At AMWA’s 2018 Water Policy Conference in March, water executives from across the country convened in Washington, D.C., to exchange ideas with national policymakers and discuss high profile water issues with peers.
A panel of utility executives from Houston, Key West and Puerto Rico shared their first-hand resilience experiences from the devastating hurricane season of 2017. Providing the federal government’s perspective and lessons learned was the Federal Emergency Management Agency official who led the agency’s on-the-ground response to hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Two sessions on alternative project delivery and public private partnerships (P3s) highlighted innovative financing approaches underway at water systems in Texas, Nevada and California. Utility leaders involved in various non-traditional procurement processes joined a private sector P3 expert to discuss their experiences and outlooks on how to best develop and execute project delivery alternatives to design-bid-build.
With infrastructure financing a hot topic in the nation’s capital, key White House officials detailed the administration’s infrastructure plan, while senators and representatives from both sides of the aisle described how they see water infrastructure initiatives progressing through Congress this year. A panel of Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) experts from EPA provided an update on the initial round of WIFIA funding and plans for a second round based on new funding in the omnibus FY18 appropriations bill.
Top EPA Water Office officials offered updates on the agency’s regulatory priorities. EPA’s ongoing effort to replace the 2015 Clean Water Rule is the top emphasis for 2018. Although a draft proposal is scheduled to be released in April, conference participants learned the draft most likely won’t be issued until this summer. No timeframe was revealed for a revised Lead and Copper Rule, but concerning perchlorate regulation, EPA is on a tight schedule to issue a proposal by the end of October.
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PowerPoint presentations from the conference are online at www.amwa.net/presentations.