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Friday, April 11, 1997
AMSA Invited to Testify at First CWA Hearing of the 105th Congress
AMSA this week accepted an invitation from the House Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources & Environment to provide testimony for the first Clean Water Act (CWA) hearing of the 105th Congress. AMSA Board Member Erwin J. Odeal, Executive Director of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, will present testimony for the April 23 hearing on behalf of the Association. Odeal will focus his remarks primarily on the findings of AMSA's 1996 Financial Survey and Association's recent evaluation of privatization. The "Clean Water Needs" hearing was called by Subcommittee Chair Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) to address traditional CWA funding issues as well as the viability of using privatization as a tool to meet current and future CWA needs. A second CWA hearing, scheduled for April 29, will focus on wetlands.
In a related matter, the AMSA National Office will closely monitor April 30 and May 1 House Appropriations Committee hearings on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) 1998 budget. Among the issues to be discussed are privatization of wastewater treatment facilities to fund current and future capital needs. AMSA will submit written testimony for the hearing, and plans to share its two privatization publications -- Evaluating Privatization: An AMSA Checklist, and Managed Competition: Developing & Responding to RFQs and RFPs -- with members of the committee.
Policy Forum Speakers Confirmed/Hotel Room Deadline Extended
Development of AMSA's 1997 National Environmental Policy Forum & 27th Annual Meeting -- The Clean Water Act: Ensuring a Second Quarter Century of Success -- is proceeding well and most of the invited speakers have now confirmed their attendance. A Member Update with policy forum materials, including the final meeting program, committee agendas, 1997-98 Position Statements, bylaws amendments, and proxy form, will be forwarded to the membership next week. In addition to electing board members, the membership will vote on two key bylaws amendments -- one affecting the composition of the board, and the other focusing on membership development. This makes it especially important that all member agency representatives not planning to attend the policy forum complete, sign and fax the proxy form to the National Office as soon as possible. Persons planning to attend the policy forum who have not yet completed their travel arrangements should note that the cut-off date to reserve a room at the ANA Hotel at the conference rate has been extended one week to April 18. Reservations should be made as soon as possible as the ANA Hotel only has a few rooms remaining at the reduced conference rate.
EPA this week released draft guidance designed to assist states in the development of new Source Water Assessment Programs mandated by the Safe Drinking Water Act amendments of 1996. The assessments mark the first step of a long-term SDWA program designed to protect sources of drinking water from pollution. The April 8 draft guidance outlines time frames, processes, public involvement requirements and the scope of what constitutes an approvable state source water protection program, and provides information on coordinating the program with other state and federal pollution control efforts. As wastewater treatment plants will undoubtedly be a consideration in source water protection efforts, and to ensure that nonpoint sources of pollution are included, AMSA plans to closely monitor EPA and state development of the source water protection program, and will provide comments on the draft guidance.