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To: Members, Affiliates & Legal Affairs Committee
From:National Office
Date:May 1999 (current to June 22, 1999)

The National Office is pleased to provide you with the May 1999 Legislative Update. The AMSA Legislative Radar attached to the key legislation section will update you on the status of any bills you may be tracking.

AMSA Testifies Before House Subcommittee
AMSA testified before the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment to call attention to AMSA's priority issues, including the Urban Wet Weather Priorities Act of 1999. Please refer to LA 99-11 for additional details and a complete copy of the testimony.

AMSA-Led Coalition on Wet Weather Bill Narrows List of Potential Sponsors
AMSA members and the National Office have been waging a promising campaign to locate bipartisan sponsors for the Urban Wet Weather Priorities Act of 1999. The bill was sent to the membership on June 3, 1999 via Legislative Update LA 99-10. During AMSA's National Environmental Policy Forum, members flooded Capitol Hill with the wet weather bill in hand, giving the National Office valuable information on likely sponsors. As a result, the wet weather coalition, including the National League of Cities, National Association of Counties, American Public Works Association, U.S. Conference of Mayors and Water Environment Federation, is focusing in on a short list of sponsors that would create the best chances for the bill's success. The National Office is pushing for the bill's introduction in the next few weeks. The membership will be contacted for letters of support for the bill at the appropriate time.

Draft Kelly/Tauscher Bill to Focus on Reauthorizing the SRF
Congresswomen Sue Kelly (R-NY) and Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) are collaborating on a bill which would reauthorize the Clean Water SRF at $2.3 billion per year from FY 2000 to 2004. The draft bill indicates that loan funds will be available or activities which “have as a principal benefit the improvement or protection of water quality of navigable waters,” including: 1) construction of POTWs; 2) implementation of a lake protection program under Section 314 of the Act; 3) implementation of a management program under Section 319; 4) implementation of a conservation and management plan under Section 320; 5) restoration or protection of publicly or privately owned riparian areas; 6) implementation of measures to improve the efficiency of public water use; 7) development and implementation by a public recipient to prevent water pollution; and 8) acquisition of lands necessary to meet any mitigation requirements related to POTW construction. At press time, the bill had not yet been introduced. Both Congresswomen have been extremely active in the area of clean water funding, having previously sent a bipartisan letter to the House VA, HUD & Independent Agencies Subcommittee on Appropriations calling on greater funding levels for the SRF loan program.

President Calls for National Policy on SSOs
During his weekly radio address on May 29, President Clinton called on EPA to develop a national policy on SSOs within a year's time. The timing of this message could not be better for AMSA. The directive is consistent with AMSA's own efforts within the Urban Wet Weather Priorities Act of 1999 to secure the development of national SSO regulations. Although the details of the policy are lacking, the fact that the President dedicated time to one of AMSA's highest priority legislative items is significant. AMSA promptly responded to the radio address with a letter praising the Administration for pushing for the development of a national policy.

AMSA Members Adopt Resolution Capturing Key Legislative Objectives
On May 24, AMSA's Executive Committee and membership in attendance at the Association's National Environmental Policy Forum adopted a major resolution on critical legislative priorities. The resolution, signed by 110 members and affiliates, was used to deliver AMSA's legislative priorities to Capitol Hill. The following is a reproduction of the resolution:

Resolution of the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies

WHEREAS, the Clean Water Act, since its passage in 1972, has had unparalleled success in protecting and restoring the Nation's surface waters and aquatic habitat, revitalizing urban waterfronts and generating economic benefits to communities across the country; and

WHEREAS, the Clean Water Act, as the Nation's premier environmental statute, has mobilized a combined $300 billion of Federal, State and local funds to build and upgrade more than 16,000 wastewater treatment facilities nationwide, which now provide safe and reliable wastewater treatment to 70% of the nation's population and over 99% of the nation's urban population; and

WHEREAS, recent Environmental Protection Agency data indicate that the Nation's waterways have a long road ahead to full recovery, with 40 percent of the rivers, lakes and streams still suffering some level of impairment from a variety of unchecked sources of pollution including nonpoint sources and air deposition; and

WHEREAS, the Nation must chart new solutions for future water quality challenges which focus on the protection and restoration of entire watersheds and ecosystems and which give local communities the necessary tools to allocate resources effectively.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that AMSA urges Congress to help close the estimated $6 billion per year gap in clean water funding by appropriating consistent annual funds for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund and reestablishing the federal grants program or other direct funding mechanisms to support further progress;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that AMSA urges Congress to strengthen the Clean Water Act regulation of wet weather pollution by codifying the 1994 National Combined Sewer Overflow Policy, promulgating national regulations for the control of sanitary sewer overflows, clarifying the intent of the Act's stormwater requirements, conducting demonstration projects on the use of watershed management and the effectiveness of stormwater best management practices and establishing a wet weather funding program;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that AMSA urges Congress, in the interest of achieving the Nation's water quality objectives, to adopt a coordinated Federal initiative to combat nonpoint sources of pollution through enforceable mechanisms, to research and refine effective control measures and to appropriate sufficient Federal funds to support such an effort; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that AMSA urges Congress to further amend the Clean Water Act where necessary to recognize regional and site-specific differences in the physical, chemical and biological attributes of the aquatic environment and to enable local governments to tailor water quality solutions according to these regional and site-specific characteristics.

A copy of the resolution was distributed to all members of Congress in mid-June.

AMSA's Nonpoint Source Brochure Attracts Attention
At the Association's National Environmental Policy Forum, the National Office unveiled its new promotional piece on the need to shift the country's attention to nonpoint sources of pollution. The brochure, We've Got the Point ... Now Let's Get to the Nonpoint, is designed to increase awareness on the need to target nonpoint sources for enforceable controls. The pamphlet is designed to elevate national attention to the largest remaining uncontrolled source of water pollution. Please contact AMSA's National Office at 202/833-AMSA if you need extra copies to distribute in your district.

Rep. Blumenaeur Introduces AMSA-Endorsed Amendment to House Superfund Bill
AMSA supports The Recycle America's Lands Act of 1999 — H.R. 1300 — which many on Capitol Hill feel stands a good chance of reaching the president's desk. Representative Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), Chairman of the House Water Resources & Environment Subcommittee, is leading a group of 72 bipartisan co-sponsors in championing H.R. 1300. The narrowly targeted bill codifies many of the Superfund policy improvements the administration has made since the early nineties, including EPA's policy on the disposal of municipal solid waste and biosolids, recognized by the Agency as harmless. AMSA has worked closely with Congress to ensure that the bill clarifies the classification of publicly owned treatment works under Superfund in order to prevent unwarranted exposure to liability.

On June 10, during the House Water Resources & Environment Subcommittee's mark-up of H.R. 1300, Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) introduced an amendment that would protect owners and operators of publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) from unwarranted Superfund liability. AMSA developed the amendment's language and worked extensively with House staff and Subcommittee members to ensure that the language would appear in H.R. 1300. Blumenauer recognized the strong support for the Superfund reform bill from AMSA and other groups. In introducing the amendment Blumenauer said that Superfund should be “sensitive to what happens to people dealing with sewage because recent litigation has held sewer operators responsible for the pollution others have dumped into the system.”

The amendment covers “innocent owners and operators of sewage treatment plants” and states that “there shall be no liability . . . for a person who is an owner or operator of a treatment works.” Under the amendment, the liability exemption would cover POTWs that are “principally treating municipal and domestic sewage,” demonstrating compliance with Clean Water Act pretreatment requirements and properly operating and maintaining their systems. AMSA has long advocated the need for language in Superfund that recognizes the special nature of POTWs. Bipartisan recognition of AMSA's position on POTWs' Superfund liability demonstrates the Association's effectiveness in communicating with Capitol Hill on priority legislative issues. Significantly, ranking member of the subcommittee Congressman Robert Borski (D-PA), who does not support H.R. 1300, endorsed the amendment.

Chairman Boehlert expressed optimism for H.R. 1300's chances and noted that Blumenauer's amendment would strengthen the bill. The subcommittee passed the bill with a vote of 22 to 9. Boehlert said that he would continue to work to garner further bipartisan support for the bill in order to increase its chances of making it to the president's desk for signature. The bill's mark-up took place on June 10, and an amendment protecting POTWs from unwarranted Superfund liability was added.

The AMSA National Office will continue to provide members with monthly Legislative Updates and as-needed Legislative Alerts. If you have any questions about the legislation profiled in this Update or would like additional information on AMSA legislative issues, please contact Greg Schaner (202/296-9836) at the National Office. ATTACHMENTS: