Regulatory Alert (RA 01-11)

AMSA continues to raise publicly our serious concerns with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) draft proposed sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) rule. This draft proposal was signed by former EPA Administrator Browner in January 2001 but still awaits review by the new Administration before publication for public comment in the Federal Register. AMSA recently wrote EPA Administrator Governor Christine Todd Whitman two letters (see March 5 and June 8 letters on AMSA’s website at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/reg_outreach.cfm), urging EPA to make modifications to the draft proposal before publishing what we believe to be a fundamentally flawed regulation. In our letters, AMSA offered to work with the Agency to develop a more sound regulatory framework. The June 8 letter also outlined the key AMSA-supported principles upon which an alternative rule should be crafted.

Despite these efforts, we are concerned that EPA will publish the draft proposal without modification. The Agency is under enormous pressure to release the proposal without change, having received close to 6,000 letters from environmental groups urging immediate publication. Based on discussions with senior Office of Water staff, EPA has not yet decided on a final course of action, but is inclined to publish the current draft proposal. Accordingly, on June 20 the AMSA Board of Directors voted to raise our concerns with the draft proposal more vocally.

With the confirmation of G. Tracy Mehan as Assistant Administrator for Water expected soon, AMSA anticipates that the SSO issue will be among the first to be taken up by the Office of Water staff. We ask that you send a letter to Assistant Administrator Designee Mehan AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, with copies to your Congressional delegation, to inform EPA directly of your concern with the draft SSO proposal. Your input is critical at this juncture. The Agency needs to hear directly from the very communities that will be impacted by this rule. AMSA members must add their voice to the Agency’s deliberations, as the primary industry that will be affected by these regulations.

We have developed the attached sample letter for you to tailor and send to EPA. To save time, we encourage you to use AMSA’s Congressional Connection website service to customize and send your letter. The program allows you to formulate the letter in a few short steps and provides addresses and phone numbers for your Congressional delegation. Please use the attached instructions to access and use Congressional Connection. If you do not have access to the Internet, please feel free to contact Jennifer Burke at 202/533-1801 for assistance with contact information. Please send us a copy of your letter by email (gschaner@amsa-cleanwater.org) or fax (202/833-0531). If you have any questions about this Regulatory Alert, please feel free to contact Greg Schaner at 202/296-9836.

Attachments:

• Sample Letter to EPA and Helpful Hints
• Instructions on Accessing AMSA’s Congressional Connection