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March 2005 Board Briefs

Member Pipeline - Board & Committee Information - Board Briefs - March 25, 2005

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March 25, 2005

This edition of AMSA’s Board Briefs will bring you up-to-date on a number of matters pending from the February 2005 Board Meeting. This electronic communication will be followed by a mailing that will include copies of documents referenced herein.

This afternoon, just prior to forwarding this edition of the Board Briefs, the Association received a summons in the matter of Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (Plaintiff) v. Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies (Defendant) filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois. We have initiated a thorough review of the summons, and will keep the Board of Directors up-to-date as future actions are contemplated. Should you have any questions or wish to discuss this matter further, please contact AMSA’s Executive Director, Ken Kirk.

Following a thoughtful review of WEF’s draft specialty conference agenda, we have identified the revised theme of Wastewater Conveyance and Treatment…Navigating an Uncertain Regulatory Environment for the Association’s Summer Conference. AMSA staff is confident that this new theme better reflects the focus of the AMSA meeting (which is more advocacy-oriented) and differentiates it from the WEF specialty conference (which focuses on technical collection system issues).

AMSA’s Summer Conference will examine the current regulatory uncertainty surrounding sewer overflow control programs (for both combined and sanitary sewer systems) and the management of wet weather flows (including peak excess flow treatment and capacity), among other related issues. Panels will explore both the treatment and conveyance-related solutions that some communities are considering to address overflows. AMSA’s meeting will include topics such as:

  • Wastewater blending and the uncertainty some communities face regarding their proposed wet weather programs that rely on the long-standing practice;
  • Peak excess flow treatment solutions and the sometimes vague regulatory status of these units;
  • Sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) and the need for a national program; panels will explore current state approaches and how they differ and the model SSO regulation that AMSA’s SSO Workgroup is developing; and,
  • Affordability and how it is considered within the context of overflow control programs; AMSA’s White Paper on affordability will be discussed.

We are confident that we can develop an exceptional conference agenda based on the new theme of Wastewater Conveyance and Treatment…Navigating an Uncertain Regulatory Environment that will provide its members with vital information and serve to complement the WEF collection systems specialty conference.