Member Pipeline - Fax Alerts - August 31, 2001
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August 31, 2001
Washington Post Publishes AMSA’s Letter in Defense of Sludge
After a spate of articles in The Washington Post this month critical of land applying sludge, The Post published a letter to the editor from AMSA’s Executive Director, Ken Kirk, defending wastewater treatment agencies’ use of land application and urging The Post to put an end to its biased coverage of land application and to look at the facts. AMSA’s Aug. 29 letter to the editor pointed out that The Post’s coverage of land application "did not report on the critical steps being taken by municipal officials to protect the safety and health of workers and the general public when applying sludge to land. It also attributed two deaths to land-applied ‘sludge’ despite scientific and medical reviews that showed sludge was not responsible for those deaths." The letter adds that "Nowhere has The Post reported on the formidable regulatory structure that ensures the safe application of this resource or the innovative environmental management systems increasingly used by wastewater-treatment agencies to ensure public accountability," adding that "data consistently conclude that . . . land-applied sewage sludge poses no health threat to the public."
Water Infrastructure Effort Gains Steam . . . Help Keep It Up!
AMSA and Water Infrastructure Network members met this week with key Congressional Committee staff who expressed a desire to obtain further AMSA member input on the water infrastructure funding need as Congress moves forward to craft legislation on this issue. It is possible that water infrastructure legislation could be introduced in the House as early as this Fall. This leaves only a few precious months to continue to develop grassroots support before a bill is introduced. Articles and letters to the editor from our communications efforts have appeared in Dallas, Anchorage, Lowell, Mass., Washington, D.C. and elsewhere. Many of you have helped the grassroots effort by signing an AMSA-drafted template Letter to the Editor, containing bracketed spaces for you to insert key local information for placement in your local newspapers. AMSA thanks those who have done so, several of which have already been published. For those yet to sign the letter, please send it to your local newspapers and a copy to Adam Krantz at akrantz@amsa-cleanwater.org. The letter can be downloaded easily from AMSA’s web site at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/outreach/amsalettertotheeditor.doc.
CSO Companion Report Nears Finalization, Send in Surveys!
AMSA’s National Office, in coordination with the Wet Weather Issues Committee and CSO (Combined Sewer Overflow) Working Group, is putting the final touches on a report which will summarize the progress made by the membership in controlling CSOs as a supplement to EPA’s upcoming report to Congress on CSOs. AMSA’s report will summarize data from the Association’s recent CSO survey, and provide Congress and EPA with recommendations on how to move the program forward in the coming years. AMSA plans to finalize the CSO Companion Report soon and will distribute the document to Congress, EPA, and key state officials. If you have not done so already, please fill out AMSA’s short CSO Survey by Sept. 7 and send it to Greg Schaner at gschaner@amsa-cleanwater.org or contact Greg with any questions at 202/296-9836. The survey is available at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/outreach/8-30-01amsasurvey.pdf.
- Mark your calendars! The AMSA/EPA Pretreatment Coordinators Workshop, Nov. 7-9, will be in Nashville, Tenn., and AMSA’s 2001 Water & Wastewater Law Seminar, Nov. 14-16, will be in Savannah, Georgia. For more information, visit http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/meetings/ or contact AMSA at 202/833-2672.