Clean Water Current

(September 19, 2017) - NACWA attended the 32nd Annual WateReuse Symposium in Phoenix, AZ last week to discuss emerging membrane technologies, public outreach efforts, and funding/financing opportunities with a gathering of water reuse industry professionals. The Symposium also hosted a panel that included staff from EPA’s Office of Groundwater and Drinking Water on what federal regulatory improvement lies ahead, if any, as indirect and direct potable reuse practices become more readily accepted by the public, and implemented by drinking water municipalities. The key challenge identified for direct potable water use is whether the Clean Water Act or the Safe Drinking Water Act, or an integration of the two, would maintain a high regulatory standard that is protective of human health.

NACWA’s newly formed Arid State and Water Reuse Workgroup is focusing on many of the issues—including water reuse—that are central to municipal clean water utilities located in the southwest and southeast regions of the country. The Symposium, as well as other regional efforts NACWA has participated in, will help advance the Association’s advocacy agenda to better reflect these important arid state and broader water quantity/quality issues. If members would like to know more about the workgroup or how to get involved, please contact NACWA’s Director of Regulatory Affairs, Emily Remmel.