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.

April 13, 2007

Provided by the Water Environment Federation, Alexandria, VA

Panel Describes Serious Regional Effects of Climate Change
Over 100 national governments belonging to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) approved an April 6 summary report on the impacts of and approaches to global warming.  The report cites that climate change will most severely impact water resources, along with food production, ecosystems, and human health.  Martin Parry, IPCC Co-Chair, stated the effects would be “serious” rather than “dire.”  The summary is based on the IPCC’s second installment of the 1,572-page Fourth Assessment Report, entitled Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability.  The summary report is based on 29,000 datasets, 90% of which are in a direction supporting climate change.  Parry states that the new report goes beyond the regional effects of climate change identified earlier, establishing that there exists a man-made impact on water, plants, and ice at the global level.  Parry used Bolivia’s Chacaltaya glacier as an example, which has shrunk by 80% in the last 20 years – a global, rather than regional phenomenon.  The report concludes that low-lying coasts, salt marshes, mountains and salt regions are among the most heavily susceptible habitats and that water resources in the mid-latitudes and the dry tropics will be particularly vulnerable.  Intended as an “instrument for policy-makers,” Parry said that the report does not provide recommendations but gives a detailed analysis of what will occur depending on the degree of warming in the next decades.  For more information on the IPCC and the Fourth Assessment Report, visit http://www.ipcc.ch/more_info_100407.htm.  (MB)

USDA Asks Congress to Establish Trading
Speaking at a panel of investors in New York, Undersecretary for Agriculture Mark Rey said April 12 that the Bush administration intends to ask Congress to adopt language in the upcoming Farm Bill that would establish a board charged with setting standards for markets trading carbon, water quality, air emissions, or wetlands credits. According to Rey, USDA is asking Congress to authorize a standard-setting board that would include federal agencies with expertise in development of standards and the reauthorization and funding to do so. Rey was explaining the administration's concept of market-based conservation approaches for which it is seeking legislative support in the upcoming Farm Bill. The 2002 Farm Bill (Pub. L. No. 107-171) will expire at the end of September.  The administration submitted its farm bill proposal in January. That proposal sought mandatory funding of $50 million to be made available to develop uniform standards for quantifying environmental services, such as planting trees along streams on agricultural lands to reduce runoff or reduce carbon emissions; establish credit registries; and offer credit audit and certification services. Rey also voiced the administration's concern that many conservation and environmental benefits produced on U.S. farms and private forestlands do not have an assigned value in the market place or lack a private market altogether. As a result, according to Rey, farmers, ranchers, and forestland owners have little financial incentive to provide these public goods and services. To view the WEF 2007 position statement on the Farm Bill, click here.  (SJH)

Blue Plains Told to Reduce Nitrogen by 46 Percent
On April 5, EPA Region 3 announced that the amount of nitrogen in the effluent permitted by the Blue Plains wastewater treatment facility in Washington, D.C., will be dropped from 8.5 to 4.7 million pounds per year, a 46% slash in outflow.  Under the terms of the new federal discharge permit, the largest wastewater treatment plant in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, owned by the DC Water and Sewer Authority, will soon be forced to comprehensively upgrade its facility in order to comply. Although the 4.7 million pound limit is lower than that proposed by EPA in August 2006, petitions from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Earthjustice, and the states of Maryland and Virginia lobbied for a more concrete, technically-based limit accounting for the final nitrogen allocation. EPA considers this updated National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit as supporting their initiative to reduce the amount of nitrogen, phosphorous and sediments entering the bay. To view the permit and the fact sheet, visit http://www.epa.gov/reg3wapd/npdes/blueplains.htm. (MB)

EPA To Implement Expedited Approval of SDWA Test Procedures for the Analysis of Contaminants
EPA announced in the April 10 Federal Register its intent to implement an expedited process for approving alternative testing methods for existing regulations for drinking water contaminants.  The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) authorizes EPA to approve the use of alternative testing methods through publication of a notice in the Federal Register instead of through rulemaking procedures.  EPA plans to use this streamlined authority to make additional methods available for analyzing drinking water compliance and unregulated contaminant monitoring samples. This expedited approach will provide public water systems, laboratories, and primacy agencies with more timely access to new measurement techniques and greater flexibility in the selection of analytical methods.  Comments on implementation aspects of the expedited method approval process are due June 11.  To view the notice, visit http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-WATER/2007/April/Day-10/w6726.htm.  (SJH)

Virginia Governor Vetoes CSO Funding Bill
On April 10, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine (D) announced his veto of legislation (S.B. 1301) that would have established an explicit funding source and allocation for overhauling the combined sewer-stormwater systems in Lynchburg and Richmond.  This veto materialized 2 weeks after the Legislature denied the amendments Kaine proposed for the bill (59 DEN A-7) on March 28.  Kaine stated in a press release that the modifications would have provided more certainty about annual appropriations to the two cities’ combined sewage overflow (CSO) projects.  Kaine added that “without the amendments, the bill could have a negative effect on funding for farmers engaged in agricultural best management practices, and other non-point source programs, that control nutrient pollution into our streams and rivers.” $3 million of the 2007-2008 budget bill has already been approved by the General Assembly to fund the cities’ CSO projects – with Kaine stating he would like to expand funding further in future budgets. To see Kaine’s press release, go to
http://www.governor.virginia.gov/MediaRelations/NewsReleases/viewRelease.cfm?id=366. The text of S. B. 1301, as it was presented to Kaine, is available at http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?071+ful+SB1301ER. (MB)

EPA Local Government Advisory Committee Meeting
EPA announced in the April 11 Federal Register that the Local Government Advisory Committee and the Small Community Advisory Subcommittee (SCAS), Steering Committee, and workgroups for Water, Indicators, Regulations, Watersheds and Coastlines, and Solid Waste/Environmental Reclamation will meet on May 2-4 in Washington, DC.  Additional information is in the notice at http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-MEETINGS/2007/April/Day-11/m6840.htm.  (SJH)

WEF Launches New Peer-Reviewed Journal Water Practice™
The inaugural issue of WEF’s peer-reviewed journal for the water practitioner has now been published online on the WEF website. The first issue, on Residuals and Biosolids, is currently available at no charge. Most issues coincide with recent WEF conferences and are composed of studies presented at these symposia. All Water Practice articles are peer-reviewed by experts in the field and evaluated by a special Issue Editor. For more information on the journal, visit the Water Practice website or contact the Water Practice office at WaterPractice@wef.org. (SRT)

Quote of the Week:
“Maintaining clean, safe water remains one of our greatest national and global challenges and responsibilities.”
~Jerry Costello

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; MB - Maya Buchanan (703) 684-2416, mbuchanan@wef.org. This Week in Washington is available on-line at  http://www.wef.org/GovernmentAffairs/TWIW/.