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.

Senate Panel Considers Clean Water Act Wetlands Jurisdiction
On Thursday, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held its first hearing on the impact of recent Supreme Court decisions regarding the jurisdictional scope of the Clean Water Act on the nation’s wetlands.  During the hearing, Sen. Barbara Boxer, committee chair, indicated that more hearings will be held next year on legislation that would remove “navigable” from the Act’s references to ‘waters of the U.S.’ and try to clarify congressional intent regarding the Act’s jurisdictional scope. In the 2001 SWANCC decision, the Supreme Court said the presence of migratory birds could not be used to claim federal jurisdiction over isolated, non-navigable, intrastate bodies of water and instructed the corps to define the federal scope of wetlands regulations (Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. Corps of Engineers, 531 U.S. 159, 51 ERC 1833 (2001)). In the 2006 Rapanos decision, five justices ruled that a hydrological connection alone was insufficient to establish Clean Water Act jurisdiction over a wetland. The court split on defining a standard to establish jurisdiction, however, with a "significant nexus" test from Justice Anthony Kennedy's concurring opinion being widely cited by federal appeals courts (Rapanos v. United States, 126 S. Ct. 2208, 62 ERC 1481 (2006)).  Legislation that is pending in the Senate is sponsored by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and would replace the term "navigable waters" with the definition of waters of the United States that the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have used to assert federal jurisdiction over intermittent, permanent, and ephemeral streams, ponds, lakes, and wetlands. Similar legislation is pending in the House of Representatives sponsored by Rep. James Oberstar (D-MN) and Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.  WEF sent a letter of support for this legislation several weeks ago.  Testimony from Thursday’s hearing is available on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee website:  epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=b4c06ac4-802a-23ad-4d79-67d143be2df9.

Congress and White House Continue to Struggle over Spending Bills
Congress passed another Continuing Resolution late Thursday for one week to fund government operations until a final budget agreement can be worked out between Congress and the White House. Only one spending bill for the fiscal year 2008 has been enacted for funding the Department of Defense; spending bills to fund 14 remaining agencies are still pending final approval, including the spending bill for the EPA and the Department of Interior. In order to break an impasse in negotiations between Congress and the White House, Democratic Leaders offered to split the difference between Congress’s overall budget number and the White House’s number. However, President Bush rejected this compromise last week and continued to demand that Congress lower’s their spending target to his overall goals. It is still unclear how final negotiations will play out, however there are signals from both sides that a settlement will occur before Congress adjourns at the end of next week to return home for the Christmas/New Year Holiday. In all likelihood, Congress will accept the White House’s demands to cut domestic discretionary funding to levels acceptable to him.

EPA Requests Comments on Draft Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program
EPA announced in the Dec. 13 Federal Register the availability of draft policies and procedures for initial screening under the agency's Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP).  The EDSP was established under section 408(p) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which requires endocrine screening of all pesticide chemicals.  The draft document provides specific details on the policies and related procedures that EPA is considering adopting for initial screening under the EDSP.  According to the announcement, EPA has tried to develop policies that could be used in subsequent data collection efforts but expects that the policies may be modified as a result of experience applying them to the first chemicals tested.  The draft document also discusses the statutory requirements associated with and format of the test orders, as well as EPA's procedures for fair and equitable sharing of test costs and data confidentiality.  EPA will hold a public meeting to discuss the draft policies and procedures on Monday, Dec. 17 in Arlington, VA.  Comments must be received on or before Feb. 11, 2008.  The Federal Register notice and information on the public meeting are available at www.epa.gov/scipoly/oscpendo/pubs/regaspects/index.htm.

EPA Announces Regulatory Priorities 
EPA released its Regulatory Plan in the Dec. 10 Federal Register, which describes 30 of the most significant regulations it plans to issue by next October.  EPA also released its Semiannual Regulatory Agenda, which describes over 300 actions under development or review, as well as those completed or withdrawn since the agenda was last published in spring of 2007.  EPA is required by an executive order to publish a regulatory agenda twice a year, and publishes its annual plan at the same time as the fall agenda.  EPA's Regulatory Plan and Semiannual Regulatory Agenda are available at www.epa.gov/opei/orpm.html#agenda.  

EPA Federal Advisory Committee to Examine CWA Detection and Quantitation Approaches
EPA is conducting a one-day meeting of the Federal Advisory Committee on Detection and Quantitation
Approaches and Uses in Clean Water Act (CWA) Programs on Friday, Dec. 21 via teleconference.  The teleconference is open to the public. The public may obtain the call-in number and access code from Meghan Hessenauer at Hessenauer.Meghan@epa.gov or 202-566-1040.  The draft agenda is available at www.epa.gov/waterscience/methods/det. 

Richard Lanyon Named New National Biosolids Partnership Chair
Richard Lanyon has been named as the new chair of the National Biosolids Partnership (NBP), succeeding Robert Hite who passed away on Dec. 4.  Lanyon was appointed General Superintendent of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago in 2006, managing the day-to-day operations, 2,100 employees, and an annual budget of approximately $1 billion.  Mr. Lanyon is a 44-year career employee of the District.  Before his appointment, he was Director of Research and Development for 7 years.  Among his awards, Mr. Lanyon received the American Society of Civil Engineer’s National Government Civil Engineer of the Year Award in 1999 and Distinguished Alumnus of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 2003.   He is also a past President of the Illinois Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and holds Bachelors and Masters of Civil Engineering degrees from the UIUC.  He has been involved in a variety of technical activities for ASCE, WEF, and the National Association of Clean Water Agencies.  For more information visit www.biosolids.org.

Quote of the Week:
“The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose.”
- Hada Bejar

To receive This Week in Washington via e-mail, contact Martha Ravenhill at mravenhill@wef.org.