Member Pipeline - Fax Alerts - October 4, 2002
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October 4, 2002
Senator Jeffords Introduces Wastewater Security Bill
Senator James Jeffords (VT), Chairman of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, introduced the Wastewater Treatment Works Security and Safety Act yesterday. Based on meetings with EPW staff, the Senate Committee is committed to marking up and passing the bill as quickly as possible before Congress adjourns later this month. Jeffords’ bill serves as companion legislation to the House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee’s Wastewater Treatment Works Security Act of 2002, H.R. 5169 (See FaxAlert 9/20/02), which unanimously passed out of Committee in July and awaits floor action. Jeffords’ bill would authorize $185 million for POTW vulnerability assessments, basic security enhancements, an EPA study on the threat to POTWs from intentional acts, and would provide $500,000 for each of fiscal years 2003-2007 for upgrades to vulnerability assessment tools, such as AMSA’s VSAT™wastewater. AMSA will continue to meet with House T&I and Senate EPW staff to ensure that security legislation passes in the 107th Congress.
AMSA Meeting at WEFTEC Yields EPA Insights on Priority Issues
AMSA’s Hot Topics Breakfast at WEFTEC 2002 this week yielded key information on several priority POTW issues. Jim Hanlon, Director of the Office of Wastewater Management (OWM), stated that the proposed sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) rule would include an expanded cost/benefit analysis and will likely be sent soon to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review. Because the SSO rule has no court-mandated deadline, however, Hanlon said it is likely to go to the bottom of OMB’s pile, with the Watershed rule and Metal Products and Machinery (MP&M) rule potentially getting priority treatment. Agency staff also stated that initial data from EPA’s 2003 SSO/CSO Report to Congress shows total overflow volume, initially “guesstimated” at approximately 500 billion gallons per year, could be as low as 5 billion gallons annually. This would demonstrate that overflows may not be as serious a problem as previously perceived by EPA and others. Also, a cost-benefit analysis of the MP&M final rule estimates the rule’s cost has been scaled back to $300 million from the $2.2 billion cost of the initial proposal. The lower cost could result from the possibility that all indirect controls may be removed from the MP&M final rule, an outcome AMSA has advocated consistently. EPA also entered a budget request to redo the Agency’s outdated 50 POTW study, which AMSA has recommended EPA conduct in order to bring key data up-to-date. Chuck Sutfin, EPA’s Director of the Assessment and Watershed Protection Division, said the Watershed rule is scheduled to be sent to OMB on October 21.
EPA Gap Analysis Shows Growing Need for Federal Funds
EPA released its much-anticipated Clean Water and Drinking Water Gap Analysis this week, outlining the huge infrastructure funding shortfall that POTWs face. EPA’s press release states that, “assuming no growth in revenues, the total need for clean water . . . exceeds $270 billion over 20 years. For drinking water, the gap approaches $265 billion.” An initial summary of the Gap Analysis’ findings was distributed to members via a September 30 Special Edition FaxAlert available at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/faxalerts/093002.cfm. AMSA was also quoted in a number of national newspapers on the issue, including the October 1st edition of the Washington Post, in which AMSA’s Executive Director Ken Kirk states “the study is in line with industry findings and ‘highlights the need for a serious, long-term [financial] commitment from the federal government.’” AMSA has also formed a Water Infrastructure Funding Task Force to develop lobbying and grassroots strategies to ensure the federal government develops a meaningful, sustainable solution to the clean water infrastructure funding shortfall. The Gap Analysis and accompanying Fact Sheet are available at http://www.epa.gov/owm/featinfo.htm.