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.

Provided by the Water Environment Federation, Alexandria, VA

WEF Releases Position Statement on 2007 Farm Bill Reauthorization
The Water Environment Federation's (WEF) Board of Trustees voted on Tuesday, December 12 to approve the Federation's position statement on the 2007 Farm Bill reauthorization effort. The statement offers strategies and recommendations to Congress as it considers renewal of agricultural programs adopted under the 2002 legislation.  The current Farm Bill made important strides in establishing and strengthening agricultural support programs designed to improve on-farm conservation efforts. These programs, including the Environment Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), and the Conservation Security Program (CSP), assist farmers in implementing best management practices to achieve environmental benefits, including watershed-based techniques that improve water quality. Water quality professionals, agricultural producers, and rural and urban communities share common interests as stewards of water resources.  WEF believes that the 2007 reauthorization bill could provide an opportunity to build on the progress of these programs and foster greater collaboration between municipal and agricultural communities.  WEF's recommendations include strengthening and targeting conservation programs to achieve greater water quality improvements in critical watersheds; fostering greater collaboration between the municipal treatment sector and livestock producers to improve manure management; and establishing more effective mechanisms - including water quality trading - to achieve greater nutrient controls on farms.  WEF's position statement is available on the Federation's web site here. (PS)

Democrats to Enact a Continuing Resolution for Remainder of FY07
On Tuesday, Democrats announced that rather than complete the remaining spending bills for FY07, they would simply extend the continuing resolution due to expire February 15 through the end of the fiscal year to September 30.  The decision affects budgets for all domestic agencies, excluding the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, and including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Interior. In announcing the decision, the incoming chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations Committee, Congressman David Obey (D-WI) and Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), said that they would make “limited adjustments” in the GOP-written continuing resolution to address important policy priorities, but that the extended CR would have none of the earmarks contained in the remaining FY07 spending bills. They also made clear that no earmarks would be allowed in FY08 spending items until clear reforms to the earmarking process and lobbying reform legislation get enacted. Although details for the continuing resolution still need to be worked out, the decision will probably result in most domestic agencies receiving the same funding they received in FY06 to administer programs.  President Bush is expected to release his FY08 budget on February 5. (PS)

Nation’s First Physical Security Standard Guidelines for Water/Wastewater Utilities Released
The nation’s first standard guidelines for protecting the public from potential malevolent acts and other threats by enhancing the physical security of water and wastewater infrastructure systems were released this week for trial use by water and wastewater utilities.  The voluntary standard guidelines—jointly developed by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the American Water Works Association (AWWA) with technical input from the Water Environment Federation (WEF)—are the result of Phase III of the Water Infrastructure Security Enhancements (WISE) program.  First launched in 2003 and funded by a multi-year grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), WISE was organized to support water and wastewater utilities in mitigating vulnerabilities from man-made threats and natural disasters in existing systems and throughout the design, construction and operation of new systems.  Titled “Guidelines for the Physical Security of Water Utilities” and “Guidelines for the Physical Security of Wastewater/Stormwater Utilities,” the draft guidelines are open for public comment and trial use until June 30.  Copies of the draft standards for trial use will be available on each organization’s web site: www.asce.org, www.awwa.org, and WEF's website.  (SRT)

Draft Nutrient Criteria Technical Guidance Manual for Wetlands
EPA announced in the December 14 Federal Register the availability of a draft nutrient criteria technical guidance manual for wetlands. The document provides state and tribal water quality managers and others with information on how to develop numeric nutrient criteria for wetlands as state or tribal law or regulation; however, the document does not contain site-specific numeric nutrient criteria. EPA is soliciting data and comments on issues of science pertaining to the information the Agency used to develop the guidance. The document contains EPA's scientific recommendations regarding defensible approaches for developing regional nutrient criteria but does not impose legally binding requirements.  State and tribal decision makers have discretion to adopt water quality standards that use approaches that differ from EPA's recommendations. Scientific views, data, and information should be submitted by February 12.  The notice is at
http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-WATER/2006/December/Day-14/w21287.htm.  (SJH)

USGS Announces New Fact Sheet on Water Quality Data Warehouse
The National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program this week announced the availability of USGS Fact Sheet (2006-3101), Data Delivery and Mapping Over the Web - National Water Quality Assessment Data Warehouse.  NAWQA's Data Warehouse integrates over 11 million data records on water quality, ecology, and hydrology across the Nation, providing one of the largest nationally consistent on-line collections of water-quality data and associated information.  It contains information and links on chemical concentrations in water, sediment, and aquatic-organism tissues; biological community data for about 16,000 algae, fish and invertebrate samples; information on 8,000 stream sites and 8,000 wells; and daily streamflow and temperature information.  The Fact Sheet is available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2006/3101/.  NAWQA’s Date Warehouse is at http://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/data.  (SRT)

EPA Finalizes Oil-Spill Rule
EPA announced on December 14 the final revised oil-spill prevention and control rule governing a host of industries that store petroleum products.  The agency also announced plans to further extend deadlines for complying with the regulation.  Industry compliance with the Oil Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) rule has been repeatedly delayed amid concerns from sectors that it is onerous.  The changes finalized today include allowing facilities that store less than 10,000 gallons of oil to "self-certify" SPCC plans rather than hiring a professional engineer.  EPA also went ahead with plans to exempt "motive power" containers from the regulation -- defined as a "bulk storage container used primarily to power the movement of a motor vehicle, or ancillary onboard oil-filled operational equipment.” The final rule also allows some facilities an "alternative" to so-called secondary containment requirements if they have an acceptable history of spill avoidance. Operators of these facilities, in lieu of secondary containment requirements, can instead develop an inspection and monitoring program, develop an oil spill contingency plan, and provide a written commitment of resources to control and remove oil discharged.  The final amendments to the rule carry a compliance date of Oct. 31; however, EPA is simultaneously proposing a rule to extend the compliance date until July 1, 2009. To view the rule, visit: http://www.eenews.net/features/documents/2006/12/14/document_gw_03.pdf.  (SJH)

EPA Delays Recycling of Library Materials
EPA announced on December 11 that it will delay the recycling of non-EPA duplicate or obsolete materials that had been scheduled for removal from its libraries until congressional concerns about the agency's library reorganization plan have been addressed. EPA will also offer tours of the agency's repository for library materials to members of Congress and their staffs. To date, more than 22,000 of 51,000 EPA documents are available through the agency's public website and all EPA unique documents will be online within two years.  Agency documents from libraries within the network that no longer have physical space will be online beginning in January.  EPA has 26 libraries in its network and has closed libraries in regions 5, 6, and 7; the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances Library; and the headquarters library in Washington, D.C.  The Bush administration requested $4.5 million for the EPA library system, down $2 million from FY 2006. The 2007 funding bills for EPA, including the cuts, have already been approved by the full House and by the Senate Appropriations Committee. For more information on EPA libraries, visit: http://www.epa.gov/natlibra/index.html.  (SJH)

EPA Fall 2006 Regulatory Agenda  
EPA announced in the December 11 Federal Register its fall 2006 regulatory agenda. EPA publishes the semiannual regulatory agenda to update the public about regulations and major policies currently under development, reviews of existing regulations and major policies, and major policy makings completed or canceled since the last agenda.  To view the Federal Register notice, visit: http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-GENERAL/2006/December/Day-11/g7683.htm.  (SJH)

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/.