Several pieces of legislation are making their way to the House and Senate floors this week for final consideration as Congress hopes to conclude its work for this session before the holidays.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week released a proposed guidance memorandum providing information on the application of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund to the Clean Water Act Sec. 402 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Environmental Appeals Board (EAB) recently issued an opinion denying NACWA member the City and County of San Francisco’s appeal of a Clean Water Act (CWA) National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit issued by EPA Region 9 and the California Regional Water Quality Control Board for its combined sewer system discharges.

As Washington gets set for a new Administration and Congress next year and a busy legislative agenda ahead, the advocacy voice of the public clean water sector will be more critical than ever to ensure our policy goals are heard under what is expected to be a divided government.

The Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, a research center at Duke University that focuses on applied environmental policy research, is engaged in a research project to better understand the role and use of State Revolving Funds (SRFs) in the nation’s water service systems. Specifically, the project is conducting a series of studies to understand:

A spin-off of University of Arizona’s Biodesign Center for Environmental Health Engineering, AquaVitas, was awarded a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) contract to provide additional support for COVID-19 wastewater surveillance on November 13.

EPA’s Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water, Dave Ross, recently signed a memorandum addressed to EPA Regional Administrators recommending an interim strategy on PFAS specifically for federally issued National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permittees. However, it is likely many state permit writers will also follow the memo’s recommendations.

With Congress set to adjourn for the year by mid-December, the House and Senate are working quickly to finalize all outstanding remaining legislation. Congressional focus is on “must pass” legislation to fund the government past its current December 11 expiration date.

(December 2, 2020) –NACWA submitted comments November 19 on EPA’s Draft Inventory of US Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks:1990-2019 as part of the expert review process.

A workgroup of NACWA members met on November 23 to discuss Action 2.2.4 of EPA's Water Reuse Action Plan