Clean Water Current Archive

The Executive Highlights and raw data from NACWA’s 2020 Financial Survey are now available for download on NACWA’s website. The Survey’s results reflect input from 109 public agencies, collectively serving more than 74 million people, with more than $159 billion in total asset and over $20 billion in 2019 revenues.

Congressional work on infrastructure continued this week as several U.S. House committees marked up and passed their respective jurisdictional bills related to the “Reconciliation” package as the Democrat Majority looks to further build on the investments that were included in the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

EPA announced its Preliminary Effluent Guidelines Program Plan 15 in the September 14 Federal Register. The Plan is published every two years to outline EPA’s planned studies and rulemakings related to effluent limitation guidelines (ELGs) and pretreatment standards for industrial dischargers. The Plan, an FAQ, and other documents are available on EPA’s website.

If you haven’t yet registered for EPA Finance Center’s upcoming Funding Stormwater Operations and Maintenance webinar, NACWA encourages you to consider sitting in on this event.

The debate over investing in infrastructure continues to advance in the U.S. Congress. Majority leadership in both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate are working feverishly to draft a “Reconciliation” package that could be advanced alongside the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment And Jobs Act, which passed the Senate last month and is scheduled for a House vote by Sept. 27th.

NACWA is proud to release its 2020-2021 Annual Report, which documents the accomplishments and milestones the membership accomplished together over the past 12 months and outlines our vision for the year ahead. The electronic version is available on the NACWA website, and the print version is now being delivered to all member agencies, along with Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 member invoices.

EPA, in collaboration with the Department of Defense (DoD), announced a new analytical method—Method 1633—to test for PFAS in various environmental media on September 2. This single-laboratory validation method can test for 40 PFAS compounds in wastewater, surface water, groundwater, soil, biosolids, sediment, landfill leachate, and fish tissue using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS).

NACWA joined Association members the Louisville/Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District and the City of New York, as well as the California Association of Sanitation Agencies (CASA), in filing an amicus brief this week in support of NACWA member the City and County of San Francisco’s challenge to their first post-long term control plan (LTCP) National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit.

NACWA joined a broad coalition this week on a letter to Congress requesting support for municipal bonds as part of infrastructure investment, especially in the context of the upcoming budget reconciliation process. The letter notes the importance of municipal bonds in funding infrastructure projects around the country.

NACWA’s thoughts are with all of our members and other utilities that have been impacted by Hurricane Ida. The Association stands ready to provide any assistance it can to utilities that need help.

Speaker of the House Pelosi (D-CA) and a group of ten moderate Democrats reached a deal August 24 to move forward on two of their key legislative priorities: the Infrastructure Investment And Jobs Act (i.e. the Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill with $550 billion in new spending) and the $3.5 trillion Budget Resolution.

EPA’s Water Permits Division, as part of renewing the information collection request (ICR) for the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program, is considering making minor revisions to the forms and instructions of permit applications.

The Northwest Environmental Advocates (NWEA) recently filed a petition for a writ of mandamus to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit asking the court to force EPA to respond to its February 2017 petition requesting that the Agency revoke the State of Washington’s authority to issue permits pursuant to the Clean Water Act’s (CWA) National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program.

EPA is sponsoring a series of free virtual workshops on water sector cybersecurity. These offerings are timely given that recent cyber-attacks on water and wastewater systems have manipulated treatment processes, disabled process control and business enterprise systems, and stolen proprietary data.

Both the U.S. House and Senate are on recess this week, back in Members’ respective districts and states. However, the House plans to return on August 23, weeks earlier than scheduled, to continue advancing legislation following the Senate’s passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on August 10th.

EPA released its final ambient water quality criteria (AWQC) to address nutrients in lakes and reservoirs on August 13. This publication finalizes the Agency’s 2020 proposed rulemaking that moves towards a national stressor-response modelling framework approach that allows states the ability to input local or regional limnological data to derive more specific numeric nutrient values.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) held a webinar August 12 in coordination with NACWA and the National Energy & Utility Affordability Coalition on the rollout of the Low Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP) – the program being stood up by HHS to implement the $1.138 Billion in federal assistance provided for water and wastewater customers through the federal COVID-19 relief packages.

NACWA member Charleston Water System (CWS) recently filed an amended class action complaint against multiple manufacturers and distributers of so-called “flushable” wipes in federal district court seeking to have the court enjoin them from labeling their products as “flushable” in light of the damage they cause to sewer systems.

NACWA has received over 50 responses so far to its most recent survey on COVID-19 and encourages utility members to complete the survey before it closes on Monday, August 23.

After nearly two months of ongoing bipartisan infrastructure negotiations between the White House and a group of 22 Senators (G22) led by Senators Portman (R-OH) and Sinema (D-AZ), the Senate on Tuesday passed the first major comprehensive infrastructure package in decades - the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act - with true bipartisan support on a vote of 69-30.