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Member Pipeline - Fax Alerts - September 7, 2001

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September 7, 2001

AMSA Urges Congress to Fund Water Conservation in Farm Bill
A municipal coalition, including AMSA, sent a letter this week to all members of Congress urging their active support for amendments to the 2001 Farm Bill "that place a stronger emphasis on conservation, pollution prevention, and the protection of our vital water resources." The letter supports section 201 of H.R. 2375, the Working Lands Stewardship Act of 2001, which would provide $2 billion annually in water quality incentives to reduce agricultural runoff. AMSA will continue to support such efforts to control nonpoint source pollution. View the letter at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/outreach/9-5-01coalition.pdf.


EarthJustice Refuses To Drop Sludge Incinerators from Suits
Despite AMSA’s Aug. 23 letter to the the EarthJustice Legal Defense Fund requesting that the environmental group remove sewage sludge incinerators (SSIs) from two lawsuits seeking to require EPA to promulgate certain Clean Air Act (CAA) standards for incinerators including SSIs, EarthJustice has decided not to amend its complaints. The decision comes despite AMSA’s persuasive point that EPA has studied sewage sludge incinerator emissions extensively, and decided that CAA §129 and §112 do not apply to SSIs. EarthJustice’s decision to pursue the litigation may require AMSA involvement in these lawsuits. AMSA’s Board of Directors will evaluate next steps at the September leadership meeting. AMSA’s letter is available at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/outreach/concerning.pdf.


AMSA Asks All Members To Send in Their PR Contact Info
AMSA is creating a database containing contact information for each member agency’s public relations (PR) or communications managers so that we can mutually benefit from efforts to publish articles in the press and better coordinate our message to the media, as well as in the national and grassroots arenas. If your agency has no official communications representative, please tell AMSA who we should contact for public relations purposes. To this end, please take a minute to fill out the requested information below and send it to Adam Krantz, Manager of Communications and Public Affairs by submitting the form, or by fax at 202/833-4657 or via e-mail at akrantz@amsa-cleanwater.org.

Please forward your agency’s PR/Communications manager’s:

1) Name:

2) Agency

3) Official Title:

4) Phone Number:

5) Fax Number:

6) E-Mail Address:

          

  • 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/.
  • EPA has proposed regulations that would add several analytical test procedures for enumerating the bacteria, Escherichia coli (E. coli) and enterococci, and the protozoans, Cryptosporidium and Giardia, in ambient water to Agency-approved test methods. AMSA will file comments with EPA by Oct. 29, 2001 and will provide members with additional information on this issue in the next Regulatory Update. The Aug. 29 Federal Register notice is at http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-WATER/2001/August/Day-30/w21813.htm.
  • AMSA will be testifying Sept. 13 on the urgent need for federal water infrastructure funding before the Senate Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, and Water. More to come in next week’s FaxAlert.