Clean Water Current Archive

April 25, 2008

NACWA Urges Members to Contact Congress in Support of FY 2009 SRF Funding

Discussions on EPA’s fiscal year (FY) 2009 budget and the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) are again heating up.  Members of the Senate and House Appropriations Committees are considering President Bush’s FY 2009 budget request of $555 million for the CWSRF and are stressing the need to hear from state and local governments in order to maximize chances at restoring funding.

NACWA strongly supports a fully funded and viable CWSRF and asks that members contact their representatives and senators urging them to make every effort to restore the program to its historical funding level of $1.35 billion in FY 2009.  Fully funding the CWSRF is a critical first step toward a long-term sustainable commitment to clean water in the form of a national clean water trust fund.  To assist in this effort, NACWA has drafted a letter that members can personalize and email to their member of Congress by clicking on the “Write Congress Now” icon on the Association’s homepage.  Please don’t hesitate to add any local information on funding needs that would help garner the support of your member of Congress.  NACWA thanks you for your action on this issue and requests that you also forward your letters to Byron Deluke 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 or send it by fax to the Association at 202/ 530-7191.

Farm Bill Negotiations Between House, Senate Conferees Near Completion

Discussions to resolve differences in versions of the Farm Bill passed by the House and the Senate are nearing an end, and provisions that would fund multi-stakeholder projects to address water quality and water quantity challenges remain intact.  Congress gave House and Senate conference negotiators another week — until May 2 — to hammer out a compromise between the two versions after the current 2002 Farm Bill was extended.  The negotiators are still trying to work out an agreement on financing and offsets for the bill, particularly for increased spending for nutrition, conservation, energy, and disaster relief provisions.

NACWA participated in a call April 24 with a coalition of organizations representing municipal water and wastewater agencies, conservation interests, and agricultural producers to discuss the Farm Bill’s status and finalize a letter to be sent next week urging support for the newly coined “Agricultural” Water Enhancement Program (AWEP), previously called the Regional Water Enhancement Program (RWEP).  The letter calls on members of the House and Senate conference committee to ensure a strong AWEP program, which has undergone a change in name only.  Specifically, the letter urges support for maintaining AWEP selection criteria that give priority to projects that are mostly likely to improve water quality or quantity, involve multiple partners, maintain agricultural production, and involve the highest percentage of producers in a watershed or region.  In addition, AWEP projects should involve monitoring before and after implementation to measure for results and are best implemented if “the list of eligible partners is broad,” the letter said.  Eligible partners should include water and wastewater agencies, water districts, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the letter said.  “The coalition also believes that the best way to fund water quality or conservation efforts within a watershed is to award grants based on performance-based outcomes and through a national competitive program,” the letter said.

NACWA previously sent a separate letter April 10 calling for full funding of the conservation title, which may be reduced from $5 billion to $4 billion over baseline levels for the life the bill.  Once the legislation becomes law, NACWA will work with other members of the coalition and the Natural Resources Conservation Service in crafting the regulations governing the new AWEP program.

Water Sector Developing Joint Climate Change Message

NACWA met with other water sector associations this week to continue work on a joint message about the impacts of climate change to clean water, drinking water, and stormwater infrastructure.  This unified message will aid in NACWA’s advocacy efforts, which are focused on helping legislators and other policymakers understand that climate change is primarily a water issue, and that adaptation strategies will require more federal funding.   The Senate is planning to vote in June on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2008 (S. 2191), which uses a cap-and-trade program to reduce current emissions by approximately 15 percent by 2020 and 60 percent by 2050.  Publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) fall well below the greenhouse gas emissions limit of 10,000 carbon equivalents per year, which is the regulatory trigger under the bill, but the Association’s view is that POTWs can still reduce their carbon footprint and, as such, should be eligible under other provisions in the legislation to receive federal funds for adaption and mitigation efforts.  The water sector message will be finalized in the coming weeks, and NACWA will make it available to members.

NACWA, Dental Association Explore Best Management Practices for Mercury Waste

NACWA and representatives from the American Dental Association (ADA) met with EPA’s effluent guidelines office this week to explore the possibility of using the ADA’s best management practices for mercury amalgam waste as the basis for a national program to encourage broader use of the practices by dental offices.  The ADA added the use of amalgam separators to its best practices document last fall and has developed several resources to help dentists understand why the devices are important to protecting water quality.  Many of NACWA’s members have developed local programs requiring the installation of separators or have used voluntary approaches in an effort to control mercury from dental clinics, which can contribute as much as half of the influent mercury to a POTW.   A national set of best practices could dramatically increase the use of separators and decrease discharges of mercury to POTWs.

EPA is currently looking at the discharge of mercury from dental clinics to determine whether national pretreatment standards are necessary, but seems poised to conclude that they are not.  However, the Agency is considering a possible collaboration with NACWA and ADA on the best practices as an alternative to a pretreatment standard.  Many details still need to be worked out; paramount among them is ensuring that clean water agencies will retain the authority to regulate dentists in any manner deemed necessary to meet their requirements under the Clean Water Act.  NACWA’s Mercury Workgroup will continue to meet with EPA and the ADA to explore this possible collaboration.

Financial Survey Submittal Deadline Extended!