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.

July 6, 2007

Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Supports Funding for EPA
On June 19, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies approved a spending bill that would provide EPA with $7.77 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2008, an increase of $48 million over the Agency’s FY 2007 budget.  The funding is part of a $27.15 billion appropriations bill.  The House Appropriations Committee version of the bill (H.R. 2643), approved June 7 and totaling $27.6 billion, allocates $8.1 billion for EPA in FY 2008.  The clean water state revolving fund would receive $887 million under the Senate bill, $193 million below 2007 levels and $213 million below the $1.1 billion passed by the House Appropriations Committee.  The Senate version of the bill would also provide approximately $200 million less for state and tribal assistance grants than the House version and $32 million below the FY 2007 level.  The Senate bill would provide the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) with $1.01 billion, $27.2 million above the FY 2007 enacted level and $35 million above the President’s budget request.  In both the Senate and House versions of the bill, the USGS budget would surpass $1 billion, restoring significant cuts in the President’s budget request.  The House spending bill is tentatively scheduled for a vote by the full House during the week of June 25.  

House Appropriations Committee Blocks EPA’s Proposed NPDES Permit Fee Program
The 2008 Interior and Environment spending bill (H.R. 2643) passed by the House Appropriations Committee on June 7 contained language that blocks EPA from using any appropriated money on a pilot program that would provide financial incentives to states for charging higher fees to cover the costs of processing National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits.  On December 21, 2006, EPA, under the direction of the White House Office of Management and Budget, proposed the permit fee incentive program in the Federal Register.  Under the proposed program, EPA would use its Clean Water Act Section 106 authority to provide a financial incentive to states to utilize an “adequate” fee program when implementing an authorized NPDES permit program.  The proposal was widely criticized during the public comment period, with negative comments submitted by the Association of State and Interstate Water Pollution Control Administrators, the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, and WEF. 

Water and Wastewater Organizations Urge Senate to Strengthen Farm Bill Conservation Title
In a letter sent June 19 to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and the leaders of its Subcommittee on Rural Revitalization, Conservation, Forestry and Credit Conservation, water and wastewater organizations urged the Senate to authorize a program in its Farm Bill conservation title that includes new water enhancement programs based on regional cooperative partnerships, similar to the one approved by the House Agriculture Committee.  “Water and wastewater systems, whether public or investor owned, are logical facilitators of local cooperative projects. They have expertise in monitoring water quality, treating water, protecting waters, and they can be conduits among different land owners,” the groups stated in the letter.  They asked the Senate to fund conservation programs in the 2007 Farm Bill at a substantially higher level than the current $3.8 billion annually, with at least $175 million dedicated to new regional watershed cooperative programs.  The letter was signed by ten organizations, including the American Water Works Association, the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, and WEF.

EPA Issues Case Studies to Help Small Systems Meet Drinking Water Regulations for Arsenic
On June 18, EPA announced the release of Arsenic Rule Compliance Success Stories, a series of case studies highlighting public water system experiences in meeting the revised drinking water standard.  The Agency hopes that the publication of these lessons learned will help the remaining 1,700 public water systems still seeking a sustainable arsenic rule compliance solution.  In 2001, EPA lowered the maximum contaminant level for arsenic in drinking water from 50 ppb to 10 ppb to further protect public health.  In addition to the case studies, EPA developed a new fact sheet to help owners and operators understand and respond to issues that may arise with arsenic and their distribution system when treatment is installed or modified. Although arsenic is measured at the entry point to the distribution system for compliance determinations, arsenic levels can increase in the distribution system at any time due to a number of factors.  Any process changes, including chlorination, can impact the distribution system and the water quality at customers' taps, according to the fact sheet.  The case studies and fact sheet, Arsenic and Your Distribution System, are available at www.epa.gov/safewater/arsenic/compliance.html.     

National Academy of Public Administration Calls on EPA to Lead Cleanup of Polluted Runoff
A National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) panel urged EPA to improve its program to control nonpoint pollution in a report released June 15.  NAPA’s report, Taking Environmental Protection to the Next Level, calls on EPA to give special attention to reducing agricultural and urban runoff.  Despite many years of concerted effort by federal, state, and local environmental agencies to control municipal and industrial wastewater, polluted waters continue to be a serious national problem, NAPA stated in the report.  According to Panel chair Jonathan B. Howes, a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and former Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources, “Nearly 40,000 bodies of water, located in every U.S. state and territory, remain polluted or ‘impaired.’  This vast problem cannot be solved by simply adding more and better wastewater treatment plants.”  The panel's recommendations provide a blueprint for implementing new practices for controlling runoff, many of which are voluntary, incentive-driven, or market-based.  The panel also encouraged the establishment of partnerships between EPA, states, municipalities, and nongovernmental organizations.  The report is available at http://www.napawash.org.

Quote of the Week:
“Man can only endure a certain degree of unhappiness; what is beyond that either annihilates him or passes by him and leaves him apathetic.”
 - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

This Week in Washington is provided by the Water Environment Federation, Alexandria, VA and is available on-line at www.wef.org/GovernmentAffairs/TWIW.   To receive by e-mail, contact Sharon Thomas at sthomas@wef.org