Committees on the bill as it moves to the Senate.  NACWA also met this week with Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s (D-N.J.) staff to discuss the next steps for H.R. 2452’s companion legislation in the Senate, S. 2080, introduced by Sen. Lautenberg last year.  Staff stated that the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee prefers to mark up the House-passed version of the bill and is open to discussing further improvements.  There was significant interest in adding a funding component to the bill, and Lautenberg has been a key ally on the funding issue, sponsoring another bill (S. 836) that would provide $1.8 billion in grants to communities for wet weather control initiatives.

NACWA Briefed on EPA’s Rule for Mandatory Reporting of GHG Emissions

NACWA and leaders from its Air Quality & Climate Change Committee met with officials from EPA’s Climate Change Division Wednesday to discuss the development of a mandatory reporting program for greenhouse gas emissions.  Congress directed EPA in the fiscal year (FY) 2008 appropriations to use its existing Clean Air Act (CAA) authority as a model for the greenhouse gas program.  The Agency is currently drafting regulations in an effort to meet the September 2008 deadline for proposing a rule, with the final due in June 2009.  While EPA will likely not meet this aggressive schedule, NACWA expects to see the proposal this fall.  EPA was careful to note during the meeting that the effort to develop the reporting rule is not connected to any of the current legislative proposals being considered by Congress and is not related to the separate Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) effort now underway to outline and seek comment on the ‘consequences of regulating greenhouse gases as a pollutant under the CAA.’

In its instructions to EPA on developing the reporting rule, Congress allowed the Agency to decide which emissions from ‘upstream production and downstream sources’ to include in the rule and provided the Agency with discretion to define what threshold(s) to use for each category of emitter, above which reporting would be required.  Depending on which sources and thresholds EPA selects, clean water agencies could be subject to reporting requirements.  EPA is considering whether to require reporting by entity or by facility (e.g., all of a particular agency’s treatment facilities combined or each individual treatment plant) and whether to use an emission-based (i.e., greater than 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalents) or capacity-based (e.g., all power generators with capacity greater than 25 megawatts) threshold to determine which entities are required to report.  EPA indicated that they hope to capture as many of the current emissions as possible with the least amount of reporting, so they will try to focus on requiring reporting from those categories and emitters that are contributing significant quantities of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.  Early indications are that only very large clean water agencies (in terms of million gallons per day treated), especially those with nutrient removal processes, and agencies with significant onsite energy generation capacity (e.g., reusing biogas) may be included, but it is too early to say for certain.  EPA is very interested in receiving comments on its proposed regulations and NACWA will notify the membership when the proposal is available for review.

Senate Poised to Introduce Bill Requiring EPA to Revise its Financial Capability Guidance

NACWA’s Affordability Workgroup has been working closely with staff of Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio), a senior minority member of the Senate Environment & Public Works (EPW) Committee, on draft legislation that would establish a realistic approach for defining a utility’s financial capability regarding long-term control plans (LTCPs) to address combined sewer overflows (CSOs) and sanitary sewer overflow controls (SSOs).  The legislation would require EPA to update its 1997 Combined Sewer Overflows — Guidance for Financial Capability Assessment and Schedule Development document — a move NACWA has been urging the Agency to take for some time.  NACWA met this week with staff from Sen. Voinovich’s office and Senator Lautenberg’s (D-N.J.) office in order to get the New Jersey Senator, who is chair of the EPW Committee’s Subcommittee on Transportation Safety, Infrastructure Security and Water Quality, to co-sponsor the legislation.  The meeting was positive and it appears that the Sen. Lautenberg will cosponsor the bill with Sen. Voinovich and introduce it immediately after the upcoming July 4 recess.  The bill would require EPA to revise the financial capability guidance based in large part on the more flexible and site-specific principles espoused by NACWA in its November 2007 NACWA Financial Capability Compilation (PDF).  NACWA was asked to share the draft bill only among the affordability workgroup, but will make it available to the full membership upon its introduction.

NACWA Hosts Meeting to Plan Green Infrastructure Course

NACWA facilitated a meeting June 26 with Association members and staff from The Conservation Fund (TCF) to begin developing a green infrastructure course specifically designed for municipal clean water utilities.   The meeting follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (PDF) earlier this year between NACWA and TCF to collaborate in designing a course on green infrastructure for NACWA members and the public officials with whom they work.  The course will help educate utilities about how they might incorporate green infrastructure into their communities, focusing on environmental, economic, and regulatory factors.  Included in this discussion will be an analysis of potential impediments and benefits related to green infrastructure practices.  The course will also provide information on implementing green infrastructure technologies, including how a utility can determine what kinds of projects might be appropriate for a specific community.  In addition, the course is structured for NACWA members to bring their elected officials or representatives from other municipal agencies to help foster a “team approach” when promoting the use of green infrastructure in their communities.  A design team made up of representatives from NACWA member agencies in Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Chicago, Albuquerque, Portland, and Cincinnati is participating in the course design and will help guide the process.   A pilot course is expected to be ready in early 2009.

Wondering What Anchorage Has to Offer? Join Us for the 2008 Summer Conference!

NACWA’s Summer Conference is quickly approaching!  Join us July 15-18 at the Hilton Anchorage in Alaska for The Future of Clean Water is Now!  How Next Generation Issues are Impacting Utilities Today.  Conference panels will focus on the challenges on the horizon for the clean water community.  Utilities are not waiting for these  new challenges to become enforcement issues, instead, they are working hard to predict future regulatory requirements, identify other drivers, and plan today for future investments and improvements.

Check Out All Alaska Has to Offer!
Looking to spend a little extra time in Anchorage or enjoy all Alaska has to offer?  Check out our new section on the NACWA Summer Conference Meetings page (www.nacwa.org/08summer) – Kurt’s Picks!  Kurt Egelhofer, Director, Operations & Maintenance for the Anchorage Water & Wastewater Utility has shared his favorite things to do in Anchorage and the surrounding area.  Be sure to visit the Kurt’s Picks page to get a little flavor of Alaska before you arrive!

Register Today!
We look forward to seeing you in Anchorage!  If you have not already registered as an attendee for the 2008 Summer Conference – don’t delay!   A detailed 2008 Summer Conference program, online registration and complete information on hotels are available on NACWA’s website (www.nacwa.org/08summer).

Due to the upcoming July 4th holiday, the next Clean Water Current will be published on July 11.  NACWA wishes its members a happy and safe Independence Day!