This Week in Washington is a weekly publication of the Water Environment Federation’s Government Affairs department. It provides updates on the latest legislative and regulatory developments that affect the water and wastewater communities.

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July 28, 2006

House Resources Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Rural Water Supply Bill
On Thursday, the House Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power held a hearing on a Senate passed bill that would allow rural communities and tribes to get loans at lower interest rates for water infrastructure projects, direct a study coordinating rural water programs, and require states to disclose their rural water supply needs to the Interior secretary.  The program would be operated by the Bureau of Reclamation, which operates in nineteen western states.  The Senate passed S. 895, Rural Water Supply Act of 2005 in November 2005. The bill directs the Secretary of the Interior to carry out a rural water supply program in reclamation states to: (1) investigate and identify opportunities to ensure safe and adequate rural water supply projects for municipal and industrial use in small communities and rural areas; and (2) plan the design and construction, through the conduct of appraisal investigations and feasibility studies, of such projects.  The legislation also requires activities to be carried out in cooperation with a qualifying non-federal project entity. The legislation was originally sponsored by Senator Domenici (R-NM) and Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM).  It is not clear when the House might take up this legislation.  (PS)
 
House Homeland Security Committee Moves Chemical Security Bill
On Thursday afternoon the House Homeland Security Committee is expected to mark up a bill to increase security at chemical facilities. H.R. 5695, Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006, would require vulnerability assessments and security plans for chemical facilities enforced by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to address terrorist attacks and was approved July 11 by the Subcommittee on Economic Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Cybersecurity on a 16-2 vote. The subcommittee rejected along party lines amendments offered by Democrats that would require the use of “inherently safer technology” (IST) at high-risk facilities and clarify whether states could adopt more stringent security standards than those in the bill. These amendments are likely to be offered again in the full committee.  The House bill exempts drinking water systems that have complied with the Bioterrorism Act and have site security plans, provided that DHS determines the utility's security program is adequate.  A Senate bill addressing chemical plant security was approved June 15 by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Although the Senate committee rejected language that would mandate “inherently safer technology”, floor action on the bill is being delayed by Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-OK), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, due to his concerns over whether the bill would leave room for DHS officials to require IST among other concerns.  (PS)
 
EPA and CDC Publish Summaries of Waterborne Disease Research
The EPA Office of Research and Development (ORD) and Office of Water have published a series of papers summarizing the research conducted on waterborne disease in the last 10 years. The work includes research supported by EPA and others and is limited to gastrointestinal illness as the health effect of concern. The 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments (SWDA) mandated that EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conduct five waterborne disease studies and develop a national estimate of waterborne disease. The EPA, CDC and other authors produced a series of papers that reviews the state of the science, methods to make a national estimate of waterborne disease, models that estimate waterborne illness and recommendations to fill existing data gaps. The papers represent the most comprehensive review conducted in the last 25 years and the first publication of models and their results developed to estimate waterborne illness on a national level. The papers have been published in the July/August 2006 supplement of Journal of Water and Health. The publications and more information are available at http://www.epa.gov/nheerl/articles/2006/waterborne_disease.html. (SRT)

EPA Issues New Handbook on Total Coliform Rule for Small Drinking Water Utilities
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a new handbook for drinking water utilities serving less than 3,300 persons, Total Coliform Rule: A Handbook for Small Noncommunity Water Systems.  It is intended to help owners and operators of small drinking water systems, technical assistance providers, and state drinking water personnel to better understand the Total Coliform Rule provisions under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).  This document and additional tools to help small water systems are available on EPA’s website at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/smallsys/ssinfo.htm. (SRT)

This Week in Washington is provided by the Water Environment Federation, Alexandria, VA. To receive This Week in Washington by e-mail, contact Lisa Jones, (703) 684-2400 ext. 7741, ljones@wef.org. For more information on this week's stories, please contact the WEF staff whose initials appear at the end of the item in which you are interested. TW –Tim Williams (703) 684-2437, twilliams@wef.org; SRT - Sharon Thomas, (703) 684-2423, sthomas@wef.org; SJH - Sam Hadeed (703) 684-2418, shadeed@wef.org; PS-Patricia Sinicropi (703) 684-2416, psinicropi@wef.org. This Week in Washington is available on-line at http://www.wef.org/GovernmentAffairs/TWIW/.