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.

October 17, 2008

In this Issue:
• NRC Issues Report on Current State and Future Direction of EPA Stormwater Regulatory Program
• House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Release “Discussion Draft” of Climate Change Bill
• USGS Provides Water Quality Information in Format Compatible with EPA
• Science Advisory Board Requests Candidate Nominations for EPA Dioxin Reassessment Panel
• Clean Water Act Celebrates 36th Anniversary
• WEFTEC 2008 Government Affairs Committee Activities

NRC Issues Report on Current State and Future Direction of EPA Stormwater Regulatory Program
According to a new report released on October 15 from the National Research Council, radical changes to EPA's stormwater program are necessary to reverse degradation of fresh water resources and ensure progress toward the Clean Water Act's goal of "fishable and swimmable" waters, says a Increased water volume and pollutants from stormwater have degraded water quality and habitats in virtually every urban stream system.  To provide meaningful regulation, all stormwater and other wastewater discharge permits should be based on watershed boundaries instead of political boundaries.  Moreover, the program should integrate stormwater management and land management practices, and focus less on chemical pollutants in the stormwater and more on the increased flow of water. To view the NRC press release, click here. To order the full report, click here.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Release “Discussion Draft” of Climate Change Bill
On October 7, 2008, John Dingell (D-MI), Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Rick Boucher (D-VA), Chairman of that committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality, released a “discussion draft” of a bill to establish an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  The subcommittee and committee will have initial jurisdiction over climate change legislation in the House.  The 461-page draft bill covers approximately 88 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and would reduce covered emissions to six percent below 2005 levels by the year 2020, 44 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, and 80 percent below 2005 levels by 2050.  Sources “covered” by the cap would include:  power plants, producers and importers of petroleum and other fossil-based fuels, large industrial facilities, producers and importers of other bulk gases, natural gas local distribution companies, and geologic sequestration sites.    Rather than including smaller sources (those that emit less than 25,000 tons per year) under the cap, the draft bill would provide the EPA with authority to establish industry-specific emission standards.

This bill is likely to receive greater attention beginning in January 2009 when the new Congress convenes.  WEF will continue to monitor climate change legislation and report on any significant developments.  In the meantime, visit energycommerce.house.gov to view a copy of the discussion draft.

USGS Provides Water Quality Information in Format Compatible with EPA
Water-quality data from the National Water Information System (NWIS) of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) can be readily accessed online in a comparable format to data housed in the Storage and Retrieval (STORET) water-quality system of EPA. The merged data provide enhanced geographic coverage and depiction of water-quality conditions across the Nation, and the integration of spatial and temporal information from multiple agencies and programs help support analyses that go beyond what individual agencies can achieve individually.  Data are retrievable in a comparable format developed collaboratively between USGS and USEPA. The results include discrete provisional and finalized results of physical, chemical, biological, and other descriptive water-quality characteristics using comparable naming conventions. Several file formats are available from the web services including Extensible Markup Language (XML), tab-delimited text, Microsoft Excel and Google Earth Keyhole Markup Language (KML).  The USEPA water-quality web service provides data from the STORET data warehouse that contains biological, chemical, and physical data on surface and ground water collected by federal, state and local agencies, Indian Tribes, volunteer groups, academics, and others. See http://www.epa.gov/storet/web_services.html.

The USGS water-quality web service provides data from the NWISweb database (http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis), which hosts 4.3 million samples and 72 million results representing approximately 368,000 sites across the United States from over a century of monitoring.  To access the USGS water-quality web service, please go to http://qwwebservices.usgs.gov.  

Science Advisory Board Requests Candidate Nominations for EPA Dioxin Reassessment Panel 
EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) announced in the October 15 Federal Register that it is soliciting nominations of nationally recognized scientists for consideration of membership on an SAB Panel to provide advice on EPA's reassessment of the health risks from dioxin and related compounds.   EPA is now beginning to prepare a response to the 2004 National Academy of Science review of the dioxin reassessment. The Agency has requested that the SAB form an expert panel to provide independent advice regarding the draft technical plan, the revised draft, and the final draft of the EPA response to the recommendations of the NAS.  The SAB Staff Office requests nominations of recognized experts with specific experience and knowledge of dioxin in one or more of the following areas: (a) Epidemiology; (b) toxicology (with expertise in cancer, reproductive toxicology, developmental toxicology, immunotoxicology, dosimetry, toxicokinetics, mechanisms of action, or mixtures); (c) endocrinology; (d) lipid metabolism; (e) cardiovascular mechanisms of pathology; (f) risk assessment (with expertise in statistics, quantitative uncertainty analysis, or dose-response modeling); and (g) exposure assessment (with expertise in bioavailability, weathering, or effects of partitioning in environmental media). Updated communication materials have been developed that provide further information on dioxin and EPA's dioxin reassessment activity. These materials are available on EPA's Web site at http://www.epa.gov/ncea under Headlines and Nominations should be submitted by November 5, 2008. To view the Federal Register notice, click here.

Clean Water Act Celebrates 36th Anniversary
October 18 marks the anniversary of the federal Clean Water Act, a time when Americans can celebrate progress in meeting the water quality goals while acknowledging ongoing challenges communities continue to face.  Washington, D.C., is meeting these challenges head on.  Join senior officials from EPA, the District of Columbia, the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority (DC WASA), the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) on the banks of the Anacostia River to hear about successes our nation’s capital has had in addressing the challenges that face hundreds of communities across the nation as they seek to revitalize urban corridors challenged by degraded water quality -- aging infrastructure, combined sewer overflows, and stormwater runoff.  The occasion of the 36th anniversary of the Clean Water Act by highlight one example of a city working to restore its urban watershed with a combination of infrastructure improvements and innovative stormwater management.  The event took place at the Diamond Teague Park/Earth Conservation Corps Pump House, Corner of 1st Ave SE and Potomac Ave., across from Nationals Park on Thursday, Oct. 16, 10:30 am – 11:30 am.

WEFTEC 2008 Government Affairs Committee Activities
Several WEF Government Affairs Committee and Work Group meetings and sessions will be held during WEFTEC.08 in Chicago, IL. For a complete listing of WEF Government Affairs Committee activities, please visit the link on the WEF web page: http://www.wef.org/MembershipCareers/MembershipInformation/CommitteeList/GovernmentAffairsCommittee.htm.

Quote of the Week
The great thing about a computer notebook is that no matter how much you stuff into it, it doesn't get bigger or heavier.
- Bill Gates (1955 - ), Business @The Speed of Thought

This Week in Washington will be on hiatus for October 24 because of WEFTEC.08 travel to Chicago. TWIW will resume on October 31.

This Week in Washington is provided by the Water Environment Federation, Alexandria, VA and is available on-line at www.wef.org/GovernmentAffairs/TWIW.   To receive by e-mail, contact Sam Hadeed at shadeed@wef.org.