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Water Agencies Say EPA Policy on Upgrades Should Focus on Communities' Ability to Pay
The National Association of Clean Water Agencies is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to make "unique local conditions" the major consideration in a decade-old policy that assesses each wastewater utility's financial ability to pay for upgrades to combined sewer collection and treatment systems.
In a Jan. 10 letter to Benjamin Grumbles, EPA's assistant administrator for water, NACWA emphasized that an "assessment of a community's unique local conditions" should form the "primary basis" of any evaluation of a wastewater utility's financial ability to repair or replace aging systems.
Wastewater utilities depend on a range of community ratepayers to pay for their operations, NACWA said. Unique local conditions are defined by the mix of ratepayers found in each service area, ranging from affluent to below the poverty line.
The agency's 1996 regulatory guidance, Combined Sewer Overflows--Guidance for Financial Capability Assessment and Schedule Development, dictates how a wastewater utility with a combined sewer system should conduct financial assessments. According to NACWA, the guidance does not provide "specific rules" on how local economic conditions can be factored into a financial capability assessment of a utility to make improvements. A combined sewer system carries both wastewater and stormwater in the same pipes.
EPA is currently reviewing its policy. The agency's top water officials, including Grumbles, have acknowledged NACWA's recommendations on affordability that were made in a November 2005 white paper (149 DEN A-7, 8/3/06 ).
The white paper also emphasized that local economic conditions should be factored into financial assessments of utilities.
The organization's Jan. 10 letter "is really a list of short-term fixes for EPA to consider while it is reviewing its guidance," Susan Bruninga, NACWA's public affairs director, told BNA Jan. 16.
Other Recommendations
Other recommendations from NACWA included: consideration of competing environmental programs (such as air quality standards) and social and public needs (such as maintenance and construction of roads) in the final assessment; acknowledging historical and social trends in socioeconomic indicators, such as poverty levels, in the analysis; acknowledging indicators other than financial performance and median household income in assessing financial capability; and acknowledging and recognizing the "primacy" of states' own affordability analyses for their communities.
In the 1996 guidance, EPA addressed the ability of a utility with a combined sewer system to finance improvements to handle wet weather events, such as heavy rainfall when a treatment plant's capacity to treat wastewater is overwhelmed by large volumes of stormwater. Combined sewer overflows (CSOs) occur during heavy rainfalls in combined collection systems.
In the NACWA letter, Executive Director Ken Kirk urged EPA to make "long overdue" revisions to the agency's 1996 guidance and to adopt the association's recommendations.
"Given EPA's promotion of local solutions and innovations to address the increasing funding gap that utilities face, NACWA believes that it is time to rethink the guidance's approach to assessing a community's ability," Kirk wrote.
EPA could not be reached for comment. In August 2006, Grumbles told BNA that he considers "affordability to be a very important issue" and that he would welcome any updated recommendations from NACWA.
NACWA's short-term recommendations are part of the organization's efforts to provide EPA with an updated list of recommendations on affordability. The updated list will build upon NACWA's original white paper.
By Amena H. Saiyid