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To: Members, Affiliates & Legal Affairs Committee
From:National Office
Date:June/July 1999 (current to August 18,1999)

The National Office is pleased to provide you with the June/July 1999 Legislative Update. The update will provide you with a comprehensive overview of AMSA's recent legislative initiatives as well as pertinent legislation that AMSA is currently tracking. The Legislative Radar provides you with a quick glimpse of relevant bills and their status, as well as the page numbers for more detailed information on each bill.

House Appropriations Subcommittee Restores SRF, Supports Biosolids Partnership
The House Appropriations Committee voted on July 30, 1999 to approve an FY 2000 spending bill for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) worth $7.3 billion, an increase from the proposed Administration budget of $7.2 billion. Most significantly, AMSA was successful so far in securing grant funding for the National Biosolids Partnership. The House Committee approved $1,000,000 for Phase II of the project. The National Office is optimistic that the House will unanimously approve the targeted grant for the Partnership when Congress reconvenes in September. On the Senate side, the Subcommittee on VA, HUD & Independent Agencies has not acted on the FY 2000 EPA budget at this time. AMSA and the Water Environment Federation (WEF) are sending a letter to Chairman Kit Bond (R-MO) and Ranking Minority Member Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD) to press for funding. AMSA members will be asked to write letters to their Senators to encourage support for the Partnership.

The Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) was restored by the Appropriations Committee to $1.175 billion, a $325 million increase from EPA's proposed budget. The funding amount is still $175 million below the FY 1999 level of $1.35 billion. While amount of funding in the SRF is far short of the amount needed to reduce the $6 billion per year spending gap for clean water, the SRF is the only consistent Federal funding mechanism available. AMSA has strongly supported restoring the Clean Water SRF to FY 1999 levels. AMSA's wet weather coalition bill, the Urban Wet Weather Priorities Act of 1999, would supplement the SRF by providing $2 billion per year in grants for wet weather. In addition, AMSA and other interest groups are embarking on a multi-year lobbying effort for the establishment of a Clean Water Trust Fund to help offset the enormous costs of wastewater, drinking water and nonpoint source control efforts.

Water Infrastructure Network (WIN) Sets Focus on Clean Water Trust Fund
AMSA initiated the Water Infrastructure Network (WIN) following the successful release of The Cost of Clean to begin a long-term effort to shore up the necessary funding for water infrastructure needs in the U.S.. The Network, consisting of over 40 local/state water and wastewater, environmental and natural resources, agriculture, labor, engineering, and construction interests, has held four meetings and has initiated promising discussions about the potential for setting up a Clean Water Trust Fund. The Network's vision of the Trust Fund is that it would provide permanent funding assistance for water-related infrastructure needs including clean water, drinking water and nonpoint source pollution. In its last meeting on August 9, the group voted to begin a one-month fund raising effort to support a study on potential frameworks and fee structures of the Clean Water Trust Fund. The proposed study would take approximately three (3) months to complete and would provide the basis for an aggressive lobbying and marketing campaign on the Trust Fund. WIN anticipates that it will take 3 - 4 years for the prospects of the Trust Fund become a reality. At its meeting in July, the AMSA Board of Directors firmly supported the Trust Fund concept and endorsed the use of up to $20,000 for related activities.

In pursuit of the Network's objective, WIN members recently met with senior officials of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee. In addition, as a hopeful signal of future interest in WIN's trust fund concept, Mayor Edward Rendell (Philadelphia, PA), Chairman of the Rebuild America Coalition, paid a special visit to Washington, DC the day after our meeting to press Congressman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), Chair of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, on the need to establish a Water Infrastructure Trust Fund. Chairman Boehlert expressed interest in the idea and committed to working with us in the future. Mayor Rendell, himself a staunch advocate of water infrastructure spending, is already extremely excited about developing a trust fund and would like to be very much involved in the effort. Addressing the AMSA Summer Conference attendees in July, Mayor Rendell firmly endorsed the concept of the Trust Fund and encouraged members to get behind the initiative.

Clean Water SRF Reauthorization Bill Introduced
Congresswomen Sue Kelly (R-NY) and Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) have jointly introduced H.R. 2720, the Clean Water Infrastructure Financing Act of 1999, a bill which would reauthorize the Clean Water SRF at $3 billion per year from FY 2000 to 2004. Congress had only authorized the SRF until 1994, causing uncertainty in the fund's future. The draft bill broadens the potential uses of the SRF loan funds by communities to include: 1) construction of POTWs; 2) implementation of a lake protection program under Section 314 of the Act; 3) implementation of a management program under Section 319; 4) implementation of a conservation and management plan under Section 320; 5) restoration or protection of publicly or privately owned riparian areas; 6) implementation of measures to improve the efficiency of public water use; 7) development and implementation by a public recipient to prevent water pollution; and 8) acquisition of lands necessary to meet any mitigation requirements related to POTW construction. The bill's introduction has been held up for several months over a dispute with labor interests on the application of the Davis-Bacon Act to this and other infrastructure spending bills. The bill was one of the main focal points of the June 22 clean water hearing before the House Water Resources & Environment Subcommittee. Both Congresswomen have been extremely active in the area of clean water funding, having previously sent a bipartisan letter to the House VA, HUD & Independent Agencies Subcommittee on Appropriations calling for greater funding levels for the SRF loan program. AMSA will continue to track the progress of H.R. 2720 as a potential source of increased funding for members.

AMSA Readies Wet Weather Bill for Introduction
In order to prepare the bill for introduction, following the recent breakdown in the Federal SSO policy negotiations, the National Office and its municipal wet weather coalition worked on several adjustments to the SSO section of the Urban Wet Weather Priorities Act of 1999. The modifications make the SSO provisions easier to interpret by clarifying liability issues for “unavoidable overflows” and permitting of satellite collection systems, and emphasizing that any operations and maintenance (O&M) provisions should be developed as guidance and not regulations. AMSA will be sharing these changes with its potential sponsors during the summer recess, and anticipates that the bill will be introduced shortly after Congress reconvenes in September.

House Hearing Helps Influence Congress on the Need for Wet Weather Reform ... Senate Hearing Expected in September
In probably the best opportunity in several years to discuss Clean Water Act issues, AMSA participated in a June 22 hearing of the House Water Resources & Environment Subcommittee on wet weather and funding issues. The Subcommittee, as reflected in the title of the hearing (“Clean Water Infrastructure and Wet Weather Flows Legislation”), was particularly interested in the AMSA-led Urban Wet Weather Priorities Act of 1999, which staff consider to be the type of legislation that may succeed. Subcommittee staff have explicitly stated in several one-on-one meetings that targeted, bi-partisan supported legislation is favored over more comprehensive re-writes. Bill Schatz, General Counsel for the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District in Cleveland, Ohio represented AMSA at the hearing. Schatz is AMSA's Legislative Affairs Committee Vice-Chair and also serves as a Member of the Board of Directors. The testimony was distributed to the membership via Legislative Alert LA 99-11. Several members of the Subcommittee concurred with the approach taken in Urban Wet Weather Priorities Act of 1999 to reform the Clean Water Act. Subcommittee Chair Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) stressed the need for “responsible and realistic controls for wet weather flows” and for “the level of the clean water funding debate to increase.

According to Senate Environment & Public Works Committee staff, the Committee is working to schedule a hearing on various wet weather bills and other Clean Water Act reform bills in the next few months. AMSA has been informed that it is likely that such a hearing will take place in early September. The National Office will be working with its wet weather coalition on several key Senators to secure a sponsor prior to the hearing. AMSA plans to participate and provide testimony during the hearing.

AMSA-Supported Superfund Bill Moves Past Key Committee Hurdle in House
In a momentous development that could signal the chances of ultimate success on Superfund reform, the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee voted 62 - 2 on August 5, 1999 to approve H.R. 1300, the Recycle America's Lands Act of 1999. Water Resources & Environment Subcommittee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) is leading a group of 72 bipartisan co-sponsors in championing H.R. 1300. Following up on his promise to win the remaining Democrat opponents through negotiation and compromise, Chairman Boehlert secured the support of Ranking Minority Members James L. Oberstar (D-MN) and Robert A. Borski (D-PA). Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bud Shuster (R-PA) held the bill up since early June vowing not to move forward until and unless the minority leadership was on board. The Administration, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice remain opposed to the bill believing it will slow cleanups and expand litigation costs.

The narrowly targeted bill codifies many of the Superfund policy improvements the administration has made since the early nineties, including EPA's policy on the disposal of municipal solid waste and biosolids, recognized by the Agency as non-controversial. AMSA has worked closely with Congress to ensure that the bill clarifies the classification of publicly owned treatment works under Superfund in order to prevent unwarranted exposure to liability. On June 10, during the House Water Resources &Environment Subcommittee's mark-up of H.R. 1300, Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) introduced an amendment that would protect owners and operators of publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) from unwarranted Superfund liability. AMSA developed the amendment's language and worked extensively with House staff and Subcommittee members to ensure that the language would appear in H.R. 1300. Blumenauer recognized the strong support for the Superfund reform bill from AMSA and other groups. In introducing the amendment, Blumenauer said that Superfund should be “sensitive to what happens to people dealing with sewage because recent litigation has held sewer operators responsible for the pollution others have dumped into the system.”

The amendment covers “innocent owners and operators of sewage treatment plants” and states that “there shall be no liability . . . for a person who is an owner or operator of a treatment works.” Under the amendment, the liability exemption would cover POTWs that are “principally treating municipal and domestic sewage,” demonstrating compliance with Clean Water Act pretreatment requirements and properly operating and maintaining their systems. AMSA has long advocated the need for language in Superfund that recognizes the special nature of POTWs.

The next stop for H.R. 1300 is the Commerce Committee, which has historically disagreed with the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee over legislative jurisdiction on Superfund. A hearing of the Subcommittee on Finance & Hazardous Materials was held on August 4, 1999 to consider various Superfund bills, but no action has been taken to move any of the bills. While it is difficult to predict how H.R. 1300 will fare in the Commerce Committee, with Chairman Shuster's backing the bill's chances of movement have become a reality. In addition, the recent breakdown in negotiations over S. 1090, the Senate's only viable Superfund reform package, have caused the two cosponsors, Senators John Chafee (R-RI) and Bob Smith (I-R.I.), to publicly admit that they will wait to see what happens in the House on H.R. 1300. Chafee, the Chairman of the Environment & Public Works Committee, indicated that he would consider adopting Boehlert's bipartisan bill depending on the outcome in the House.

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