The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been seeking input from various stakeholders on whether to rescind and replace the guidance put out at the end of the previous administration on how to apply the test articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund.

On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 3684, the INVEST in America Act, which included key provisions authorizing substantial new funding for critical clean water programs.

The National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) is pleased to provide you with the May/June 2021 Regulatory Update. Please contact Emily Remmel or Cynthia Finley with any questions about NACWA’s regulatory advocacy.

The city’s stormwater management programme has seriously reduced the risk of combined sewer overflow events in the decade since it was launched. As it starts work on a second stage of the project, the city’s water utility will need buy-in from its commercial customers.

As chemical supply chain issues continue to impact utilities around the country, EPA has published instructions for water utilities on how to use Section 1441 of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) or the Defense Production Act to obtain chlorine or any other chemicals needed for treating drinking water or wastewater.

Congressional focus on water legislation continues this week both at the highest levels of leadership – with the White House and Congressional leaders continuing to negotiate a potential bipartisan infrastructure deal – and at the Committee level, where work continues to advance authorization bills.

EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) held its third public meeting of the year last week, highlighting the emphasis on environmental justice (EJ) issues by the new Biden-Harris Administration.

NACWA’s Biosolids Committee will convene on Thursday, June 24 from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. EST on Zoom and will discuss a variety of key issues happening at the federal level. The Committee will be briefed on activities that are ongoing at EPA as well as dive into evolving PFAS matters including NACWA’s recent letter to EPA’s PFAS Council and a new “how-to” guide on modeling the fate and transport of PFAS in biosolids and residuals.

Last week, over 130 communications professionals from the public clean water sector joined NACWA for the second virtual StratComm: H2O event.