In a typical year, Lynchburg Water Resources (LWR) education and outreach staff visits schools, leads field trips, hosts water plant and wastewater plant tours, and participates in large-scale events. Due to COVID-19, these events were no longer safe to continue. As a solution to continue to raise awareness, the education and outreach staff began filming a series of short 3-5-minute-long videos entitled “Water Wonders.”

I was recently flattered to be selected from all the strong female leaders in WSSC Water to represent the organization in the Women in Water (WIW) Roundtable Group, a six-month virtual program offered through NACWA and Core Consulting’s Core Leadership collaboration. The program is oriented towards mid-level professionals, but anyone from inspiring leaders to executive staff can...

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).

As we head into the fall, 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 “Reconciliation” packages 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 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.

The National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) is pleased to provide you with the July/August 2021 Regulatory Update.