ACWA Weekly Wrap Vol. XIV, Issue 36 (Week of November 27, 2023)

News

DWSRF and CWSRF FY22 BIL Reallotment Memos

EPA announced the availability of reallotted federal fiscal year 2022 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Clean Water State Revolving Fund and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund dollars. With this action, EPA is reallotting Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Lead Service Line Replacement and Emerging Contaminant funds for eligible communities across the nation.

EPA recognizes that states and communities continue to make progress on identifying lead services lines. To account for this rapidly developing data, EPA is providing states a one-time opportunity to adjust their reported service line data this fall. The anticipated updated information would be first used in distribution of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law lead service line funding to states in 2024.

In 2023, more than $219 million is available from the FY 2022 Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Lead Service Line Replacement funding and more than $4.9 million of the FY 2022 Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Emerging Contaminant funding is available. In FY 2023, $842,000 is available from the FY 2022 Clean Water State Revolving Fund Emerging Contaminant funding. These funds were declined by certain states, remained unobligated, and are now being reallotted.

EPA continues to work with states to ensure they fully utilize Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds to address local water issues. There are many reasons states may not take the full amount of funding allotted to them. For example, in 2022, some states received more funding for lead service lines than they could use. The funding will now go to other states with a greater need through the reallotment process established by law.

For both State Revolving Funds, eligible states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia – as well as the U.S. territories for Clean Water funds only – have until September 30, 2024, to apply for and receive their portion of the reallotted funds. Any available funds remaining unawarded after that date will be available for reallotment.

For more information and a copy of the memorandums, please visit: www.epa.gov/dwsrf or www.epa.gov/cwsrf.

EPA Releases Lead & Copper Rule

EPA announced a proposal to strengthen its Lead and Copper Rule that would require water systems across the country to replace lead service lines within 10 years. EPA is also proposing improvements to protect public health, such as lowering the lead action level and improving sampling protocols utilized by water systems. This proposed action significantly advances President Biden’s commitment to remove every lead service line in America to protect children and vulnerable populations from the negative impacts of lead in drinking water, particularly those living in disadvantaged communities.

Key provisions in the proposal include:

Achieving 100% Lead Pipe Replacement within 10 years.
Locating legacy lead pipes.
Improving tap sampling.
Lowering the Lead Action Level.
Strengthening protections to reduce exposure.

The proposal would also require water systems to communicate more frequently and proactively with consumers about lead service lines and the system’s plans for replacing the lines. Once the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register, EPA will accept comments for 60 days. The agency will also hold a virtual public hearing on January 16, 2024, at which time the public will be invited to provide EPA with verbal comments. For more information about the proposed rule, including a pre-publication version of the proposal, fact sheets and directions for submitting comment and registering for the public hearing, visit the proposed rule webpage.

Maui Draft Functional Equivalent Guidance

On November 27, 2023 EPA’s published in the Federal Register notice of the draft guidance titled Applying the Supreme Court’s County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund Decision in the Clean Water Act Section 402 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit Program to Discharges through Groundwater. The draft guidance, among other things, describes the Court’s decision on functional equivalent analysis and explains the types of information that could be used to determine which discharges through groundwater may require coverage under a NPDES permit. Along with the seven criteria noted by the Supreme Court in the Maui decision, EPA has also included a discussion on the CWA being a strict liability statute, the use of pollutant constituents, and the existence of a state groundwater program not having a role in the functional equivalent analysis. The current Federal Register notice provides a 30-day comment period with a due date of December 27, 2023. ACWA has requested a 30-day extension to this comment period and will keep states/interstates/territories appraised of EPA’s response. For questions or clarifications, please contact Marcus Zobrist at Zobrist.Marcus@epa.gov or (202) 564–8311.

Direct link to the Federal Register notice: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/11/27/2023-26038/implementing-the-supreme-courts-maui-decision-in-the-clean-water-act-section-402-national-pollutant

Region 9 RDA Comment Period Extended

On November 2, 2023 EPA Region 9 published a document in the Federal Register soliciting comment on the preliminary designation of stormwater discharges from certain commercial, industrial, and institutional (CII) sites in two watersheds in LA County for regulation under the NPDES program. The November 2, 2023 notice of availability contained an incorrect email address for submitting comments which was corrected by the current notice. The review and comment period is also being extended to provide a 60-day comment period. The new deadline for comment is January 3, 2024. The updated email address is R9RDA@epa.gov. If you have questions about the preliminary designation or the Federal Notices, please contact Eugene Bromley at bromley.eugene@epa.gov or (415) 972–3510.

Current Notice
Federal Register :: Notice of Availability and Extension of Comment Period for the Preliminary Designation of Certain Stormwater Discharges Within Two Watersheds in Los Angeles County, California Under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System of the Clean Water Act

Original Notice
Federal Register :: Notice of Availability of Preliminary Designation of Certain Stormwater Discharges Within Two Watersheds in Los Angeles County, California Under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System of the Clean Water Act

Draft Pesticide General Permit

This week EPA published in the Federal Register notice of the proposed/draft 2026 Pesticide NPDES General Permit (PGP), which covers point source discharges from the application of pesticides to waters of the United States. Once finalized, the 2026 PGP will replace the existing 2021 PGP, which expires October 31, 2026. The draft 2026 PGP largely has the same conditions and requirements as EPA’s previously issued PGPs, and would “authorize certain point source discharges from the application of pesticides to waters of the United States, in accordance with the terms and conditions described therein.” EPA is proposing to issue this permit for five years in all areas where EPA is the NPDES permitting authority. The Fact Sheet accompanying the permit contains supporting documentation and EPA encourages the public to read the Fact Sheet to better understand the draft 2026 PGP. EPA is providing a 45 day comment period on this draft permit, comments must be received by January 12, 2024. If you have questions about this permit or the Federal Register notice, please contact Lauren Mosesso at mosesso.lauren@epa.gov or 202–564–1012.

Federal Register :: Draft National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Pesticide General Permit for Point Source Discharges From the Application of Pesticides; Reissuance

REMINDER: Animal Agriculture and Water Quality Subcommittee Nominations

On November 16, 2023, EPA published an FR requesting nominations for members to serve on the AAWQ subcommittee. The primary goal of this subcommittee will be to develop recommendations that will inform the Agency’s decisions regarding how to improve the implementation of the NPDES CAFO program to reduce nutrients and other types of water pollutants more effectively. EPA is committed to working with stakeholders, advocates, communities, and industry to explore how to achieve water quality improvements related to CAFOs. The Agency will accept nominations for AAWQ membership until January 2, 2024. A copy of the FR notice can be found here.

Federal Register :: Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Advisory Committee; Notice To Establish Animal Agriculture and Water Quality Subcommittee and Solicitation of Nominations for Membership to the Animal Agriculture and Water Quality Subcommittee

Cyber Alert: Exploitation of PLCs used in Water and Wastewater Systems

CISA recently sent out an alert regarding an active exploitation of programmable logic controllers (PLCs). Facilities use PLCs to control and monitor various stages and processes of water and wastewater treatment, including turning on and off pumps at a pump station to fill tanks and reservoirs, flow pacing chemicals to meet regulations, gathering compliance data for monthly regulation reports, and announcing critical alarms to operations. Attempts to compromise facility integrity via unauthorized access threatens the ability of a facility to provide clean, potable water to, and effectively manage the wastewater of, their communities. The cyber threat actors likely accessed the affected device—a Unitronics Vision Series PLC with a Human Machine Interface (HMI)—by exploiting cybersecurity weaknesses, including poor password security and exposure to the internet. In response, the affected municipality’s water authority immediately took the system offline and switched to manual operations—there is no known risk to the municipality’s drinking water or water supply. To secure WWS facilities against this threat, CISA urges organizations to:

Change the Unitronics PLC default password—validate that the default password “1111” is not in use.
Require multifactor authentication for all remote access to the OT network, including from the IT network and external networks.
Disconnect the PLC from the open internet. If remote access is necessary, implement a Firewall/VPN in front of the PLC to control network access to the remote PLC. A VPN or gateway device can enable multifactor authentication for remote access even if the PLC does not support multifactor authentication. Unitronics also has a secure cellular based long-haul transport device that is secure to their cloud services.
Back up the logic and configurations on any Unitronics PLCs to enable fast recovery. Become familiar with the process for factory resetting and deploying configurations to a device in the event of being hit by ransomware.
If possible, utilize a TCP port that is different than the default port TCP 20256. Cyber actors are actively targeting TCP 20256 after identifying it through network probing as a port associated to Unitronics PLC. Once identified, they leverage scripts specific to PCOM/TCP to query and validate the system, allowing for further probing and connection. If available, use PCOM/TCP filters to parse out the packets.
Update PLC/HMI to the latest version provided by Unitronics.

CISA and WWS Sector partners have developed numerous tools and resources that water utilities can use to increase their cybersecurity. Please visit:

CISA: Water and Wastewater Cybersecurity
EPA: Cybersecurity for the Water Sector
WaterISAC: Resource Center
American Water Works Association: Cybersecurity and Guidance

NOWRA Onsite Wastewater Treatment System Homeowner Education Program

Through a grant from US EPA and in partnership with the Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP), NOWRA announced the release of training materials for educating property owners with an onsite wastewater treatment system (OWTS). Materials developed consist of an interactive homeowner/public training module for residential owners and the public with best management practices to keep their septic systems functioning properly.

Concepts covered in the training course include: the importance of wastewater treatment, an overview of treatment in an onsite system, typical onsite system features, final treatment and dispersal, management, maintenance, safety, and system troubleshooting. While the training’s target audience is property owners who have an onsite system, the concepts are also applicable to the public, realtors, local health officials, and septic system professionals.

These materials are designed to be customized for the audience, length of time and regulations. Each module includes slides with speaker notes, activities including a fun “identify the problem” troubleshooting session, pre and post-test and evaluations, a facilitation guide with an agenda, learning objectives and the activity support documentation and photos and videos of common systems across the US that can be used to customize local training events.

The training materials are available on the NOWRA website under Library/Homeowner Training Materials.

In addition to the training materials, NOWRA recently converted the Users Guide to an online course for homeowners and others. The course is FREE, but does require a user’s account on NOWRA’s online learning platform. To access the online course, use the link below:

Onsite Wastewater Treatment System Homeowner Education

Please feel free to review, use, and/or distribute these materials. Questions about these materials should be directed to NOWRA at info@nowra.org.

Meetings and Webinars

WaterTA

EPA’s Water Technical Assistance provides free hands-on support for communities to assess their water needs, identify potential solutions, and apply for federal funding to address their water challenges.

Join EPA on December 12th, 2:00pm ET, for an informational webinar about WaterTA and available resources to help ensure every community has access to funding.

https://www.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_pYnd-__eTBiBJYmKF_Sw9A

For more information on WaterTA, please visit www.epa.gov/WaterTA or to submit a TA request visit: https://www.epa.gov/water-infrastructure/forms/water-technical-assistance-request-form

How EPA’s Water Infrastructure Planning Tool Can Help Utilities Engage Community & Make Cost-Effective Multi-Benefit Investments

January 11th, 12:30-4:30pm Eastern

EPA’s capital project decision-making process, referred to as Augmented Alternatives Analysis (AAA), was developed to address the opportunities and challenges of modern-day project decision-making.

Join us for a FREE virtual half-day workshop to learn more about the decision-making process and engage in discussions with your peers.

You should attend this workshop if you are facing a large capital investment and want to learn how to engage your community and evaluate the full range of potential economic, environmental, and social benefits for your project.

This workshop will walk through the ten steps in the AAA process, so utilities leave equipped to implement AAA at their own utility. This workshop emphasizes peer to peer discussion and attendees will have ample opportunity to learn from utility peers about their challenges, successes, and plans for implementing AAA when they return home.

To download the PDF flyer, click here

Decentralized Wastewater MOU Informational Webinar

ACWA, in partnership with EPA’s Decentralized Wastewater MOU team, is hosting a webinar to inform our members of the program and resources available to states on Wednesday, December 13th, 2023, from 2-3 pm ET. Please reach out to Lexy Bailey for the meeting invitation.

CWA Sec. 319 Revisions: EPA Open Office Hours

EPA has scheduled a series of optional office hours to discuss its efforts to update NPS Grants Guidelines for states and territories. EPA is currently accepting comments on a revised draft of Section 319 Grant Guidelines until December 31, 2023.

EPA’s informal office hour sessions are intended to allow states and territories to ask questions about the draft guidelines. Each office hour session will focus on specific chapters of the draft guidelines. Here is a schedule of the three remaining sessions:

Dec. 7, 3:00 – 4:15 pm ET: Chapters 6-7 (click to attend)
Dec. 13, 3:00- 4:15 pm ET: Chapters 8 and 11 (click to attend)
Dec. 19, 3:00- 4:15 pm ET: Preface, Appendices, and Glossary (click to attend)

Please contact Ward Scott for additional information about these engagement opportunities.

Job Opportunities

Environmental Engineering Specialist

Location: Montgomery, AL
Closing Date: December 31, 2023

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) is seeking qualified candidates with a BS degree in Civil, Chemical, Agricultural/Biosystems, or Mechanical engineering. This is professional work in environmental engineering which includes basic and more routine engineering evaluations. Positions are available in the Water, Land and Air Divisions of the department. Certain positions may require some overnight travel. Apply through the Alabama State Personnel Department at https://www.personnel.alabama.gov/Jobs. You may contact Mary Jane Dennis with ADEM Personnel at mdennis@adem.alabama.gov

Water Resource Engineer

Location: West Trenton, NJ
Closing Date: December 15, 2023

For more information and to apply, visit Delaware River Basin Commission Employment Opportunities.

Environmental Laboratory Auditor Chemist 3

Location: Port Orchard, WA
Closing Date: Continuous

In this position, you will contribute to the program and agency missions by accrediting environmental laboratories in order to assure that they are capable of providing accurate and defensible analytical data to the Department of Ecology. You will provide technical guidance, advice, and assistance to WA accredited
laboratories and those seeking to become accredited in General Chemistry and Trace Metals. You will travel to Environmental Laboratories across the State to conduct onsite audits, both as part of an audit team and solo, and you will also conduct virtual assessments of some laboratories. You will help laboratories navigate applicable State and Federal Regulations and ensure understanding and compliance with Laboratory Accreditation Requirements. You will also interact with accreditation unit customers including laboratories, State and Federal Agencies, and data users within the WA Departments of Ecology and Health.

For more information and to apply, visit State of Washington Job Opportunities.

Underground Injection Control Program (UIC) Lead (Hydrogeologist 4)

Location: Lacey, WA
Closing Date: Continuous

You will serve as the senior hydrogeologist lead for the State’s Underground Injection Control (UIC) Program in the Headquarters Water Quality Program. The UIC program is a state-administered requirement of the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act to protect groundwater. UIC wells are used to manage stormwater, remediate groundwater contamination, replenish aquifers, and as return-flow wells for heat pumps, among other uses. You will review and approve applications for UIC wells to ensure that proposals meet state and federal rules to protect groundwater. You will also work with a team of Hydrogeologists throughout the department on regulatory decisions and policies for the protection of groundwater, for example permit issuance, remediation projects, and strategic planning efforts to protect groundwater.

For more information and to apply, visit State of Washington Job Opportunities.

Construction Stormwater Program Coordinator | Utah Department of Environmental Quality| Division of Water Quality

Location: Salt Lake County, UT
Closing Date: December 3, 2023

The Utah Division of Water Quality Construction Stormwater Program Coordinator oversees Utah’s more than 5,000 construction stormwater UPDES permits. You will serve as the state’s technical and policy expert on construction stormwater permitting by preparing permits, inspecting sites, and providing technical assistance and outreach to stormwater permittees.

For more information and to apply online click here.

Construction Stormwater Inspector | Utah Department of Environmental Quality| Division of Water Quality

Location: Salt Lake County, UT
Closing Date: December 3, 2023

The Utah Division of Water Quality Construction Inspector conducts inspections of UPDES permitted sites and provides technical assistance and outreach to stormwater permittees.

For more information and to apply online click here.

Water Quality Assessment Coordinator

Location: Worcester, MA
Closing Date: Open until filled (first consideration will be given to applications received within 14 days of the November 30^th posting date)

MassDEP seeks applicants for the position of Assessment Coordinator (Environmental Analyst IV) in the Watershed Planning Program (WPP), Division of Watershed Management, Bureau of Water Resources. WPP is a statewide program with five Sections that each have a different technical focus under the federal Clean Water Act (CWA), such as the Data Management and Water Quality Assessment Section, which manages key data systems to ensure that QA goals and requirements are met for multiple water resource management objectives. For example, WPP collects chemical, physical, and biological data to determine the health status of surface waters throughout the Commonwealth pursuant to CWA s. 305(b) and s. 303(d), which are reported biennially to EPA.

For more information and to apply, visit MassCareers Job Opportunities.

Surface Water Quality Standards Analyst

Location: Worcester, MA
Closing Date: Open until filled (first consideration will be given to applications received within 14 days of the November 30^th posting date)

MassDEP seeks applicants for an Environmental Analyst IV position within the Surface Water Quality Standards (SWQS) Section, Watershed Planning Program, Bureau of Water Resources. The Watershed Planning Program is a statewide program with five Sections that each have a different technical focus under the federal Clean Water Act (CWA), such as the SWQS Section. The purpose of the Massachusetts SWQS (314 CMR 4.00) is to restore, enhance, and protect the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of surface waters (e.g., lakes, streams, estuaries, etc.) in the Commonwealth under the authority of the CWA and Massachusetts Clean Waters Act. The SWQS are the foundation of all CWA programs in the Commonwealth, such as water quality monitoring and assessment to determine the status of surface waters, the issuance of effluent discharge permit limits, and the development of restoration efforts to improve the quality of surface waters. The SWQS Section designates the most sensitive uses for surface waters, develops and/or revises minimum water quality criteria required to protect designated uses based on the latest available science, and engages internal and external stakeholders to promulgate revised SWQS to protect human health and aquatic life.

For more information and to apply, visit MassCareers Job Opportunities.

GIS Analyst

Location: Worcester, MA
Closing Date: Open until filled (first consideration will be given to applications received within 14 days of the November 30^th posting date)

MassDEP seeks applicants for the position of GIS Analyst (Environmental Analyst III) in the Watershed Planning Program (WPP), Division of Watershed Management, Bureau of Water Resources. WPP is a statewide program with five Sections that each have a different technical focus under the federal Clean Water Act (CWA), such as the Data Management & Water Quality Assessment Section, which manages key data systems to ensure that QA goals and requirements are met for multiple water resource management objectives. For example, WPP collects chemical, physical, and biological data to determine the health status of surface waters throughout the Commonwealth pursuant to CWA s. 305(b) and s. 303(d), which are reported biennially to EPA.

For more information and to apply, visit MassCareers Job Opportunities.