Member Pipeline - Fax Alerts - July 21, 2006
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for the FaxAlert ArchiveJuly 21, 2006
Dick Champion Elected NACWA President
NACWA’s Board of Directors elected new officers this week. The Association welcomes Dick Champion, Director of the Independence, Mo., Water Pollution Control Department, as its new president. Also elected as officers were Chris Westhoff, Assistant City Attorney for Public Works for the City of Los Angeles, as vice president; Marian Orfeo, Director of Planning and Coordination for the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, as treasurer; and Kevin Shafer, Executive Director of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, as secretary.NACWA Summer Conference
Addresses Clean Water, Drinking Water Challenges
The complex and often difficult issues that arise at the intersection of Clean Water Act (CWA) and Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) policy and law were the focus of NACWA’s 2006 Summer Conference on Cross-Cutting Clean Water and Drinking Water Issues…Challenging Traditional Boundaries this week. More than 200 people attended the lively and enlightening conference that also featured a keynote address by James Hanlon, director of U.S. EPA’s Office of Wastewater Management. Hanlon said he expected the final policy on peak wet weather flows, based on a negotiated agreement between NACWA and the Natural Resources Defense Council, would be released in late summer or early fall. The Agency is also working on tools to facilitate the implementation of the new policy, he said.The major theme coursing through the conference was the need for clean water and drinking water utility managers to think broadly and beyond the traditional boundaries of clean water or drinking water policy as they confront a new set of challenges, including the effects of global climate change, growing populations, and the increasing demand on water supply. EPA predicts that in the next 10 years, 36 states will experience “non-drought water shortages.” Low water flows bring a different set of problems, including higher temperature and increased concentrations of pollutants. In the opening roundtable, Alan Vicory, Executive Director and Chief Engineer of the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) suggested that the CWA and SDWA are not in conflict, but have significant “gap areas” that need to be filled. Solutions involve better communication among water users and treatment plant operators, as well as groups that influence land-use planning and growth. Also putting pressure on clean water and drinking water utilities is ongoing litigation both from government regulators and environmental activist groups. NACWA will continue to provide leadership to help its members navigate these complicated issues.
Presentations from the Summer Conference will be posted soon on NACWA’s website. More information on these topics is also available in a white paper, CWA-SDWA Cross Cutting Issues, which was presented at the conference and will be posted soon.
Look for additional information on the Conference and the deliberations of NACWA’s Standing Committees in the near future.
DC WASA Decides to Seek Supreme Court Review in TMDL Case
NACWA learned today that member agency, the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority (DC WASA) will petition the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a June decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit regarding the Agency’s total maximum daily load (TMDL) for discharges to the Anacostia River. The Association stands ready to support DC WASA and believes the court’s interpretation that “daily” means “daily” does not allow member agencies to address nutrient discharges in reasonable manner.