Member Pipeline - Fax Alerts - February 14, 2003
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February 14, 2003
Security Legislation Introduced in House, NBP Gets Full Funding
This week witnessed some key successes for publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) on Capitol Hill, marked by yesterday’s introduction of the AMSA-supported wastewater infrastructure security funding bill, H.R. 866, in the U.S. House of Representatives. This legislation is the same as last year’s bill, H.R. 5169, which passed the full U.S. House of Representatives unanimously and authorized $200 million for POTWs to conduct vulnerability assessments and to pay for enhanced security at their facilities. H.R. 866 was introduced by Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young (R-AK), Ranking Member James Oberstar (D-MN), Subcommittee Chairman John J. Duncan, Jr., (R-TN) and Subcommittee Ranking Member Jerry Costello (D-IL). On another successful note, the National Biosolids Partnership (NBP) received full funding of $1 million for the current federal fiscal year as part of the passage this week of the omnibus spending bill. This allows NBP to continue its key work of expanding the use of environmental management systems for biosolids. AMSA will provide more detailed information on H.R. 866 as well as on the EPA budget’s implications to POTWs in upcoming Alerts and Updates.AMSA Urges Support for Watershed Rule on Capitol Hill
AMSA met this week with House and Senate staff to enlist their support in urging EPA to move forward and propose its watershed rule, emphasizing to congressional staff that continuing to operate the total maximum daily load (TMDL) program under the inadequate 1992 rule is simply unsatisfactory. AMSA re-emphasized in these meetings the need for EPA’s expeditious proposal of a replacement rule that would lend consistency to state implementation of TMDLs and would bring nonpoint sources of pollution to the table. Work on the proposed rule has been completed at EPA but the rule awaits formal transmission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review. AMSA will pursue other meetings with EPA, OMB and others to garner support for proposal of the watershed rule. Bolstering AMSA's position was the release of a related report this week from the General Accounting Office (GAO) that found that 30 states would target different water bodies for cleanup under the TMDL program if water quality standards were updated. This report, Water Quality: Improved EPA Guidance and Support Can Help States Develop Standards That Better Target Cleanup Efforts, is available at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03308.pdf.AMSA Meets with EPA Enforcement Officials on Blending
Although AMSA had been promised a Valentines Day release of EPA’s national blending guidance, it continues to be delayed. To ensure the ultimate release of this key document, AMSA met yesterday with the Deputy Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) and other high level Agency enforcement staff to review their position on blending. Jim Canaday, AMSA Board member and Engineer-Director of the Alexandria Sanitation Authority, Va., participated in the meeting, providing a succinct and informative picture of how treatment works use blending for environmental benefit and to maximize treatment of peak flows while still meeting permit limits. OECA staff made it clear that they believe blending is the byproduct of poor collection system maintenance and inadequate treatment/storage capacity. They also believe that to drive improvement in these areas the following are needed: a strict blending policy, proposing a sanitary sewer overflow package, and full implementation of the combined sewer overflow policy. AMSA made a strong case that prohibiting blending is a backward approach to achieving these operation and maintenance improvements and capacity enhancement measures, and would negatively impact water quality. AMSA will provide more coverage of the blending initiative to members in future Alerts and Updates.