AMSA Legislative Update April 2003

This edition of AMSA’s Legislative Update, current through April 29, 2003, provides an overview of the disposition of bills of interest to the nation’s publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) in the 108th Congress. For more detailed information regarding AMSA activities related to specific legislation, click on the web links at the end of selected news items, or contact AMSA’s Lee Garrigan at 202/833-4655 or lgarrigan@amsa-cleanwater.org.

AMSA members can track congressional action on individual bills through AMSA’s Bill Tracker. The Tracker provides a direct link from AMSA’s web site to congressional web sites where bill texts and summaries are posted, allowing members to research relevant federal legislation. The site also includes the status and most recent action taken on all federal legislation through a link to the Library of Congress’ “Thomas” web site. To bookmark the Bill Tracker, go to http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm.

Clean Water Funding

Committee to Markup Wastewater Funding Bill
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young (R-AK) and Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee Chairman John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-TN) have tentatively scheduled a May 21 mark up of legislation that would reauthorize the clean water state revolving loan fund (CWSRF). The Water Quality Financing Act of 2003 (H.R. 1560) was introduced after a hearing on the funding needs of the nation’s wastewater treatment agencies (see related story). The Congressmen said the bill, which is similar to last year’s measure (H.R. 3930), reflects the enormous funding gap for wastewater infrastructure, the growing federal budget deficit and the need for all levels of government to increase their investment in wastewater infrastructure.

H.R. 1560 would, among other things, 1) authorize $20 billion over five years to capitalize the CWSRFs,
2) authorize $1 billion over four years for sewer overflow control grants, 3) require states to use at least 15 percent of the state grants to provide assistance to communities with populations of less than 20,000, 4) require all loan applicants to certify to the state that they have analyzed the cost and effectiveness of alternative management and financing approaches (including rate structures, issuance of bonds, restructuring, regional alternatives, consolidation, and public-private partnerships), 5) develop and implement a fiscal sustainability plan that includes an inventory of critical assets, evaluation of the condition of assets, and a plan for maintaining and replacing assets, and 6) provide subsidization to disadvantaged communities through 30-year repayment periods, forgiveness of loan principal, and negative interest loans.

During the Committee markup, Democrats are expected to successfully attach Davis-Bacon prevailing wage provisions to the bill and then sign onto it as co-sponsors. Last year, the Davis-Bacon provision ultimately prevented H.R. 3930 from reaching the House floor for a vote. AMSA continues to urge Committee staff to modify sections of the bill on issues of concern to AMSA members and to commit to working with municipalities to identify a long-term funding solution to finance future wastewater infrastructure. To read or download a copy of H.R. 1560, go to AMSA’s Bill Tracker at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm.

AMSA Board Member Testifies in House on Behalf of WIN
William B. Schatz, General Counsel, Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, Cleveland, Ohio, delivered testimony March 19 on behalf of the Water Infrastructure Network (WIN) before the House Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee. Schatz’s testimony at the hearing, entitled "Meeting the Nation's Wastewater Infrastructure Needs", reaffirmed the enormous infrastructure funding shortfall as reported by WIN, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the General Accounting Office, and the Congressional Budget Office. Schatz called on Subcommittee members to address not only a short-term solution to current wastewater treatment agency needs but also to take a leading role in the development of a long-term, sustainable funding solution to narrow the gap. The Subcommittee’s Ranking Member, Jerry Costello (D-IL), responded to the testimony by saying, “as long as we continue to compete for funding out of general revenue, we are going to have challenges and funding problems. Until we get a dedicated source of revenue to address this problem it is going to continue to be with us.” Schatz was joined at the witness table by representatives of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Association of State and Interstate Water Pollution Control Administrators, Prince Georges County Department of Environmental Resources (Maryland), National Utility Contractors Association, and the Rural Community Assistance Program.

AMSA has provided Subcommittee Chairman John J. Duncan (R-TN) and Rep. Costello with additional information on AMSA’s initiative to research and identify revenue sources that could provide a long-term source of funding for wastewater infrastructure (see related story). The witnesses’ testimony is posted on the House Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee web site at: http://www.house.gov/transportation. Click on the Subcommittee, and then click on Hearings/Testimony. WIN’s testimony is also available at: www.win-water.org. The letters to Reps. Duncan and Costello can be viewed at: http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/leg_outreach.cfm.

Support for Kelly-Tauscher Bill Grows
Support for the Clean Water Infrastructure Financing Act of 2003 (H.R. 20) by Reps. Sue Kelly (R-NY) and Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) now totals 130 House Members. The bill includes an authorization of $25 billion for the clean water state revolving fund (CWSRF) over a five year period, Davis-Bacon Act wage provisions, and language on asset management. AMSA provided comments on the bill to Rep. Kelly in early January.

In the Senate, Ohio Senator George Voinovich (R) introduced in mid-January the Clean Water Infrastructure Financing Act of 2003 (S.170) which authorizes $3 billion per year for fiscal years 2003 through 2007 for the CWSRF and would provide grant funding for disadvantaged communities and technical assistance for small communities. Copies of H.R. 20 and S. 170 are available on AMSA’s Bill Tracker at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm.

Senate Staff Briefed on WIN Bill
During the first quarter of 2003, the member organizations of the Water Infrastructure Network (WIN) completed work on a discussion draft of a WIN bill, tentatively titled the “Water Assistance, Treatment Enhancement and Reinvestment for the 21st Century” Act. The proposal takes the recommendations from the second WIN report, Water Infrastructure NOW, and translates them into legislative language that would amend the funding portions of the Clean Water Act.

WIN hosted an April 22 briefing on the bill for staff members of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee. AMSA President Paul Pinault, Executive Director of the Narragansett Bay Commission (NBC) presented a detailed overview of NBC’s capital needs, recent rate increases, and expected funding shortfall. Also participating in the legislative review session were representatives from the American Water Works Association, Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, American Council of Engineers Companies, American Society of Civil Engineers, Associated General Contractors of American, Construction Management Association of America, American Public Works Association, Association of California Water Agencies, Water Environment Federation, and International Union of Operating Engineers, AFL-CIO. Following the legislative briefing, several of the committee staff toured the wastewater treatment facility operated by the Alexandria Sanitation Authority, Virginia.

While Senate staff are reluctant to commit to writing a bill in the near future, EPW Chairman James Inhofe (R-OK) has said he would prefer to work in a bipartisan manner to introduce new wastewater infrastructure funding legislation. Sen. Inhofe’s first priority is the reauthorization of TEA 21 - The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, which was signed on June 23, 1998 by President Clinton and reauthorizes federal highway, transit, safety, research and motor carrier programs for the six year period 1998-2003. AMSA considers the highway trust fund that collects the fees to finance TEA 21 programs to be a successful model that could be used to create a similar fund to sustain water and wastewater infrastructure. AMSA continues to urge the committee to draft a simplified and streamlined measure that addresses both short-term and long-term funding for wastewater treatment agencies.

AMSA Task Force Projects Up and Running
The AMSA Infrastructure Funding Task Force has received a final strategic plan to guide the efforts of the Task Force over the next several years. In keeping with the plan, Task Force members on March 26 approved a project to research and identify possible revenue sources to finance a wastewater trust fund. Also underway is the development of a white paper that will respond to recent arguments by EPA and others that better utility management and full-cost pricing will substantially close the funding gap and a project to synthesize information in the AMSA 2002 Financial Survey into a new version of AMSA’s The Cost of Clean. The final project that received approval, also in keeping with the strategic plan, was for a message development session and a poll by well-known pollster Frank Luntz. Luntz will release the results of the poll to AMSA members May 20 at the 2003 National Environmental Policy Forum & 33rd Annual Meeting (NEPF) and to the public at a WIN news conference on Capitol Hill on May 21. The Task Force will meet during NEPF on Sunday, May 18. For more information on the NEPF, go to http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/meetings/03nepf.

Wet Weather Bills Supported
U.S. Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) introduced bipartisan legislation (H.R. 784) in February that would authorize $1.5 billion in grants over 2004 and 2005 to help communities invest in their wastewater systems. The Water Quality Investment Act of 2003 would extend by two years a law which was enacted in 2001 and that provided $1.5 billion in grants over two years for planning, design, and construction of treatment works to control or treat municipal combined sewer overflows and sanitary sewer overflows. AMSA supported the original Wet Weather Water Quality Act of 2000 which also authorized a three-year, $45 million grant program for wet weather watershed pilot projects. Camp’s bill now has 29 cosponsors. An identical bill (S. 567) was introduced last month in the Senate by Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME). AMSA supports both the extension of the authorization and the appropriation of funding for the grants. The text of the two-page bills, which amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, can be found on AMSA’s Bill Tracker at: http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm.

Wastewater Security

House Wastewater Security Bill Headed to the House Floor
The Wastewater Treatment Works Security Act of 2003 (H.R. 866) which was approved in late February by the House Transportation & Infrastructure (T&I) Committee is expected to go to the House floor for a vote the week of May 5. AMSA members and staff worked extensively with the Committee to get a nearly identical bill passed through the House last year and urged Committee Chairman Don Young (R-AK) and Ranking Member James Oberstar (D-MN) to move quickly to reintroduce the measure this year. The bill would authorize $200 million for POTWs to conduct vulnerability assessments and to pay for enhanced security at their facilities. An additional $15 million would pay for technical assistance to small POTWs. Another $5 million would be made available to EPA to make grants to nonprofit organizations for the improvement of vulnerability self-assessment methodologies and tools for POTWs. That provision could potentially fund upgrades to and training on AMSA’s Vulnerability Self Assessment Tool (VSAT™) software over the coming years. Passage of the bill in the House will enhance chances of getting a similar bill passed through the Senate. A copy of H.R. 866 can be viewed or downloaded on the Bill Tracker at: http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm.

Senate Sets Markup for Wastewater Security Bills
Republicans and Democrats are gearing up for what appears to be a partisan battle over competing wastewater security bills in the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee. Current EPW Chairman James Inhofe (R-OK) will introduce a bill that is expected to be similar to the House measure (H.R. 866) (see related story) and take it to markup in the full EPW Committee May 15. During the markup, former EPW Committee Chairman James Jeffords (I-VT) is expected to offer his bill, The Wastewater Treatment Works Security and Safety Act of 2003 (S. 779), as a substitute for the Inhofe bill.

Last year’s Wastewater Treatment Works Security and Safety Act (S. 3037), which Jeffords resurrected earlier this year and included as Title V of the Comprehensive Homeland Security Act of 2003 (S.6), was not supported by the municipal wastewater treatment community. This year’s bill is nearly identical to S. 3037 and would authorize $180 million for fiscal years 2004 through 2008 for wastewater treatment plants to perform vulnerability assessments, prepare emergency response plans, and implement basic security enhancements; $20 million for fiscal years 2004 and 2005 to address immediate and urgent security needs as determined by the EPA Administrator; $15 million for FY 2004 for treatment works that serve a population of under 10,000 people; and $15 million annually for fiscal years 2004-2008 to ensure the continued development of wastewater security technologies. The final authorization is for $500,000 to improve vulnerability self-assessment tools for POTWs.

The Jeffords proposal would require wastewater treatment agencies to submit both vulnerability assessments and emergency response plans to EPA, a requirement that is vigorously opposed by AMSA, and which is not required by H.R. 866. H.R. 866 requires only that POTWs certify that they have performed vulnerability assessments in order to receive funding for security enhancements. AMSA expects Senator Inhofe’s bill to take the same approach and has been urging selected AMSA members to talk to their Senators and urge them to support the Chairman’s upcoming legislation. Copies of S. 779 and S. 6 can be found on AMSA’s Bill Tracker at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm.

Administration’s Chemical Security Bill Readied
The Bush Administration will introduce legislation in May that will require vulnerability assessments by as many as 15,000 facilities that currently are required to submit to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Risk Management Plans (RMPs) under Section 112(r) of the Clean Air Act. The Chemical Facilities Security Act of 2003 will be introduced by Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) Chairman James Inhofe (R-OK) and is scheduled to be marked up on May 15. AMSA estimated last year that approximately 30 percent of member agencies would be subjected to the requirements of a chemical security bill. Inhofe’s bill would require that affected facilities certify in writing to the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that the owner or operator has completed a vulnerability assessment and has developed and implemented a site security plan. The actual plan would only be submitted to the Secretary if it was specifically requested. The Secretary of DHS may accept vulnerability assessments and plans prepared under other laws to satisfy the certification requirement. This could allow utilities that have already completed assessments and submitted them to other government agencies to receive an exemption from having to repeat the process under the new chemical security law.

Proposed chemical security legislation from last year has already been reintroduced in the 108th Congress by Senate Democrats and included as Title XI of the Comprehensive Homeland Security Act of 2003 (S. 6) and as the Chemical Security Act of 2003 (S. 157) by Sen. Jon Corzine (D-NJ). The Senate EPW Committee unanimously approved last year’s bill but the chemical industry strongly opposed a requirement to submit vulnerability assessments and response plans to EPA. Significantly, unlike the Corzine bill, the Inhofe proposal will not include a requirement for facilities to switch to inherently safer technologies, such as less toxic chemicals.

In the House, Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, announced plans earlier this year to introduce legislation to improve security and reduce hazards at chemical facilities around the nation. His announcement coincided with the release of a U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) report, done at the request of Pallone and Rep. John D. Dingell (D-MI), ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The report found, with regard to terrorist threats, that no federal agency has assessed the extent of security preparedness of chemical plants and no federal requirements are in place to require chemical plants to assess their vulnerabilities and take steps to reduce them. Click on the following links to read the GAO reports released by the Committee: Homeland Security: EPA's Management of Clean Air Act Chemical Facility Data GAO-03-509R, March 18, Accessible Text ; Homeland Security: Voluntary Initiatives Are Under Way at Chemical Facilities, but the Extent of Security Preparedness Is Unknown GAO-03-439, March 18, Highlights Accessible Text. AMSA will continue to work with the Committees to secure passage of fair and reasonable chemical security legislation. Copies of S. 6 and S. 157 can be found on AMSA’s Bill Tracker at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm.

Budget and Appropriations

Final Budget Resolution Deletes SRF Funds
Efforts by Senators Paul Sarbanes (D-MD), James Jeffords (I-VT), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Bob Graham (D-FL) to keep an extra $3 billion for water and wastewater infrastructure in the final budget resolution for fiscal year (FY) 2004 failed April 11. The extra money would have provided a total of $5.2 billion for the clean water and drinking water state revolving loan funds (SRFs) for FY 2004. AMSA supported the Senators and was recognized in remarks on the Senate floor during the Senate debate. Selected AMSA member agencies were contacted and asked to communicate their support for the increased Senate SRF funding level to their lawmakers. AMSA’s letter of support for increased SRF funding can be found in the Legislative Correspondence and Outreach section if the Member Pipeline on AMSA’s website at: http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/leg_outreach.cfm.

NBP Funding Request Needs AMSA Member Support
The House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on VA-HUD-Independent Agencies are expected to approve in May their fiscal year (FY) 2004 budgets for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), including AMSA’s request of $1 million to fund the activities of the National Biosolids Partnership (NBP) for next year. AMSA members that have a Representative or Senator as a member of the Appropriations Committees have been asked to write letters urging their Member to request that $1 million for the NBP be included in EPA’s budget for FY 2004. In the House, Reps. Robert Aderholt (R-AL) and Robert Cramer, Jr. (D-AL) have submitted formal requests to the Appropriations Chairman to include the funding in the VA-HUD bill. The Subcommittees and the full Committee will work to pass their bills before the Memorial Day recess.

A copy of the memorandum to AMSA members can be found on the AMSA web site at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/leg_outreach.cfm. Members should then click on the April 4 correspondence “Selected AMSA Members asked to Contact Congressional Appropriators on NBP Funding.” A sample letter that AMSA members can personalize and send to their Representative or Senator is available from Write Congress Now, which is located on the home page of AMSA’s website at www.amsa-cleanwater.org. AMSA encourages all of its members to support the $1 million funding request for the NBP.

Environmental Protection

Senator May Consider Mercury Strategy
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed on April 9 the Mercury Reduction Act of 2003 (S.616) sponsored by Senator Susan Collins (R-ME). The bill would amend the Solid Waste Disposal Act to reduce the quantity of mercury in the environment by limiting the use of mercury fever thermometers and improving the collection and proper management of mercury. Like last year’s legislation, S. 616 would create a task force of Federal agencies to find ways to reduce the mercury threat to humans and the environment. S. 616 can be found on AMSA’s Bill Tracker at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm. Although the bill does not address mercury in water, AMSA continues its efforts to focus attention on the need to develop a national strategy to deal with all aspects of mercury pollution. AMSA staff and Norman LeBlanc, AMSA Water Quality Committee Chair and Chief of Technical Services at the Hampton Roads Sanitation District, VA, met April 24 with Senator Frank Lautenberg’s (D-NJ) office to discuss potential legislation to control mercury releases to the nation’s waters. While a bill has not been drafted, Sen. Lautenberg’s (D-NJ) staff indicated that they are considering several options, one of which would seek to control mercury releases to wastewater treatment plants from commercial sources.