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September 9, 2005 NACWA Fax Alert

Member Pipeline - Fax Alerts - September 9, 2005

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September 9, 2005

NACWA Continues Efforts to Support Hurricane Relief Activities
NACWA and its members have continued to support the relief efforts for those impacted by Hurricane Katrina. EPA emergency response personnel continue to work in partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to assess the damage to, and prepare for cleanup of, water and wastewater utilities in the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. Currently EPA estimates that the number of wastewater treatment facilities affected is now 114 in Louisiana, 45 in Mississippi, and 13 in Alabama. The information gathered through these assessments will provide valuable guidance to NACWA as it works with its partners at all levels of government to provide support to affected clean water utilities.

In the meantime, the National Emergency Resource Registry (NERR) offers a ready avenue for utilities interested in offering resources to assist fellow utilities in need. Please visit www.swern.gov and click on the “Want to Help? Click Here to Sign Up” banner at the top of the page and follow the instructions. For more information on the NERR refer to Special Edition Fax Alert 9-2-05 (http://www.nacwa.org/private/faxalerts/090205se.cfm).

Additional information on the latest response activities related to drinking water and clean water utilities can be found at http://www.epa.gov/katrina/activities.html.  NACWA’s thoughts are with all those touched by this tragedy.

NACWA Comments on Changes to EPA’s Data Requirements for Pesticides
NACWA submitted comments to EPA’s Office of Pesticide Protection this week on the Agency’s March 11, 2005 proposed changes to the data requirements for the registration and re-registration of conventional pesticides. The Association believes the proposed rule should recognize that pesticide uses can involve water quality risks and require that the data needed to assess those risks be provided to EPA. The data submitted should also be sufficient to predict pesticide fate in clean water facilities as it can affect compliance with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) or Clean Water Act (CWA) permit effluent limits.

In its comments, NACWA urged the Agency to better integrate water quality protection into its pesticide review program. The Association also urged the Office of Pesticide Protection to work with EPA’s Office of Wastewater Management for assistance in selecting data and methodology in the proposed rule to allow proper and complete assessment of the environmental and compliance risks associated with pesticide discharges. NACWA encouraged EPA to modernize its aquatic toxicity test methods and review organisms identified for the testing, create an urban runoff model to estimate pesticide water concentrations resulting from urban pesticide use, and evaluate the water quality impacts of pesticides through the addition of whole sediment toxicity testing. The Association will continue to work with the Agency to ensure its comments are included in the final rule. A copy of the comments will be available on NACWA’s website (www.nacwa.org/advocacy/releases.cfm#cmt) early next week.

NACWA Hears from Regional, State Groups on Clean Water Issues
NACWA met today with over 20 representatives from state and regional wastewater organizations from across the country to discuss priority issues and potential collaboration efforts in the clean water arena. The Clean Water Leadership Summit, held in St. Louis, focused on identifying mutual issues and goals, raising awareness of local/statewide issues and improving collaboration of the clean water community as a whole. Included in the discussions were successfully navigating complex relationships between state, regional, and federal policy makers; refocusing public attention on the impact of nonpoint sources on water quality, the need for development of a meaningful definition of affordability; interacting effectively with the activist community, especially in the wet weather arena; and the increasing number of SSO-related citizen suits. State-specific challenges, such as those presented by water quality standards issues related to mercury in California, selenium in Colorado, and nutrient reduction in Virginia, were also addressed. NACWA will provide members with additional details in next months Regulatory Alert.