Member Pipeline - Fax Alerts - February 28, 2003
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February 28, 2003
Wastewater Security Bill Sails through House Committee
The Wastewater Treatment Works Security Act of 2003 (H.R. 866) sailed through a full Transportation & Infrastructure Committee markup on February 26. H.R. 866 mirrors last year’s bill, H.R. 5169, which was derived from AMSA’s draft legislative language and passed through the House unanimously last year in large part due to the Association’s lobbying and advocacy efforts. H.R. 866 authorizes $200 million for publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) to conduct vulnerability assessments and to help fund basic security enhancements at their facilities; $15 million in technical assistance for small POTWs serving under 20,000 ratepayers; and $1 million a year for fiscal years 2003-2007 for upgrades to, and training on, vulnerability self assessment tools, such as the suite of VSAT™ security tools developed by AMSA. H.R. 866 requires that POTWs certify to EPA that they have performed a vulnerability assessment to obtain EPA funding for basic security enhancements but does not require POTWs to file their assessments with EPA. AMSA will now be focusing its lobbying efforts to ensure that H.R. 866 passes through the full House and that a similar, if not identical, security bill gets introduced in the Senate. The bill is available at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:h.r.00866:.AMSA, Broad Array of Groups Seek Action on Watershed Rule
AMSA and a broad array of over 40 organizations including a host of nonpoint, industry, state and municipal groups, met in a joint meeting this week with EPA Deputy Administrator, Linda Fisher, and Deputy Assistant Administrator for Water, Ben Grumbles, among other EPA staff, to jointly urge the Agency to forge ahead with its watershed rule. AMSA told EPA that many stakeholder groups and EPA staff have vested significant time and effort in developing a workable watershed rule, that the 1992 total maximum daily load (TMDL) rule under which the program now operates is not the solution, and that wastewater treatment works need the certainty of a national framework to implement the TMDL program to ensure future water quality gains. EPA responded that it had made no determination regarding its next steps on the watershed rule, but added that the proposal is "informally" in interagency review but that the Agency is still a long way from the finish line. A number of the 40 organizations, including AMSA, went from the meeting at EPA to Capitol Hill to meet with staff from the Senate Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, and Water, and other individual senatorial staff, to encourage them to urge EPA to continue with the watershed rule process. AMSA received assurances that several Senators may be prepared to actively engage EPA on this issue. AMSA, and like-minded stakeholders, will continue to meet with congressional staff in the coming weeks to ensure progress on the watershed rule process.AMSA Gives Kudos to EPA’s Effluent Guidelines Strategy
AMSA provided comments this week on EPA’s Draft Strategy for National Clean Water Industrial Regulations (Draft Strategy), applauding EPA’s efforts to develop a national strategy for future effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs) that both reduces risk to human health and the environment and provides a more transparent decision-making process. AMSA lauded EPA’s approach on ELGs for providing an excellent opportunity for increased collaboration between the Agency and the POTW community in revising and drafting ELGs. This key development affords POTWs and AMSA a greater opportunity to voice their concerns and influence the ELG process. AMSA also used the strategy to remind EPA that the ELG program applies only to industrial sources of pollution and that the Agency must continue to focus on the main cause of impaired waters — nonpoint sources, which can only be addressed via a watershed approach. AMSA’s comments are available on the Association’s web site at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/outreach/02-27-03ELG.pdf.