Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - AMSA in the News
No. 98
Tuesday, May 21, 2002 Page A-1
ISSN 1521-9402
News
Water Pollution
House Chairman Would Consider Bill To Secure Wastewater Plants, Aide Says
The chairman of the House subcommittee with jurisdiction over clean water is
willing to take on legislation to address security concerns of wastewater
treatment plants, a House aide said May 20.
Rep. John Duncan (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure
Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, "would be happy to consider" a
bill requiring wastewater systems to conduct vulnerability assessments and
strengthen emergency response plans, according to Susan Bodine, the
subcommittee's staff director.
The legislation would not be wrapped into a bioterrorism bill (H.R. 3448)
currently in conference that has provisions to protect food, drug, and drinking
water supplies, she told the annual meeting of the Association of Metropolitan
Sewerage Agencies.
House-Senate conferees are continuing to work on the bioterrorism bill, and it
could go to the House floor the week of May 20. As part of the drinking water
discussion, debate is taking place on wastewater security, but conferees are not
expected to approve this provision, Bodine said.
As yet, no separate wastewater security legislation has been introduced, and no
discussions have taken place, she said. However, "if the House and Senate get on
the same track early on, things can happen very quickly," Bodine added.
SRF Funding Measure Uncertain
In other legislation affecting wastewater utilities, the fate of a Senate bill
(S. 1961) authorizing $35 billion over five years for state revolving loan funds
to make infrastructure improvements is "up in the air," Michele Nellenbach, a
Republican aide to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said.
The bill was approved by the committee May 17 (97 DEN A-2, 5/20/02).
Although S. 1961 started out as a bipartisan bill, it was unable to remain one,
she said. The main stumbling block has been the formula to distribute money to
states, Nellenbach said. Sen. Robert Smith (R-N.H.), the committee's ranking
Republican, voted against the bill because he believes it does not help small
states, she said.
Smith also voted against the bill, she said, because of a provision applying the
Davis-Bacon Act, which requires that prevailing wages be paid for construction
projects that receive federal funding. Once on the Senate floor, any senator can
put a hold on it, according to Nellenbach, although she did not indicate whether
Smith would try to block the bill. "I don't know where we go from here," she
added.
House Bill Seeking 80 Cosponsors
A similar bill in the House (H.R. 3930) has been able to retain its bipartisan
posture, Bodine said. "We hope to add 80 cosponsors by the end of the week--40
from each party, and we'd like to take it to the floor," she said. H.R. 3930
would authorize $20 billion over five years for the wastewater state revolving
loan fund. The Senate bill would cover both wastewater and drinking water
revolving funds.
Although the Davis-Bacon provision is also controversial in the House bill,
Bodine predicted a compromise would be reached. "If members are aware of the
importance of the bill, a deal has to be struck," she said. "We can't let
Davis-Bacon hold up infrastructure."
Ryan Seiger, minority counsel for the House Transportation and Infrastructure
Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, said the panel understands
there needs to be a "huge federal commitment" for wastewater infrastructure.
The committee also recognizes that more needs to be done in watershed management
and is encouraging innovative and alternative approaches, such as
watershed-based pollutant trading, to achieve water quality improvements, he
said.
Watershed Trading Encouraged
For example, a publicly owned treatment work (POTW) might offer to help farmers
upstream control their nutrient runoff, Seiger told BNA after the meeting. The
resulting net reduction of nutrients might allow the POTW to forego tertiary
treatment, he said.
In the long run, it could be cheaper for the POTWs to work with the farmers
upstream to put controls on nonpoint sources than it would be for the POTW
itself to do the treatment, "and it would achieve the same net improvement in
the water body," he said.
H.R. 3930 also has provisions for alternative financing that could be used to
fund those kinds of innovative projects, according to Seiger.
One provision of the bill would allow a municipality or other entity to borrow
money from the state revolving loan fund to conduct "nonpoint activities outside
the community," but utility rate-payers would still be able to pay for the loan,
he said.
By Patricia Ware