Member Pipeline - Fax Alerts - May 31, 2002
Click Here
to see previous Fax Alerts
May 31, 2002
In Key AMSA Victory, EPA Commits to Keeping SSO Rule Whole
On April 30, 2002, AMSA sent a letter to EPA Administrator Whitman in support of moving forward with a holistic sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) rule and opposing any effort to break the SSO rule into separate parts, as proposed by the activist community (See FaxAlert, 5/03/2002). A May 23, 2002 response from Assistant Administrator (AA) for Water G. Tracy Mehan (signed by Diane Regas, the Acting AA for Water) states that EPA is making revisions to the analysis and preamble of the proposed SSO rule, that Office of Management and Budget review will begin in the fall, and that "EPA continues to believe that these proposed requirements are interdependent and the basic principles reflected in the earlier draft notice should be proposed as a whole." This is a significant reaffirmation that EPA plans to move forward with the SSO rule in its entirety despite pressure from other stakeholders to break portions of the rule apart. EPA’s decisions was also the result of the unity AMSA members displayed last week at its 2002 National Environmental Policy Forum on this issue, demonstrating the significance of local and federal leaders meeting face-to-face to discuss clean water issues. The EPA letter is at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/faxalerts/052302epa.pdf.
Congress, AMSA Work Together on Federal Security Funding
Based on recent developments, it is almost certain that Congress will fast-track legislation addressing wastewater vulnerability assessments and security upgrades before the end of the year. The recently passed Bioterrorism Bill, H.R. 3448 — which provides $160 million in funding for large drinking water utility vulnerability assessments — contains report language that reads, “The Conferees encourage the committees of jurisdiction in the House and Senate to develop comparable legislation covering publicly owned treatment works [POTWs] in this legislative session." The new legislation will likely be introduced in the House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) and Senate Environment & Public Works (EPW) Committees, and AMSA will be working closely with T&I and EPW staff over the coming days and weeks to help draft and pass legislation and to ensure it takes into account POTW concerns, including full Freedom of Information Act protection and no unnecessary, additional regulatory burdens on wastewater treatment utilities. While H.R. 3448 requires drinking water utilities covered by the bill to file their vulnerability assessments with EPA, it does not give the Agency express authority to make further requirements of utilities beyond filing the assessment. AMSA also wants to make sure members watch for the release of AMSA’s vulnerability self-assessment software tool (VSAT) to be released in late June. VSAT provides an easy-to-use software package for comprehensive and cost-effective vulnerability assessments.
Plan Now To Attend AMSA’s July Conference on Wet Weather
AMSA’s upcoming Summer Conference, Controlling Wet Weather Overflows . . . Challenges and Solutions, will be held at the Hilton Portland in Portland, Oregon, July 16 – 19, 2002. The agenda will focus on key wet weather issues such as SSOs, CSOs and TMDLs, which present significant challenges to POTWs and have come under increased scrutiny and evaluation by national policy-makers. Be sure to call the Hilton Portland at 503/226-1611 by the June 14th deadline to guarantee the special conference rate of $159 single/double. Call the Hilton Portland at 503/226-1611 to make your reservations today, and be sure to mention that you a participant in AMSA’s 2002 Summer Conference. We look forward to seeing you in Portland.