Member Pipeline - Fax Alerts - December 19, 2002
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December 19, 2002
AMSA Meets with White House Environment Council on TMDLs
AMSA met this week with Dave Anderson, Associate Director of Legislative Affairs at the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to discuss the fate of EPA’s watershed rule. CEQ coordinates federal environmental efforts and works closely with agencies and other White House offices in the development of environmental policies and initiatives. Anderson indicated that some agriculture groups continue to urge changes to the rule that would limit EPA oversight of nonpoint source pollution limits but added that CEQ has made clear it wants to see a rule proposed and believes the concerns expressed can be resolved. Anderson also said that Bill Clinton’s 2002 total maximum daily load rule, which the watershed rule would replace, will be withdrawn before its effective date in April 2003. CEQ has requested that AMSA help get those in the activist community who support moving forward with the watershed rule to do so more publicly and urged that letters from high-level state environmental officials be sent in support of the new rule. The Association of State and Interstate Pollution Control Administrators will head up this effort. AMSA will continue to urge EPA to ensure the passage of a strong watershed rule and will keep members updated of progress in this initiative.
Pinault, Turner to Speak at Key EPA Infrastructure Session
EPA has invited two AMSA Board members to speak at a critical session on January 31, 2003 to exchange ideas on how to overcome the water and wastewater infrastructure funding gap. Paul Pinault, AMSA’s President and Executive Director of the Narragansett Bay Commission, Providence, R.I., and Billy Turner, President of Columbus Water Works, Ga., will serve as panelists during the meeting titled Closing the Gap: Innovative Responses for Sustainable Water Infrastructure. EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman announced the session in her October 1, 2001 speech marking the release of EPA’s Gap Analysis report, which estimated a funding shortfall that could exceed $500 million over 20 years. The session marks an important shift from discussing whether the funding gap exists to exploring solutions to overcome the now broadly acknowledged shortfall. AMSA’s Infrastructure Funding Task Force asserts that to overcome the enormous clean and safe water funding shortfall, the federal government must support a sustainable, dedicated funding source for water and wastewater infrastructure — a position that AMSA’s representatives will voice at the EPA session.
EPA to Visit 28 Water/Wastewater Utilities to Talk Security
Demonstrating that water and wastewater security will remain a top priority for EPA in 2003, AMSA has learned that the Agency intends to visit water and wastewater utilities in 28 major metropolitan areas. AMSA has been assured that these visits are not compliance-related, and will be entirely voluntary on the part of the utility. The initiative will serve as a means to reaffirm the importance of water and wastewater infrastructure security to EPA and to assess the progress utilities are making in performing vulnerability assessments and making security upgrades, as well as to determine additional areas requiring federal support. The visits will also serve to demonstrate that the security of the water/wastewater critical infrastructure sector continues to be a top priority for the Bush administration in 2003. If your utility is contacted by EPA and you would like to discuss this initiative further, please feel free to contact AMSA’s Executive Director Ken Kirk or Deputy Executive Director Paula Dannenfeldt at 202/833-2672.
AMSA Comments on Dental Association’s Mercury Study
AMSA today sent peer review comments to the American Dental Association (ADA) on ADA’s draft study, Evaluation of Mercury in Dental Facility Wastewater. The study assesses the amount of dental amalgam mercury discharged from dental offices in wastewater. In its comments, AMSA pointed to a number of concerns with the assumptions that the ADA made in the assessment, disagreeing with ADA’s implication that wastewater treatment plants are designed or intended to remove metals like mercury. While it is well known that treatment plants can achieve incidental removal of metals, which end up in the residual solids (e.g., biosolids), most commercial dischargers of toxic metals are required to meet stringent pretreatment standards designed to reduce the amount of metals entering treatment plants. As AMSA’s letter to ADA states, “while AMSA agrees that dental clinics overall are a small contributor of mercury to the environment, in terms of discharges to wastewater treatment plants, dental clinics are a substantial contributor of mercury. As long as wastewater treatment plants are required to meet very stringent limits for mercury, wastewater agencies must continue to explore ways to decrease influent levels of mercury, and this will undoubtedly impact dental facilities.” Following the completion of the peer review process, the ADA study is slated for publication. AMSA will continue to work with ADA to tackle the issue of mercury and improve the nation’s water quality. AMSA’s comments are available online at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/outreach/12-17-02ADAComments.pdf.
Deadline Is Tomorrow for Environmental Achievement Awards!
Tomorrow (Dec. 20) is the postmark deadline for nominations for AMSA’s 2003 National Environmental Achievement Awards (NEAA) program. The NEAA program offers a unique opportunity to recognize local, state and federal elected/appointed officials for their contributions to the clean water community C and honor your agency and/or individual staff members for notable projects and accomplishments. See Member Update 02-18 or click on the NEAA icon on AMSA’s homepage — www.amsa-cleanwater.org — for additional information.
- AMSA will be undergoing some internal office moves on January 2 and 3. As a result it may be difficult to reach individual staff members on their direct phone lines and via e-mail while phones and computers are being moved and reconnected. If you are having difficulty locating staff, please call AMSA’s main number — 202-833-2672 — and the receptionist will put you in touch with the appropriate staff.
- AMSA’s management conference, The Evolving Public Utility… Leading the Workforce of Today, Feb. 4-7 in scenic Santa Fe, N.M., has an extensive agenda that will explore in detail key developments and trends in the modern workforce that affect utility management on a daily basis. With the holidays approaching, reserve your hotel accommodations today by calling the Eldorado Hotel, 800/955-4455, by the Jan. 10 extended deadline. Conference information and registration materials are available on AMSA’s web site at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/meetings.
There will be no FaxAlert next week due to the Christmas holiday. AMSA wishes all its members a happy and healthy holiday season and New Year!