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November 17, 1997
Legislative Working Group Meets in Chicago. . .
Members of AMSA's Legislative Working Group on Watershed Management met in Chicago on November 7 to continue work toward translating AMSA's principles and priorities regarding watershed management into legislative proposals for the reauthorization of the Clean Water Act. The November meeting provided members with the opportunity to review proposed legislative recommendations and their rationale, based upon issues identified during the Working Group's initial meeting in Washington, DC, held on September 30 and October 1. The Working Group continues to review and refine its recommendations and plans a presentation to AMSA's Legislative Policy Committee during the 1998 Winter Conference in February.
AMSA Activates for Vice President's Clean Water Initiatives. . .
As reflected in Regulatory Alert 97-24, and FaxAlerts on both November 6 and 14, AMSA's staff and members have rapidly organized and activated in response to Vice President Gore's Clean Water Initiatives, announced at a October 18 White House commemoration of the Clean Water Act's 25th anniversary. The Initiatives, intended to expedite clean water programs, especially those controlling polluted runoff, call for a complete and compre-hensive federal Action Plan by February 14. AMSA president Cecil Lue-Hing quickly responded to the Vice President's announcement by assembling an AMSA Clean Water Task Force, which has developed a number of recommendations for inclusion in the final Action Plan. The Task Force's recommendations will be forwarded to the Association's membership early this week.
AMSA staff took part in a November 12 briefing on the Initiatives, led by EPA and USDA senior officials. The Association has also made arrangements for representation at upcoming field hearings that are being assembled across the country for constituency comment. Buddy Morgan, general manager of the Water Works & Sanitary Sewer Board of the City of Montgomery, AL will speak on behalf of the Association at the Atlanta, GA field hearing on November 20; Board member Gurnie Gunter, director of Missouri's Kansas City Water Department, will represent us at in Columbia, MO on November 21; and Blake Anderson, chief operations officer, County Sanitation Districts of Orange County, Fountain Valley, CA will offer AMSA's perspectives in Sacramento, CA on November 25.
AMSA Escalates Superfund Strategy. . .
AMSA has been working with Congressional staff for over two years to clarify POTW liability under Superfund. Among the options identified by the Association to protect POTWs were amendments to Superfund's definitions of "facility" and "owner or operator" to clearly exempt municipal wastewater treatment facilities from the statutes definition of joint, strict and several liability. Either option would fully protect POTWs from unwarranted Superfund liability. AMSA chose to pursue a change to the definition of "owner or operator," based on conversations held with members, counsel, and Capitol Hill staff in 1995 and early 1996.
Recent developments have prompted a change in AMSA's strategy, with a new focus on outreach to Members of Congress directly and advocacy of an amendment to the definition of "facility." AMSA is calling for clarification of Congressional intent citing an analysis of the legislative treatment of POTWs in federal environmental law as a whole.
The House Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources & Environment held a hearing on reauthorization of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund) on October 29 and had scheduled mark-up of legislation for November 12 and 13. Mark-up of H.R.2727, sponsored by Congressman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), chair of the subcommittee, has been postponed until Congress reconvenes in January. On October 29, AMSA sent a letter to Congressman Boehlert commending his efforts to reauthorize CERCLA but urging him to clarify Congressional intent and include in his legislation an amendment to exclude POTWs from liability as defined in §212(2) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. The National Office forwarded member agencies with Representatives on the Water Resources & Environment Subcommittee correspondence for use in contacting their Representatives about this issue. Member response to this initiative was positive and future similar efforts with relevant Congressional committees, as well as completion of a new issues paper on POTW liability under Superfund are planned for the coming months.
Executive Committee Plans December Meeting. . .
AMSA's Executive Committee will hold its year-end meeting on Sunday, December 7, 1997 in Washington, DC. On the agenda for this meeting are a review of National Office staff performance appraisals and salary recommendations, evaluation of the Executive Director, including the establishment of 1998 goals & objectives, and consideration of schedules for the 1998 Board Briefs and Executive Committee conference calls, as well as a possible date for the 1998 Fall Leadership Meeting.
WEF/AMSA Officiers Meet in Chicago/Plan San Antonio Meeting. . .
WEF and AMSA officers and their respective staffs met in Chicago during WEFTEC and focussed most of the discussion on the National Biosolids Partnership (see story below) and funding of an Apogee Research, Inc. project on the Cost of Clean Water Infrastructure. The project is designed to assemble more comprehensive information on the financial needs of POTWs beyond what is presented in EPA's Needs Survey. In particular, there needs to be information to in the project workplan that emphasizes watersheds and how to fund the billions of dollars needed for such projects as well as costs for nonpoint source controls. The project will also attempt to identify costs by order of magnitude and prioritize problems around a watershed approach. WEF' s Executive Committee had recently approved $5K for Apogee to develop the scope of work for this project. A future meeting of AMSA's and WEF's officers has been scheduled for Monday, evening, February 2, 1998 in San Antonio.
Planning Continues for National Biosolids Partnership. . .
Representatives from AMSA, EPA, and WEF met during WEFTEC on October 21 to continue planning discussions for the National Biosolids Partnership. One of the recommendations that was proposed included having AMSA and WEF serve as the Management Advisory Team with both EPA and USDA serving in advisory roles to the Team. Bob Hite and Dick Kuchenrither are serving as the AMSA and WEF representatives, respectively, on the Management Team. EPA described three funding models to support projects: (1) specific, contracted projects; (2) earmarked projects; and (3) general funding for non-specific projects. EPA has made approximately $250K available in 1998 to the discretion of the Partnership in expenditures, an additional $250K has been earmarked by EPA for other tasks with some $300K for non-specific projects that may require general funding from external sources. In addition, the representatives discussed the development of a list of stakeholder groups and qualifying criteria to select potential candidates to advise the partnership. A refinement of the matrix of projects and budgets, stakeholder selection criteria, and time table of events will be presented at the next Management Advisory Team meeting on January 14, 1998 in Denver, CO.
Plan for Competitiveness Handbook/Workshops Finalized. . .
On November 14, National Office staff met with representatives from the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA) and the consultants to Thinking, Getting & Staying Competitive: A Public Sector Handbook to finalize plans for completion of the Handbook and production of the eight associated workshops. The final draft of the Handbook is due to the National Office on November 17. Competitiveness Workgroup members will have until December 5 to provide comments to the consultants and the final text is scheduled for delivery to the National Office on December 12. The Handbook will be released during AMSA's 1998 Winter Conference in San Antonio.
A series of eight interactive workshops are planned for 1998 to introduce the topics in the Handbook and train participants in the processes of thinking, getting and staying competitive. The workshops will include formal presentations, breakout sessions and presentation of local case studies. The 1998 Thinking, Getting & Staying Competitive workshop schedule is:
April 21-22 Providence, RI September 15-16 Chicago, Ill.
April 23 - 24 Philadelphia, PA September 17-18 Kansas City, Mo
June 2-3 San Francisco, Calif. November 17-18 Atlanta, Ga.
June 4-5 Los Angeles, Calif. November 19-20 Houston, Texas
Aggressive marketing campaigns are planned for both the Handbook and Workshops.
Board/Board Committees to Meet in San Antonio. . .
AMSA's Board of Directors and Board committees face an active agenda for the Association's 1998 Winter Conference. In addition to the regular meeting of the Board, the Awards Committee will select AMSA's 1998 National Environmental Achievement Awards honorees, the Membership Committee will review a proposed membership development plan and the Planning & Bylaws Committee will launch a wholesale review of the Association's governance documents. Other Board committees will meet as well. The initial flyer for the conference will be in the mail this week.
Please note the following schedule as you plan your travel:
AMSA 's 1998 Winter Conference,
Thinking, Getting & Staying Competitive, February 3-6
Hilton Palacio Del Rio, San Antonio, Texas
Monday, February 2
AMSA/WEF Officers Meeting Dinner Meeting
Tuesday, February 3
Planning & Bylaws Committee 8:30 - 11:30 am
Budget & Audit Committee 3:30 - 4:00 pm
Membership Committee 4:00 - 5:00 pm
Wednesday, February 4
Executive Committee 8:00 - 8:45 am
Legislative Policy Committee 12:45 - 1:45 pm
Thursday, February 5
Awards Committee 7:30 - 8:45 am
Awards Committee (as needed) 12:15 - 1:30 pm
Friday, February 6
Regulatory Policy Committee 7:00 - 8:45 am
Board of Directors Meeting 12:00 noon - 2:00 pm
Radioactivity Survey to Proceed. . .
AMSA has scheduled a meeting with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), EPA, and WEF on December 8 at the National Office to discuss a mechanism that willfacilitate collaboration on a planned national NRC-EPA sponsored survey of 300 POTWs to assess the extent of potential radionucleide contamination in biosolids. AMSA met most recently with EPA during WEFTEC in October and restated its long-standing concerns with the manner in which the survey will be conducted and steps that must be taken to resolve these concerns. Underlying these concerns is the NRC's lack of information regarding its licensees and what is being discharged into sanitary sewers. Despite the fact that prior incidents of elevated levels of radionucleides at POTWs have posed minimal, if any, health and safety risks, there is concern that appropriate steps will be needed to respond to negative public and employee reaction that would follow news of any elevated readings in this proposed survey as well as the POTW being held responsible for any remediation costs. At present, there is a lack of any applicable radiation standards or criteria for biosolids that could be used to evaluate the relative risk of any biosolids sample taken by a POTW participating in the survey. NRC is planning to publish a notice in the Federal Register in late November outlining its revised plans to conduct such a survey and its response to AMSA/WEF concerns raised in a joint letter to NRC in early Fall.
Pretreatment Workshop a Success. . .
More than 260 federal, state, and local pretreatment coordinators from across the country met on Nov. 5-7 in Norfolk, VA during the fourth annual joint AMSA-EPA Pretreatment Coordinators' Workshop to discuss issues of mutual interest. This year also marked the eight year AMSA has sponsored this event for the membership. Highlights of the workshop included sessions on EPA pretreatment program updates, national pretreatment programs awardee presentations, pretreatment reinvention, local limits development and issues relating to radioactivity potential in biosolids, impact of privatization on pretreatment programs, regional breakouts, and panel discussions on special wastes and innovative approaches to pretreatment programs. In attendance at the meeting were 160 local agency coordinators representing 90% of the states where there are AMSA members. An additional thirteen non-AMSA agencies were invited to an informal breakfast meeting prior to the workshop to discuss membership benefits.
Update to Organization Manual Planned. . .
In the near future you will receive updated materials for your Leadership Organizational Manual (new Board members will receive a complete manual), as well as a schedule of anticipated Board meetings and activities for the coming calendar year. These materials, along with regular Board Briefs are provided in an effort to keep all AMSA Board members up-to-date and fully apprised of Association initiatives and activities. The mailing will also include a complimentary Clean Water Act 25th Anniversary baseball cap, with thanks and appreciation from the Association for the significant commitment demonstrated by the members of AMSA's Board of Directors.
Waste/Water Index Project Moves Forward. . .
Engineered Design Information, Inc. (EDI) recently forwarded to AMSA for review and approval the design specifications for the AMSA Waste/Water Index (Index) along with a revised draft business plan, which will be used in seeking additional capital investments for the project. The AMSA review team, led by President Cecil Lue-Hing has been invited to Austin by EDI in mid-December to view a demonstration version of the Index and discuss associated technical and policy issues prior to moving forward.