Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - NACWA in the News
EPA, Water and Sewer Utilities to Collaborate To Identify Improved Management Practices
Six national groups representing wastewater and drinking water utilities agreed May 2 to collaborate with the Environmental Protection Agency in identifying strategies to improve the way utilities are managed.
The two-page letter of intent, which was released at the 2006
National Clean Water Forum urged utilities to adopt effective management
practices because it can "enhance the stewardship of their infrastructure,
improve performance in critical areas, and respond to other [water quality]
challenges."
Under the agreement, drinking water and wastewater systems will pool their
resources to identify "key attributes of effectively managed utilities" and
share those practices with other utilities, Eileen O'Neil, chief technical
officer for the Water Environment Federation, told BNA.
The water forum is sponsored jointly by WEF and the National Association of
Clean Water Agencies. The agreement was signed by EPA, NACWA, WEF, and four
other agencies: Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, American Public
Works Association, American Water Works Association, and the National
Association of Water Companies.
WEF Executive Director Bill Bertera pointed out that the agreement would not
recommend that utilities adopt a "cookie cutter" approach to improving its
management practices.
To ensure the agreement is not just another plan, O'Neil said, the six groups
will appoint members to a steering committee that will meet in June 2006 to
share preliminary observations of best management practices.
EPA's Office of Water has promoted effective asset management to reduce costs
for owning and operating utilities.
According to EPA's Office of Water, each utility is responsible for making sure
that its system stays in good working order, regardless of the age of its
components or the availability of additional funds. EPA contends that "asset
management programs with long-range planning, life-cycle costing, proactive
operations and maintenance, and capital replacement plans based on cost-benefit
analyses can be the most efficient method" of ensuring that utilities stay
operational.
Benjamin Grumbles, EPA's assistant administrator for water, said he was
"pleased" that both wastewater and drinking water utilities had agreed to
advance the cornerstone of the agency's "sustainable water infrastructure
strategy."
Agreement Called 'Exceptional.'
Bertera said the coming together of utilities representing the drinking water
and wastewater utilities was "exceptional." O'Neil explained that was because
drinking water and wastewater utilities had often had to compete for a limited
pool of federal funds in the past. Grumbles described it as a unifying moment
because utility leaders had agreed to lay out "a realistic roadmap toward
sustainability."
In a statement, Ken Kirk, who is executive director of the National Association
of Clean Water Agencies, said he looked forward to working on the agreement,
which acknowledges that "effective management can help utilities enhance the
stewardship of their infrastructure."
The 2006 Clean Water Forum is sponsored jointly by WEF and the National
Association of Clean Water Agencies. The agreement was signed by EPA, NACWA, WEF
and four other agencies: Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, American
Public Works Association, American Water Works Association, National Association
of Water Companies.
A copy of the signed agreement is available at
http://www.epa.gov/owm/assetmanage/.
By Amena H. Saiyid