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.

March 16, 2007

Representatives Kind and Gerlach Introduce Farm Bill Reform Legislation 
On March 15, Reps. Ron Kind (D-WI) and Jim Gerlach (R-PA) introduced the Healthy Farms, Foods and Fuels Act of 2007 (HR 1551), a bill which includes many reforms to farm programs that have been proposed in the past.  This year, the bill includes 74 co-sponsors and enjoys the support of major environmental advocacy groups.  Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) has pledged to introduce a companion bill in the Senate.  The bills would double conservation spending and authorize additional funding for renewable energy projects and for drinking water protection and environmental improvements.  Farm legislation must be passed this year or programs that pay farmers billions of dollars will expire.  The 2002 farm bill reauthorization increased funding for conservation programs, such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).  Conservationists and others see the 2007 bill as an opportunity to build on these increases and enact reforms that will result in better targeting of the money spent.  The Bush administration has proposed to consolidate several programs and significantly increase funding, although critics point out that these increases are “back loaded” at the end of a 10-year period, and funding would actually be reduced in the short-term.  Additional information on HR 1551 is available at www.house.gov/kind/press/070315-%20Healthy%20Farms%20News%20Re.pdf  and www.thomas.gov.  The January 2007 Bush administration proposals are available at www.usda.gov/farmbill.  (TW)

Water Associations Working Together on Farm Bill
A group of water associations met March 12 to discuss common objectives and strategy regarding the 2007 Farm Bill.  Organizations participating in the meeting included the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, Association of California Water Agencies, National Association of Clean Water Agencies, National Association of Water Companies, American Water Works Association, and WEF.   Priorities identified by the water groups include:  increasing overall funding for conservation programs; assuring a higher priority for projects that protect water or improve water quality; making it easier to use U.S. Department of Agriculture funds to support regional or watershed-based cooperative efforts, including those that involve water utilities; and consideration of water quality credit trading.  WEF’s Position Statement on the Farm Bill is at www.wef.org/GovernmentAffairs/PolicyPositionStatements/FarmBillReauthorization2007.htm.  (TW)

House Vote and Senate Markup Expected for Water Resources Development Act
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee sent the Water Resources Development Act of 2007(WRDA) to the House floor on March 15.  Committee Chairman James Oberstar (D-MN) said a full House vote on the WRDA bill, H.R. 1495, is likely to take place in the last week of March, before House lawmakers break for their two-week April recess. The bill would authorize $14 billion for a wide range of water resources projects carried out by the Army Corps of Engineers.  Chairman Oberstar said the 2007 WRDA contains a six-year backlog of navigation, flood control, water supply, environmental restoration, and other projects that Congress has not approved since the previous authorization was enacted in 2000.  The Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee is on track to mark up its version of the WRDA bill on March 29, according to committee staff. The process of passing a WRDA bill has changed this year because of the new earmark reform movement in Congress. House lawmakers are not allowed to have their projects in the bill unless they submit all earmark requests along with a letter certifying they have no personal financial interest in the projects they are advocating. The Senate has not yet finalized its ethics rules. (SJH)

EPA to Review its Laboratory Network
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on March 15 that it is organizing a review of its laboratory capabilities and operations.  The goal of this review is to continue meeting the needs of emerging research areas and support EPA's mission to protect human health and the environment.  In the short-term, the effort will focus on identifying opportunities to increase efficiency at individual labs.  Over the long-term, the agency plans to use outside experts to assess EPA's laboratory needs over the next 10 years and to characterize the ability of the existing network to meet those needs.  Conclusions and recommendations from the review will be sent to the EPA administrator this summer. (SJH)

EPA Revises Test Procedures for the Analysis of Pollutants in Water
EPA announced in the March 12 Federal Register a final rule that modifies the testing procedures approved for analysis and sampling under the Clean Water Act (CWA) and Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).  CWA changes fall into the following categories: new vendor-developed methods as well as EPA and voluntary consensus standard bodies (VCSB) methods, updated versions of currently approved methods, revisions to method modification and analytical requirements, withdrawal of certain outdated methods, and changes to sample collection, preservation, and holding time requirements. This rule also changes regulations under SDWA that establish drinking water sampling and analysis procedures.  The addition of new and updated methods will provide increased flexibility to the wastewater and drinking water community in the selection of analytical methods. This regulation is effective April 11.  The Federal Register notice is at http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-WATER/2007/March/Day-12/w1073.htm. (SJH)

EPA to Revise Definition of Solid Waste
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on March 15 that it is proposing to modify the definition of solid waste rule to streamline regulation of hazardous secondary materials. The proposed rule would provide for the recycling of such materials as solvents, metals, and certain other chemicals.  EPA estimates that streamlining the management of secondary materials will result in an average cost savings of $107 million a year from both reduced regulatory burden and increased recycling.  The proposed rule provides exclusions for materials that are generated and reclaimed under the control of the generator; materials that are generated and transferred to another person or company for reclamation under specific conditions; and materials that EPA deems nonwaste through a case-by-case petition process.  The proposal also defines legitimate recycling to ensure that only legitimate recycling activity benefits from the streamlined requirements, not treatment or disposal under the guise of recycling.  EPA is accepting public comment on this proposal for 60 days following publication in the Federal Register.  A pre-publication copy is at http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/dsw/abr.htm. (SJH)

Quote of the Week:
“St. Patrick's Day is an enchanted time - a day to begin transforming winter's dreams into summer's magic.”
 ~Adrienne Cook

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/.