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May 28, 1999
AMSA Priorities Gain Ground on Capitol Hill and at EPA
This week in Washington, DC, AMSA's National Environmental Policy Forum & 29th Annual Meeting raised the national profile of the Association's legislative, regulatory and environmental priorities. The Policy Forum gave AMSA members the opportunity to meet with EPA officials and congressional leaders to discuss issues critical to wastewater treatment agencies nationwide.In their remarks to AMSA members, Reps. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) and Robert Borski (D-Penn.) expressed strong support for federal funding for water infrastructure and for nonpoint source pollution control. In his keynote address, Boehlert, Chair of the House Water Resources & Environment Subcommittee, stressed the importance of working with interests representing nonpoint sources to improve water quality. “The time to focus on nonpoint source pollution is here and now,” he told AMSA members, adding that nonpoint sources “are not the enemy, but part of the solution.” Boehlert also emphasized that the “$550 million cut in the State Revolving Loan Fund (SRF) was totally unacceptable.” “You've got our attention on this important issue,” he said. The chairman expressed confidence that “within the next two years,” a more permanent solution to clean water funding could be found.
In his keynote, EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Chuck Fox, said that EPA supports AMSA's efforts to heighten attention on the need to control nonpoint source pollution and in leading a broad-based national dialogue on funding for water infrastructure needs. In response to concerns from AMSA members about the applicability of total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) to nonpoint sources, Fox said that EPA would “get information into the debate on the cost-effectiveness of nonpoint source pollution controls.”
AMSA's legislative priorities have gained considerable momentum after the Association unanimously adopted a resolution that calls on Congress to restore funding to the SRF; increase water infrastructure funding, establish a wet weather grants program; and begin addressing nonpoint source pollution through a comprehensive national approach that includes federal funding, monitoring and enforcement. Every senator and representative will receive a copy of the resolution, which was signed by wastewater treatment officials representing AMSA member agencies. During their Capitol Hill visits this week, AMSA members were warmly received by their congressional delegations, and many reported favorable responses from their lawmakers on critical funding issues and the Urban Wet Weather Priorities Act of 1999.
TMDLs, SSOs, Nutrients Top AMSA's Regulatory Concerns
Other highlights of the Policy Forum included the release of EPA sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) “issue papers,” which spell out the direction the Agency is likely to go on forthcoming regulations governing SSOs. The Agency has recently renewed discussions with the SSO Federal Advisory Committee, which will meet in late July to discuss the set of five issue papers. An upcoming Regulatory Alert will furnish AMSA members with the SSO papers. Meanwhile, TMDLs topped the list of AMSA members' concerns in discussions with both EPA and Congress. AMSA members were especially eager to learn where the Agency's new TMDL regulations are headed with regard to nonpoint sources because of concern that municipal permit holders would bear the brunt of more stringent controls. Pending EPA requirements for states to adopt numeric nutrient criteria also emerged as a major issue for AMSA members. Here, too, members felt that without adequate authority to address nonpoint sources' contribution to nutrient loadings, the nutrient criteria would be ineffective at improving water quality and unfairly impact municipal dischargers with costly controls.