Member Pipeline - Fax Alerts - April 8, 2005
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April 8, 2005
AMSA Provides Congress with Action Plan on Sewer Overflows
This week, AMSA sent a letter along with its CSO/SSO Action Plan (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/advocacy/co/2005-04-07hilltr.pdf) to every member of Congress containing recommended federal ‘next steps’ toward sound wet weather policies. The Action Plan comes in response to EPA’s August 2004 Report to Congress on the Impacts and Controls of CSOs and SSOs. The Plan highlights key facts from the Report while urging EPA and Congress to develop a flexible sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) policy modeled after EPA’s current Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Control Policy. The Report details the significant investments and progress municipalities have made in controlling sewer overflows. For example, the Report states that the number of CSO events has decreased by 28% since the 1994 CSO Control Policy was enacted and EPA has lowered its original estimates of SSO volume by two orders of magnitude to 3-10 billion gallons per year (from 311 billion gallons per year).The Action Plan urges EPA to develop a national SSO policy that employs a watershed-based approach to maximize both the effectiveness of limited municipal resources and environmental and public health benefits. The Plan also encourages the development of a national permitting program for municipal collection systems and additional scientific studies on the potential public health impacts of CSOs and SSOs to ensure sound regulatory and enforcement policy. The Association will continue to work with Congress and EPA to develop policies and enforcement strategies that will help municipalities continue to make further progress on sewer overflow control.
AMSA Urges Members
to Contact Congress Prior to April 13 Blending Hearing
The House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment will be holding a hearing next Wednesday, April 13, on blending. AMSA urges its members who blend or may need to blend in the future to write their members of Congress before April 13, supporting a final national EPA policy on blending. AMSA has developed a letter (http://63.66.87.48/cweb4/index.cfm?orgcode=AMSA), which utilities can tailor to their specific needs, highlighting the importance of blending on a national level. Some Members of Congress have signed onto anti-blending legislation in the past months and the activist community continues to portray this time-tested practice in a negative light. Your letters will be helpful in garnering Congressional support and expediting the finalization of EPA’s draft blending guidance. It is critical that Association members continue to contact their members of Congress to set the record straight by informing them of the environmental safeguards that blending provides and the need for EPA to finalize its draft guidance. Details from the April 13 hearing will be made available in next week’s FaxAlert.Hotel Deadline Extended
for May Conference, Tuxedo Rental for Gala Available
The deadline to receive the discounted rate of $219 single/double at the Marriott at Metro Center for AMSA’s 35th Anniversary Annual Meeting and National Clean Water Policy Forum has been extended to April 15. AMSA encourages attendees to make their hotel reservations as soon as possible by calling the hotel at 202-737-2200. Additionally, attendees should note that attire for the Association’s President’s Reception & AMSA’s 35th Anniversary Gala, May 2 from 6:30-10:00 pm, is “black-tie optional.” AMSA’s National Office has arranged for group-rate tuxedo rentals which will be delivered to the Marriott at Metro Center at 12:00 pm on Sunday, May 1 and will be picked up on May 3. For more information, refer to the April 6, 2005 Special Edition Fax Alert (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/faxalerts/040605se.cfm).