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.

WEF Testifies at Hearing on Watershed Planning and Management
On June 24, the House Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee held a hearing on comprehensive watershed planning and management and heard testimony from WEF Vice President Paul Freedman about why the watershed approach is critical for managing water resources.  Freedman testified that “the watershed approach to water resources management is increasingly being recognized as the most appropriate way to identify problems, assess alternative solutions, and implement targeted corrective actions.”  Freedman offered several key elements for a successful watershed planning effort, including: coordination among federal programs, watershed-scale planning, integrated land-use and water planning, the need for comprehensive data and modeling, and, the need for multi-stakeholder involvement.  However, he noted several challenges exist in federal policy that makes watershed-scale planning difficult, including limited scope of federal programs, lack of coordination among federal agencies, lack of coordination between land-use and water resources planning.  Freedman also noted that the Clean Water Act, although a successful tool in controlling point sources of pollution, needs to be modernized so that it can be an effective tool for watershed scale planning and management, observing:  “using the CWA to deal with today’s water issues is like trying to use a 1972 repair manual to repair a 2008 automobile - it’s just not relevant.  A new manual needs to be written.” Freedman called on Congress to “articulate the watershed approach as our national policy toward water resources.”  In addition to Freedman, the committee heard from:  Steve Stockton, Director of Civil Works, Army Corps of Engineers; Gerald Galloway, Glen L. Martin Institute Professor of Engineering,  University of Maryland; Larry Larson, Executive Director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers; William Mullican, Deputy Executive Administrator for Planning of the Texas Water Development Board; Carol Collier, Executive Director of the  Delaware River Basin Commission; and Brian Richter, Director of the Global Fresh Water Initiative, The Nature Conservancy.  WEF’s full testimony can be accessed here.

Overflow Notification Bill Passes House
The House passed a bill on June 23 that would require wastewater treatment plant owners and operators to inform the public of sewer overflows.  The Sewage Overflow Community Right-to-Know Act (H.R. 2452), sponsored by Reps. Tim Bishop (D-NY) and Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), passed by voice vote.  The bill, which amends the Clean Water Act, would provide a uniform, national standard for the monitoring, reporting, and public notification of municipal combined and sanitary sewer overflows.  "It is imperative that we provide the public with comprehensive and timely notification of sewer overflows," Rep. Bishop said in a statement.  "We need to make sure that the public is aware of sewer overflows to give communities the opportunity to protect themselves."  LoBiondo has said the bill is a short-term way to address the problem of sewer spills while making long-term improvements to the nation's water infrastructure.  WEF supported the legislation and contributed input into the legislative drafting process.  The White House has expressed support for the legislation, although EPA opposes the use of the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, a low-interest wastewater loan program that helps states construct water treatment facilities, to pay for the monitoring.  Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) is sponsoring a similar bill, S. 2080, in the Senate, though it is unclear when the Senate may take up this legislation.  Under the legislation, States that already have notification requirements can submit those requirements to the EPA for approval as a way of meeting the notification requirements under this legislation.

Supreme Court Cuts Exxon Valdez Punitive Damages
On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a $2.5 billion punitive damage award in the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, holding the damages are excessive under maritime common law and stating punitive awards should be no more than the actual damages suffered by plaintiffs (Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker, U.S., No. 07-219, 6/25/08).

In a 5-3 decision, the court said punitive damages under maritime law should be the same as compensatory, or actual, damages, which in the Exxon Valdez case amounted to $507.5 million. The majority supported a 1-1 ratio for punitive damages in relation to compensatory damages. Justice David H. Souter wrote for the court, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Anthony M. Kennedy concurring.  Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen G. Breyer each separately dissented, in part, as to implementation of the new restrictive measure for punitive damages. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. did not take part in consideration or decision of the case due to his ownership of ExxonMobil stock.

The Ninth Circuit in 2006 had imposed punitive damages in an amount five times compensatory damages, while the federal district judge in Alaska who presided over the trial in 1994 first allowed punitive damages in an amount nine times compensatory damages.  In its decision, the Supreme Court agreed with ExxonMobil's argument that the $2.5 billion award was excessive, but it focused on maritime law rather than the Clean Water Act.  ExxonMobil asked the court, in part, to set aside the judgment because it was inappropriate under the Clean Water Act. However, the court said that Clean Water Act water pollution penalties do not preempt punitive damage awards in maritime spill lawsuits, rejecting the company's view on that point. The court instead made its decision based on its reading of maritime common law. Unlike past opinions announced as maximum allowable awards under due process standards, this case was decided strictly under maritime common law, Souter wrote. The court remanded the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit with instructions to use the 1-1 ratio and impose total relevant punitive damages equal to compensatory damages. It is unclear what precedent this decision will establish with regard to CWA penalties. 

Water Associations, EPA Release Tools for Effective Utility Management Practices
Six associations representing the U.S. water and wastewater sector, in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), have released a series of tools designed to help water and wastewater utilities advance effective management practices to achieve long-term sustainability. The tools are based on the 10 Attributes of Effectively Managed Utilities and five Keys to Management Success first identified in a report released by the group in May 2007.  Since the release of the Findings and Recommendations for a Water Utility Sector Management Strategy report last year, the Effective Utility Management Collaborating Associations – the American Public Works Association (APWA), American Water Works Association (AWWA), Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA), National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), National Association of Water Companies (NAWC), the Water Environment Federation (WEF) and EPA – have been working together to  develop tools aimed at helping utilities assess their current operations and adopt best management strategies for improvement. The tools now available include the Effective Utility Management Primer for Water and Wastewater Utilities that is designed to help water and wastewater utility managers make practical, systematic changes to achieve excellence in utility performance. Also, the group is releasing an online Resource Toolbox that contains links to key resources and tools. The new primer can be downloaded at no charge from http://www.wef.org/ScienceTechnologyResources/UtilityManagement/EPAUtilityManagement.htm  or at www.watereum.org.

EPA Awards the Water Quality Standards Forum Cooperative Agreement to WEF
EPA has awarded a cooperative agreement to Water Environment Federation (WEF) to conduct the Water Quality Standards (WQS) Forum. The WQS Forum is a four-year, $400,000 cooperative agreement aimed at providing information sharing and technical solution transfer between the states, territories, authorized tribes, and EPA on WQS issues. The key elements of the cooperative agreement are:
- Development of a state-only WQS Forum (including at least ten states, one from each EPA region) that involves monthly conference calls and at least one face-to-face meeting per year;
- Development of a state-EPA workgroup (including Forum members and select EPA participants) that meets face-to-face at least once per year and holds bimonthly conference calls; and
- Development of a training and information dissemination strategy to enhance knowledge of WQS topics identified by the Forum.

Office of Science and Technology staff and the WEF project team kicked off work on the cooperative agreement on June 17. In the next month, WEF plans to compile a list of possible Forum members and issue a request for a professional facilitator who will facilitate calls and meetings for the term of the cooperative agreement.

EPA Administrator Keynotes WEF Sustainability Conference
This week, WEF held Sustainability 2008: Green Practices for the Water Environment, a national forum for information sharing on sustainable approaches and green practices in the water environment.  EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson provided the keynote address to a crowd of over 300 attendees during the conference’s opening session.  He emphasized that climate change and water are “interconnected” and that “we need to think about sustainability in the broadest sense,” adding that it would be a mistake to focus only on air issues related to climate change.  Johnson discussed several efforts underway at EPA related to water and sustainability, including the WaterSense program and the Effective Utility Management Collaboration, of which WEF is an active participant.  The conference was held with support from EPA and in cooperation with several other organizations.  For more information about the conference, go to http://www.wef.org/ConferencesTraining/ConferencesEvents/Sustainability/.

USGS Names New Associate Director for Water
On Wednesday the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) announced Dr. Matthew C. Larsen has been named Associate Director for Water of the USGS replacing Dr. Robert Hirsch.  Larsen has been the leader of the USGS National Research Program in hydrology in his position of Chief Scientist for Hydrology since 2005. Dr. Larsen earned a bachelor's in Geology in 1976 from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and a doctorate in Geography at the University of Colorado-Boulder in 1997. He is also the Chair of the U.S. National Committee for the UNESCO International Hydrological Programme and is the author of 66 scientific reports and journal articles. In his Associate Director role, Dr. Larsen has programmatic responsibility for all water-related research and activities at the USGS. He will be responsible for water issues relating to flooding, water quality, drought, climate change, and water availability.

Puget Sound Legislation Pushed at House Subcommittee Hearing
On June 26, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Water Resources and the Environment, received testimony from representatives of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the Puget Sound Partnership, the San Francisco Public Utility Commission, the Association of National Estuary Programs, and other stakeholder organizations on the protection and restoration of the nation's coasts and estuaries. At the hearing, the Representative Norm Dicks (D-WA), chairman of the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, urged lawmakers to support legislation that would address pollution problems in the Puget Sound, the nation’s second largest estuary. This week Rep. Dicks introduced H.R. 6364, which will establish a distinct office within the Environmental Protection Agency to coordinate the expanded efforts to address pollution impacts on Puget Sound.  In addition to establishing a Puget Sound office, the bill authorizes multiple grants to local communities to study the causes of water quality programs, targeted remedial actions to counter these threats, and grants for sewer and stormwater discharge projects.  For more information on the hearing, go to http://transportation.house.gov/News/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=686.

Quote of the Week
"I wanted a perfect ending.  Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end.  Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next." 
~Gilda Radner

To receive by e-mail, contact Sharon Thomas at sthomas@wef.org.