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December 15, 2000

WIN Lays Groundwork for WATER 21
This week, the Water Infrastructure Network (WIN) reached a landmark agreement upon a broad set of draft recommendations to the 107^th Congress, the new administration and the White House for framing water infrastructure funding legislation in 2001 – WATER 21. For municipal wastewater agencies across the country, this is a major step closer to securing increased federal infrastructure funding – among the Association’s topmost priorities.

Throughout the series of four intensive meetings to draft WIN’s water infrastructure funding framework, AMSA sought to build consensus among an extremely diverse coalition. Due to these efforts, the recommendations boast an unprecedentedly broad array of backers, including environmentalists, engineers, contractors and drinking water suppliers. AMSA Board Member William Schatz, Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District General Counsel, AMSA member Billy Turner, Colombus Water Works President, and AMSA Executive Director Ken Kirk played influential roles in representing municipal interests during the negotiations.

AMSA has been and will continue to be the catalyst behind WIN’s activities. With the tough work of achieving consensus completed, current plans call for review and finalization of the funding framework by January 12, 2001, with publication and distribution of the document in February. AMSA’s Clean Water News, weekly FaxAlerts and Legislative Alerts and Updates will continue to provide the latest information on AMSA’s funding advocacy.

AMSA Forms New Management & Operations Committee
To support AMSA’s future competitiveness efforts, AMSA President William Pugh took action recently to combine the Association’s Competitive Management and Finance & Information Services Committees. "I believe this move to focus the valuable initiatives of the Finance & Information Services and Competitive Management Committees into a common organizational framework will allow AMSA’s work in this arena to be even more effective," Pugh stated.

Ralph Charlton, Alexandria Sanitation Authority, Va., and Brian Crewdson, Anchorage Water & Wastewater Utility, Alaska, have been named as co-chairs of the committee, and Paul Causey, Delta Diablo Sanitation District, Calif., will chair the Committee’s Asset Management Workgroup. Membership rosters from both the Competitive Management and Finance & Information Services Committees will be merged to form the new committee, whose agenda will include the triennial Financial Survey, the annual AMSA Index and all AMSA competitiveness initiatives. AMSA members interested in joining the committee should contact Lisa DuBois at 202/833-3692 or ldubois@amsa-cleanwater.org. The first meeting of the new committee will be during AMSA’s 2001 Winter Conference in San Diego, Calif. AMSA committee meetings are open to all who wish to attend.

> AMSA Comments on Key EPA Proposals and Guidances . . .This week, AMSA submitted four sets of comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) expressing the positions of municipal wastewater agencies on EPA’s proposal to reclassify chlorine as a pesticide, its draft reference dose for methylmercury, its guidance for the use and implementation of EPA method 1631, and its draft consolidated assessment and listing methodology guidance for total maximum daily loads (TMDLs). All of the comments are posted on AMSA’s web site in the "What’s New?"section of the Member Pipeline, www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/index.cfm.