Member Pipeline - Fax Alerts - July 11, 2003
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July 11, 2003
AMSA Urges Congress to Move Forward with Security Funding Bill
Following up on a resolution sent to all Senators in early June [see June 6 FaxAlert], AMSA sent a letter this week to James Inhofe (R-OK), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, and copies to all EPW members, urging the quick passage of The Wastewater Treatment Works Security Act of 2003 (S. 1039). As the letter states, “S. 1039 would provide cities and counties across the country, whose budgets are stagnant and declining, the necessary funding needed to help them perform vulnerability assessments and enhance security throughout their wastewater systems” and recommends that the bill and its accompanying report be sent to the full Senate for a vote. As the August recess draws near, the Association feels the Senate now has a window of opportunity to pass this important legislation. AMSA will continue working to push this legislation through Congress and to the President for signature. A copy of the letter can be found on AMSA’s web site at
http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/outreach/2003-07-07epw.pdf.AMSA Releases Key Economic Response to EPA Funding Gap Solutions
As part of AMSA’s Wastewater Infrastructure Funding Task Force’s ongoing strategy to educate Congress, key stakeholders and the public on the nation’s urgent clean water funding needs, AMSA this week released a white paper, entitled EPA Solutions Leave Large Wastewater Funding Gap. The white paper provides an economic response to EPA’s strategies for closing the clean water infrastructure funding gap, including the Agency’s oft-repeated contention that clean water infrastructure funding is a local, not federal, concern. Despite its own estimate of a clean and safe water funding gap in the hundreds of billions of dollars, EPA has consistently asserted that improved utility management, efficient water use, rate increases and watershed planning can alone brook the funding shortfall. While AMSA’s white paper acknowledges that EPA’s non-funding strategies can somewhat improve the funding situation, it is the Association’s position that only a meaningful local-state-federal partnership — with a federally-backed, long-term funding source — will fully overcome the shortfall. A more detailed overview of the white paper was distributed this week to Association members via MU-03-12. AMSA encourages its members to forward the white paper to their key local elected and appointed officials and local business leaders. The white paper is at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/outreach/2003-06fgap.pdf.AMSA Comments on EPA’s Response to National Research Council’s Biosolids Report
AMSA sent comments to EPA this week in response to the Agency’s Standards for the Use or Disposal of Sewage Sludge; Agency Response to the National Research Council (NRC) Report on Biosolids Applied to Land and the Results of EPA’s Review of Existing Sewage Sludge Regulations. The Association’s comments were supportive of the Agency’s overall response to the NRC report and the Agency’s fundamental conclusion that the land application of biosolids is an appropriate and environmentally sound practice for communities when conducted in compliance with EPA regulations. AMSA’s comments recommended next steps to EPA to reassure the public of the safety of land-applied biosolids, including analyses of alleged health impacts at or near land-application sites and efforts to ensure increased understanding of the safeguards provided by EPA’s Part 503 biosolids program. AMSA’s comments can be viewed on the Association’s web site at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/outreach/2003-07-08cmts.pdf.
- President Bush this week named Marianne Horinko, head of EPA’s emergency response and solid waste office, to be the Agency’s Acting Administrator. Stephen Johnson, the Agency’s pesticides and toxic substances director, was named Deputy Administrator.