Member Pipeline - Fax Alerts - December 18, 2003
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December 18, 2003
AMSA Seeks Congressional, Public Agency Member Support of EPA Blending Policy
The debate over EPA's November 7 blending guidance has become political, with activist organizations seeking congressional support to withdraw the Agency guidance. To counter this effort, and the many misleading statements made about blending by some of these organizations, AMSA sent a letter and accompanying "fact and fiction" one-pager this week to every member of Congress, their environmental legislative assistants and their public relations directors urging them to support EPA's blending policy. The letter was also sent to EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt to make sure that he is fully aware of the need to move forward with the blending guidance. The letter and fact sheet stress the point that a final national policy is essential for public wastewater treatment utilities to manage their peak wet weather flows. The Association also highlighted that the blending guidance has been grossly mischaracterized by some as a "rollback", noting that the guidance is an environmental step forward that avoids the washout of treatment works' secondary treatment units and helps ensure that sewer backups into homes and business do not occur. The letter also points out that, if successful, the activists' position seeking a blending prohibition would result in $100 to $200 billion in unnecessary costs to the nation's communities with no environmental benefit. AMSA urges members to use this fact sheet when communicating with federal and congressional representatives on blending.AMSA also held a conference call with over 20 member organizations yesterday to discuss the guidance and alert them to the importance of both weighing in with their members of Congress and EPA on their overall support for the blending guidance. Members should feel free to "cut and paste" the language from AMSA's letter and fact sheet to use in their outreach efforts. On this call, AMSA made it clear that unless the treatment work community demonstrates its numerical and substantive strength in the comment effort, the possibility remains that EPA may not finalize this guidance. Such an outcome will be used to show that EPA is de facto anti-blending - an outcome that AMSA and its membership must strenuously oppose. AMSA is currently drafting its comments on the draft policy based on member input and will provide both these comments and a one-page cover letter in support of the blending guidance for use by members in their comment efforts. AMSA has also learned that EPA is likely to extend the comment deadline by an additional 30, 45 or 60 days, although this decision is not yet final. AMSA will continue to operate under the current January 9, 2004 deadline and will provide members with its comments and cover letter the week of December 29, 2003.
The Association was also successful in publishing an editorial response piece in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (MJS) in support of blending. In a previous article the MJS inaccurately depicted the practice of blending and AMSA felt it necessary to provide the Journal's readers with accurate information. AMSA urges members to use this article in their local outreach efforts. The Association will continue to work on all available fronts to move the draft policy forward and thanks its members for their efforts on this issue.
The deadline to submit nominations for the National Environmental Achievement Awards is Friday, December 19, 2003. Application information is available online (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/membership/awards.cfm). Due to the upcoming holidays AMSA's next FaxAlert will be distributed on January, 8, 2004. AMSA would like to wish you and yours a safe and happy holiday!