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November 21, 2003 AMSA Fax Alert

Member Pipeline - Fax Alerts - November 26, 2003

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November 26, 2003

AMSA/EPA Pretreatment Workshop Continues Tradition of Success
This year's 2003 AMSA/EPA Pretreatment Coordinators Workshop, held in Seattle, Wash., concluded last Friday marking another in a line of successful Workshops. The 2003 Workshop brought pretreatment professionals together to exchange experiences and ideas and to discuss pertinent issues with local, state and federal policymakers through informative discussions, panels and strategy sessions. As an example of such an exchange, Elaine Brenner, Associate Director of the Water Permits Division in the Office of Wastewater Management at EPA, who participated in a panel titled The National Pretreatment Program Update - Ask the Regulators, confirmed that the Agency has resumed work on a pretreatment streamlining rule. Brenner added that the Agency was aiming for a final pretreatment streamlining rule in late 2004. While supportive of this effort, AMSA members were very vocal about the need to move forward as quickly as possible with pretreatment streamlining, which would help publicly owned treatment works reduce the administrative burden associated with implementing pretreatment programs. Other panel discussions provided lively discussions on emerging pollutants, national mercury issues, security-related issues, and sanitary sewer overflows. Presentations from the Workshop will be posted online.

CSO/SSO Grants Authorization Extended in EPA Budget Bill
The recently passed Senate version of EPA's budget bill - the Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development and Independent Agencies Appropriations bill (S. 1584) - contains an AMSA-supported provision to extend the combined and sanitary sewer overflow control grants authorization provision to fiscal years 2005 and 2006. Several years ago AMSA helped to successfully obtain an authorization of $750 million for both FY 2002 and 2003 for CSO control grant projects, which unfortunately never received funding. This extension, which AMSA and the CSO Partnership helped obtain, makes it possible to obtain funding for these projects in FY 2005 and 2006 - an effort to which AMSA remains committed. AMSA is confident that S. 1584 will ultimately be passed with this authorization via an omnibus appropriations package later this year. A copy of S. 1584 is available online.

Deadlines Approach for Leadership Center, Environmental Achievement Awards
The Water and Wastewater Leadership Center continues to accept applications for the 2004 session, scheduled for February 22 - March 5. The Center's intensive, 12-day residential training program is housed at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill's state-of-the-art Kenan-Flagler executive education facilities. The Leadership Center's timely curriculum examines a wide variety of leadership and management topics which affect the utility leaders of today and tomorrow. Enrollment is limited to 30 participants - so be sure to send in your application by the December 12, 2003, deadline. Additional information and application materials are available online or by contacting AMSA's Lisa Headley at 202/833-3692 or lheadley@amsa-cleanwater.org.

AMSA's National Environmental Achievement Awards program will continue to accept nominations until Friday December 19, 2003. A description of the criteria and eligibility for these awards, as well as additional information and application materials, is available on AMSA's website. Please remember that all applications require a signature endorsement of the nominating agency's representative to AMSA.

Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, AMSA's national office will be closed November 27 and 28.
AMSA wishes you a safe and happy holiday!