Member Pipeline - Fax Alerts - September 17, 2004
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September 17, 2004
Coalition Releases Report on CWSRF,
Senate Committee Expected to Restore Funding
AMSA, in collaboration with a broad coalition of state and local governments, labor, construction and environmental and public health groups issued a report earlier this week, All Dried Up: How Clean Water is Threatened by Budget Cuts (www.amsa-cleanwater.org/pubs/2004-09-15ADU.pdf). The report highlights the impacts of significant proposed reductions in funding in EPA’s fiscal year 2005 budget for the Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund (CWSRF). The report is the first of its kind to lay out the effect that cuts to the SRF will have on a state-by-state basis, detailing how much federal assistance states stand to lose, how many jobs the lost funding could have created and identifies projects that likely will not move forward. Accompanying the report was a press release (www.amsa-cleanwater.org/advocacy/releases.cfm) sent out by the coalition quoting William B. Schatz, AMSA president and General Counsel for the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, Cleveland, Ohio.AMSA has learned that the Senate Appropriations Committee is likely to restore funding for the CWSRF that was recently cut in the House VA-HUD Appropriations bill from $1.34 billion to $850 million. If the Committee marks up the VA-HUD bill the week of September 20 as planned, lawmakers will then have to negotiate the difference between the expected Senate level of $1.34 billion and the House level of $850 million. Members of Congress who support the higher funding level have asked AMSA and other stakeholder groups to support them in this effort by sending letters and making calls to their congressional delegations. AMSA urges members to visit the “Write Congress Now” section on its homepage (www.amsa-cleanwater.org/) for quick and easy steps to sending a letter to their Senators and Representatives. See AMSA’s September 17 Special Edition FaxAlert (www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/) for more information.
AMSA, State Groups
Comment on Draft Chesapeake Bay Permitting Program
AMSA, the Virginia and Maryland Associations of Municipal Wastewater Agencies and the West Virginia Municipal Water Quality Association, filed comments (www.amsa-cleanwater.org/advocacy/releases.cfm#cmt) this week on EPA Region III's draft approach for permitting nutrient discharges to the Chesapeake Bay. The comments generally support EPA's water quality-based approach as opposed to a “one-size-fits-all” technology-based approach that would require public expenditures on treatment technologies without a direct relationship to attainment of water quality standards. The comments also agree that watershed permits should be considered as an effective and efficient method for implementing nutrient limits in the Bay. Finally, the comments urge EPA to deny the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's (CBF) December 2003 petition to amend the federal secondary treatment regulations to include nutrient limits. AMSA notes that CBF's petition would have EPA interfere and interrupt years of work by the Bay states and innumerable stakeholders who have developed state-based approaches to achieve the new Bay water quality standards.AMSA, EPA, CSO Partnership Hosting UAA Workshop
AMSA and the CSO Partnership will conduct a Workshop entitled "Cracking the UAA Code" in collaboration with EPA in Chicago, October 18 – 19, 2004. The Workshop will focus exclusively on when, why, and how to conduct water quality assessment/use attainability analyses (UAAs) for combined sewer overflow (CSO) receiving waters. The Workshop curriculum is designed for public agency staff and consultants grappling with how to conduct a UAA and present it to the public, ratepayers, regulators and other stakeholders. CSO communities that expect residual, untreated overflows following long-term control plan development and implementation also will want to attend. The Workshop is designed to closely follow on EPA's national regulators UAA workshop next week. Space is limited so visit AMSA’s website (www.amsa-cleanwater.org/meetings/) today for agenda and registration information.