Clean Water Current

NACWA took to the road this week to Jackson, Miss. to present U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate with the prestigious National Environmental Achievement Award (NEAA) for Federal Public Service. NACWA presented the award on the steps of the Thad Cochran United States Courthouse alongside Ted Henifin, a prominent leader of NACWA and the water sector for decades, who was appointed as the Interim Third-Party Manager to oversee Jackson’s water and sewer repairs. Also in attendance were about 30 or so Courthouse and Jackson Water staff who are leading the water and sewer system improvements.

The work over the past several years to repair the ailing sewer system has achieved significant successes despite enormous headwinds. The sewer improvements include ramped up cleaning of sewer mains, the resolution of 94 percent of 2,200 previously back-logged sewer service requests, and the completion of hundreds of emergency sewer repairs, among others.

To learn more about the situation in Jackson and the NEEA Award ceremony, please see the coverage of the event in the Mississippi Clarion-Ledger available here.  

NACWA also recently travelled to Pittsburgh, Pa. to provide a federal update to the Wet Weather Partnership’s Annual Workshop, Advanced Wet Weather Solutions at the Confluence of Three Rivers. 

NACWA’s Chief Legal Officer Amanda Aspatore provided conference attendees with the latest information concerning both the Executive and Legislative branches’ federal funding activities, including the Clean Water SRF reauthorization discussions currently taking place on Capitol Hill and the Trump Administration’s efforts to freeze, rescind, and place conditions on existing federal spending. 

NACWA also discussed EPA’s recent initiatives related to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program, as well as the sector’s major Supreme Court victory in San Francisco v. EPA. 

Conference attendees expressed hope that progress could be made with the new Administration on key issues such as affordability and PFAS, but also apprehension over ongoing federal funding and regulatory uncertainty.