NACWA Secretary and CEO of Metro Water Recovery, Mickey Conway, testified May 16 on behalf of the Association this week before the House Transportation & Infrastructure (T&I) Committee on the need for sensible and important regulatory reforms under the Clean Water Act (CWA).

Starting in late March, EPA Region 1 began issuing several draft individual National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits to municipal clean water utilities in Massachusetts that contained novel and unduly prescriptive climate planning and mitigation requirements.

On Tuesday, May 23, NACWA and legal affiliate Baker Botts will hold a free webinar to walk through opportunities for clean water agencies to leverage funding made available through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

In Beckley, WV, creek banks are becoming places for watershed education. Thanks to a collaborative effort among three watershed partners, students and other community members are now involved in year-round hands-on learning on Beckley’s urban streams. The thriving partnership among NACWA Member Beckley Sanitary Board, Piney Creek Watershed Association and West Virginia University Institute of Technology (WVU Tech) has sustained an ongoing effort to collect and analyze water samples from 22 sites across a 20 square mile area, once a month for more than three years

The Science Advisory Board (SAB) biosolids panel met in person recently on May 2 and May 3 and dissected, discussed, and debated the charge questions before them on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed biosolids screening tool (BST) and refined risk assessment framework that would be used to assess 700 chemicals found in biosolids.

NACWA Secretary and CEO of Metro Water Recovery, Mickey Conway, is set to testify on behalf of the Association before the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee May 16 on the need for sensible and important regulatory reforms under the Clean Water Act (CWA).

EPA’s proposed National Primary Drinking Water Regulation, which establishes enforceable Maximum Contaminant Levels for PFOA and PFOS as well as uses a novel hazard index approach for mixtures of PFAS, is currently out for public comment through May 30. EPA has made clear it is not extending the public comment period.

Members of NACWA’s Pretreatment & Pollution Prevention Committee met with EPA on May 8 to provide input on the Agency’s planned POTW influent study for PFAS. EPA announced the potential study in its Effluent Guidelines Plan 15.

Senators Merkley (D-OR) and Collins (R-ME), and Representatives McClain (R-MI) and Peltola (D-AK), recently introduced S.1350/H.R. 2964, the Wastewater Infrastructure Pollution Prevention and Environmental Safety Act (WIPPES) Act, to help address the problem of non-flushable wipes in sewer systems.

NACWA recently signed on to a joint letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan asking that the Agency finalize its proposed Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) rule that would allow electricity produced from biomass to qualify for credits in the RFS program. Electricity produced at wastewater treatment utilities would qualify for these “eRINs,” which could benefit utilities that produce electricity from biogas.