NACWA Member Update (MU05-12)

Broadcast Time:
August 17, 2005; 2-4 p.m. EDT

NACWA is cosponsoring with the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) a Web Seminar on August 17, 2005, on use attainability analyses (UAAs) and how they can be used to help solve complex water quality challenges. The Web Seminar will highlight a new handbook to be released this fall by NACWA and WERF on the UAA process. NACWA members are encouraged to register for the free Web Seminar at http://www.werf.org/Press/webseminars/seminardetails.cfm. The registration password for NACWA members who do not have a WERF password is “WATERSHED.”

Web Seminar Looks at Challenges, Opportunities in UAA Process
One of the most complicated and challenging elements in the Clean Water Act is the use attainability analysis, a structured and rigorous scientific assessment of the factors affecting the designated use of a particular water body. UAAs are required in order to revise a designated use under the water quality standards program. The Web Seminar will focus on how UAAs evolved, how to determine if a UAA is the most appropriate option, what the UAA process entails, what challenges inhibit successful UAAs, and how to address these challenges. The Web Seminar also will explore the drivers for NACWA and WERF to pursue UAA-related initiatives and will provide an update on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) current approach to UAAs. The Web Seminar will feature Keith Linn, Vice Chair of NACWA’s Water Quality Committee and Environmental Specialist with the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District; Tom Gardner, of U.S. EPA; Tom Dupuis, Principal Water Resources Engineer with CH2M Hill; and Tim Moore, of Risk Sciences.

Handbook Developed by NACWA and WERF to Focus on UAA Experiences, Uses
The forthcoming NACWA/WERF handbook, Collaborative Water Quality Solutions: Exploring Use Attainability Analyses, will be the focus of the Web Seminar. The Handbook is expected to be available in September and will provide a current assessment of the use attainability analysis (UAA) process. In addition, it will delve into the details of determining whether a UAA is the right tool for a clean water agency to use in its watershed. Not only will this publication provide a comprehensive assessment of UAA experiences across the country, it will also include a CD-ROM with WERF’s comprehensive UAA Technical Reference.

Handbook readers will gain a better understanding of the factors involved in establishing designated uses and the natural and human variables that may hamper a waterbody’s restoration potential. The Handbook is designed to instruct member agencies on how to make the UAA process a forum for creating sophisticated and broad-based strategies aimed at solving watershed problems with solutions that protect existing and attainable beneficial uses. The approach is designed to instill public confidence and ensure that public resources are invested in ways that achieve real benefits for the human community and aquatic resources.

NACWA to Host Series of Workshops in Spring 2006 on UAAs
As a follow-up to the Web Seminar and Handbook, NACWA and WERF will sponsor a series of workshops to further strengthen clean water agency managers’ understanding of the UAA process. Three UAA workshops, to accommodate 50 people each, will be held in spring 2006, with one in the West, Midwest, and East. Details on the workshops will be available in a future Member Update.

Please contact Chris Hornback, NACWA’s Director of Regulatory Affairs, for information on the Web Seminar or Handbook at chornback@nacwa.org or (202) 833-9106. Again, please register for the free Web Seminar at http://www.werf.org/Press/webseminars/seminardetails.cfm.