The Chairman of the Senate Water and Wildlife Subcommittee, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), is slated to speak at AMWA’s 2012 Water Policy Conference, to be held March 18-21 in Washington, D.C. Sen. Cardin’s subcommittee has direct jurisdiction over the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. The senator has worked with AMWA on legislation to help drinking water systems adapt to changing hydrological conditions and has steadfastly supported funding the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.

 

The program also added Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), member of the House Ways and Means and Budget Committees and one of Congress' leading voices on funding water and wastewater infrastructure, and Al Martinez-Fonts, Executive Vice President of the U.S. Forum for Policy Innovation at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who will discuss the Chamber’s focus on expanded investment in water infrastructure that is part of its 2012 Innovation Agenda. 

 

Registration and additional program information for the 2012 Water Policy Conference are online at www.amwa.net/cs/2012WPC.

 

 

WaterISAC published its semi-annual report, Threat Analysis for the Water Sector, which provides an overview of the threat environment to the water sector for the period of July 1 - December 31, 2011. The data and analysis are based on reports of incidents and suspicious activities, discussions with intelligence analysts and other sources.  The intent of the report is to promote discussion and increase security awareness among water and wastewater utilities. The document is available to WaterISAC Pro members only at https://portal.waterisac.org/portal/docs/DOC-15289.

EPA released a new tool that allows interactive searches and mapping of water pollutants. The Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR) Pollutant Loading Tool is designed to “help you determine who is discharging, what pollutants they are discharging and how much, and where they are discharging.” The DMR Tool is based on recent (2007-2010) data from a variety of sources, including EPA’s Permit Compliance System, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System and Toxics Release Inventory, and can be aggregated by geographical location, industry sector and pollutant. Access to the DMR tool and instructions for its use are available at: http://www.epa.gov/pollutantdischarges.

A newly published report by EPA’s National Water Program summarizes its recent progress towards achieving the goals of its climate change strategy. The report “highlights the accomplishments of the National Water Program during 2010 and 2011 and touches upon EPA activities and efforts undertaken across EPA Headquarters, Regions, and the Large Aquatic Ecosystem Programs to address climate change impacts on water programs.” The 2010-2011 update, as well as previous years’ updates and other program materials, are available at http://water.epa.gov/scitech/climatechange/implementation.cfm.

 

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is reportedly considering introducing legislation that would allow EPA to reward communities with integrated wastewater and stormwater programs with a single, long-term National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. Currently, NPDES permits are limited to five-year terms and are issued separately for stormwater and sanitary sewer overflows, combined sewer overflows and municipal wastewater treatment plants.

 

EPA’s adoption of an integrated approach to wastewater and stormwater planning has been a priority of the nation’s wastewater systems, because it would allow communities to pursue long-term, all-encompassing approaches to wastewater management without having to renew multiple permits every five years. Supporters believe the reduced permitting burdens would encourage more communities to engage in integrated planning, which EPA has promoted in recent years.