Weekly Wrap Hiatus
ACWA will be taking a two week hiatus from the weekly wrap. The next weekly wrap will be sent out on June 16th. In the mean time we will be launching a new website, which will include a new, more accessible Weekly Wrap format! We apologize for any inconvenience.
EO 13777 Compendium
If your state/interstate submitted comments Executive Order 13777, Presidential Executive Order on Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda, please forward a copy to Patrick McGuire if you have not already done so. ACWA will be formulating a compendium of national regulatory reform considerations and would appreciate your input.
ACWA 2017 Water Quality Trading Workshop
If you are planning to attend the ACWA Water Quality Trading Workshop, reservations at the Hilton Garden Inn Washington, DC/U.S. Capitol must be made by FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 2017! To make a reservation, call 877-782-9444 or go here. Please inform the hotel that you are attending the ACWA Water Quality Trading Workshop and will be using the per diem rate. The Workshop will take place on June 27, 2017 in Washington, DC and will be a venue for face-to-face information sharing between the states with various levels of involvement in water quality trading, including states with robust programs, states in the process of starting programs, and states looking to learn more about trading. The goal of the Workshop is to establish open lines of communication between practitioners nationwide. For more information, contact Mark Patrick McGuire.
EPA Proposed Budget Released
The Trump Administration released their budget proposal this week. As expected, the budget proposed about 30% cuts to EPA’s budget. The budget cuts SRF funding and emphasized STAG grants and WIFIA funding. As it stands, the proposed budget is not expected to pass congress. We will continue to monitoring the budget process. If you have any questions, please contact Frances Bothfeld or Julian Gonzalez.
Webinar on DC Stormwater Trading
On Tuesday, May 24, EPA and WEF hosted a webinar on DC’s Stormwater Retention Credit Trading Program. Brian Van Wye of the DC Dept. of Energy and Environment offered a detailed explanation of DC’s innovative program. He also took time to answer questions. For more information on DC’s program, go here.
EPA Inland HABs Webinar
On Tuesday, May 24, EPA’s Inland HABs Discussion Group held a webinar entitled, Success Stories of HABs Prevention, Control, and Management Techniques. The webinar included presentations from multiple practitioners including Professor David Sample of Virginia Tech, Kevin Sellner of Hood College, Jackie McCloud of Watsonville, CA, Professor John Rodgers of Clemson University, and Professor David Caron of Univ. of Southern California. The practitioners shared case studies and success stories regarding HABs mitigation across the country. A recording of the webinar is posted here.
SE ELG Compliance Dates
In response to administrative petitions for reconsideration, EPA is formally proposing to postpone compliance dates in the steam electric ELG originally published in the Federal Register November 3, 2015. Specifically, EPA proposes to postpone the compliance dates for the new, and more stringent, “BAT” effluent limitations and pretreatment standards for the following waste streams: fly ash transport water, bottom ash transport water, flue gas desulfurization (“FGD”) wastewater, flue gas mercury control wastewater, and gasification wastewater. These compliance dates are postponed until EPA completes reconsideration of the 2015 Rule. A prepublication of this proposed rule can be found here. The proposed rule will have a 30-day comment period.
CWA-SDWA Integration
On the heels of ACWA’s mid-year meeting in Washington, D.C., ACWA co-hosted a successful workshop on CWA-SDWA integration with ASDWA, GWPC, and EPA. We identified a variety of action items which ACWA aims to help with in the coming months, including: cross-program education between CWA and SDWA programs, sharing state program coordination examples, updating tools such as the CWA-SDWA integration checklist as we learn more from integration pilot studies, developing a clearinghouse for source water protection funding sources, and usage of EPA tools such as the Healthy Watershed Assessment for source water protection efforts. If you are interested in learning more and even potentially becoming involved, please contact Julian Gonzalez for more information.
June 6th SWC Webinar on Emergency Planning
The Source Water Collaborative, of which ACWA is a member, is holding a webinar focusing on linking source water protection and emergency response and preparedness, featuring: Alan Roberson, Executive Director of ASDWA, Greg Prelewicz, of Fairfax Water, and Steve Beiber, of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. This webinar will leverage the case study from the spill on the Potomac River (in Virginia) in November 2016 to provide recommendations for a variety of participants including water utilities, and federal, state, and local governments. To register for the webinar, which is on June 6th from 2-3 pm ET, click here.
