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.

January 12, 2007

Provided by the Water Environment Federation, Alexandria, VA

House Panel to Take up Clean Water SRF Reauthorization
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will take up legislation this month to reauthorize the clean water state revolving fund (SRF) to pay for repairs to sewer treatment plants and pipes.   The legislation would be modeled after legislation introduced during the 108th Congress, H.R. 1560, the Water Quality Financing Act of 2003, which would have authorized $20 billion for the clean water state revolving fund program over a five year period.  The Committee has set a tentative hearing date of next Friday, January 19th, to hear testimony from a variety of stakeholders that support reauthorization.  Authorization for the clean water state revolving fund expired in 1994. Since then, Congress has been unable to get any bills affecting the fund through the House or the Senate because of disputes over Davis-Bacon Act requirements that local prevailing wages be paid on projects receiving federal funds.  Funding for the program has steadily declined under the Bush Administration, which prefers to see federal contributions to the fund end and have the fund rely on self-sustaining revolving funds from loan repayments. 
Congress appropriated $887.5 million in fiscal year 2006 for the clean water state revolving fund, and the administration requested $687.6 million in fiscal year 2007. 

The reauthorization bill would continue to authorize discretionary budget authority for funding the SRF. Committee staff indicated this week that legislation designed to establish a trust fund would take a back seat to reauthorization of the SRF because a dedicated funding source has yet to be identified for a trust fund proposal.  Incoming Chairwoman of the Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee, Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), has indicated that passage of a reauthorization bill for the clean water SRF program is one of her top legislative priorities this year, as is passage of the Water Resources Development Act, which has languished in Congress since 2001.  (PS)

Caspian Shrimp Found in Great Lakes
The half-inch, bright orange Hemimysis anomala, a shrimp native to the Caspian Sea, has been observed in the Muskegon, Michigan, area of Lake Michigan and in southeastern Lake Ontario near Oswego, New York.  Anthony Ricciardi of McGill University described the discovery as further evidence of the "ecological takeover" of the Great Lakes by species native to the Black and Caspian Sea regions.  Some scientists are concerned that the shrimp, which feeds on small zooplankton and phytoplankton, may significantly disrupt the food chain that sustains native Great Lakes fish species.  According to a report published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a new exotic species has been discovered in the Great Lakes, on average, about every 6½ months.  Many of these exotics arrive in the ballast water of Great Lakes-bound overseas freighters.  This new shrimp raises the number of known exotics in the Great Lakes to 183.  (SRT)

EPA Announces Availability of Grants for Beaches and Coastal Areas
This week the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the availability of almost $10 million in grants for beach water quality monitoring and public notification programs.  According to an EPA press statement, the agency has provided nearly $62 million in the last seven years under the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health (BEACH) Act of 2000.  Thirty states and five territories are eligible for the grants.  The amount of money awarded is based on the length of the beach season, miles of beaches, and number of beachgoers.  EPA is focusing efforts on developing new technologies to rapidly analyze beaches for bacteria contamination.  "The Bush Administration is committed to keeping America's beaches and Great Lakes shores clean and healthy," said EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Benjamin H. Grumbles. "By improving water quality and informing beachgoers, EPA is helping States and communities protect public health and coastal ecosystems and economies."  Additional information is available at www.epa.gov/waterscience/beaches/grants/.  (SRT)

EPA Announces New Directors of Research on Water, Human Health, and Ecology
On January 11 EPA announced the selection of four national program directors in the Office of Research and Development.  Charles Noss, former deputy executive director at the Water Environment Research Foundation, will lead the agency’s research on water quality.  Audrey Levine, former faculty member of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida in Tampa, will lead research for drinking water, Hugh Tilson will be in charge of human health research, and Rick Linthurst will direct ecological research.  They will join four other scientists selected by ORD in 2005 to lead research in air, pesticides and toxics, contaminated sites and resource conservation, and global change and mercury.  (SRT)

City of Grand Rapids, MI Receives NBP EMS Certification
The National Biosolids Partnership is pleased to recognize the City of Grand Rapids, MI as the sixteenth agency in the nation to be certified and admitted to the Partnership’s environmental management system (EMS) for biosolids program. The City of Grand Rapids is one of 92 wastewater agencies currently participating in the NBP EMS program.  As the sixteenth agency certified and admitted into the program, the City of Grand Rapids’ achievement recognizes that the agency has been independently verified as having an effective biosolids EMS.  For more information on the Grand Rapids, MI EMS program, visit the National Biosolids Partnership Web page: www.biosolids.org or www.ci.grand-rapids.mi.us/epsd/biosolids.  (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/.