| 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. |
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November 7, 2008
In this Issue:
Speculation Swirls on Obama Plans for EPA
Washington moved quickly to plan for the new Presidential administration, as speculation swirled about President-elect Obama’s environmental priorities and potential appointments to key posts at EPA and other agencies. Meanwhile, congressional leaders began work on an economic stimulus bill that will likely include significant funding for water infrastructure, and an internal fight broke out over leadership of a key committee with jurisdiction over drinking water and climate change legislation.
The President-elect’s transition team includes several individuals with significant EPA or environmental experience, including: Clinton EPA Administrator Carol Browner; Phil Schiliro, a former Chief of Staff to Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA); and Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), who has been a leading advocate on Great Lakes funding issues. The transition will include agency-by-agency reviews, and published reports indicate that Robert Sussman, a deputy EPA administrator under Browner, will lead the review of EPA. EPA has designated Louise Wise, a career executive in the Office of Policy, Economics and Innovation, will coordinate the agency’s transition efforts.
With regard to future leadership at EPA, environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was surprise addition to the list of those being mentioned for the post of administrator. Kennedy is said to be the preferred choice of national environmental groups. Others on the speculative short list include: Lisa Jackson, Chief of Staff to Governor Jon Corzine (D-NJ) and a former Commissioner of the Pennsylvania DEP; Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Control Board and a former EPA official; Kathleen McGinty, head of the Pennsylvania DEQ and former chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality; and Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, an Obama favorite who was also considered for Vice President.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), announced his intention to challenge Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) for chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Waxman has advocated more aggressive climate legislation and has also been a long-standing advocate for greater environmental regulation. His election as chair of the committee with jurisdiction over drinking water and climate issues could complicate efforts by the Obama administration to approach these issues with a more consensus-based approach.
Potential Stimulus Funding for Water Infrastructure
Obama repeated his support for economic stimulus legislation at a post-election news conference, and House and Senate staff are working to include water infrastructure as part of a package that could be enacted in a lame-duck session or as the first order of business in January. A $61 billion stimulus plan approved by the House before the election included $7.5 billion for water infrastructure, but municipal and water sector organizations are seeking to increase that figure to at least $10 billion and possibly higher. The U.S. Conference of Mayors asked for $18.75 billion in water infrastructure grant funding.
Key issues to be decided as part of water infrastructure funding in any stimulus bill include: distributing funds through the existing SRFs or directly to cities, as advocated by the U.S. Conference of Mayors; what mixture of grants versus loans should be allowed; strategies to address matching requirements that may be hard for cities and states to meet in light of the difficult borrowing market; the possibility of an expanded list of eligible projects; and the need to streamline state procurement procedures in order to get stimulus monies “on the street” as soon as possible.
OMB Clears EPA Pharmaceutical Disposal Proposed Rule to Facilitate Drug Take Back Programs
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on November 4 cleared an EPA proposal that would relax waste rules for pharmaceuticals in an effort to boost drug take-back programs and ease disposal requirements for health care facilities -- a move that is aimed at discouraging consumers from dumping drugs into the wastewater stream. The proposal -- one of several steps EPA is adopting to address concerns about the presence of pharmaceuticals in drinking water -- is intended to ease disposal requirements within hospitals, pharmacies and other health care facilities and encourage drug take-back programs in order to prevent disposal in the wastewater stream. According to EPA’s Office of Water, improper disposal of drugs can account for about 10 percent of pharmaceutical influent at water treatment operations. The proposal aims to help overcome complications from RCRA regulations, which subjects many chemicals found in pharmaceuticals to hazardous waste rules that set strict waste handling, record-keeping and personnel training requirements and demand drugs be incinerated. The rule proposes to list pharmaceuticals under the Resource Conservation & Reclamation Act (RCRA) as “universal waste,” a category that has less stringent disposal regulations than the law's hazardous waste listing. The notice of the OMB review is located at: http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eoDetails?rrid=116100. To view a summary of the proposed rule, click here.
ASIWPCA Adopts Plan to Seek Improvements and Partnership With EPA
The Association of State and Interstate Water Pollution Control Administrators (ASIWPCA) announced on November 4 the adoption of a plan for 2009 focusing on heightened collaboration with EPA to improve the nation's water quality. The plan includes final recommendations by on a range of issues from program funding to climate change. ASIWPCA recommended increasing funding to restore and upgrade the nation's wastewater infrastructure, updating and streamlining National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit requirements, and improving management of point and non-point water pollution. ASIWPCA also called for a formal role in the jurisdictional determination process. The seven issue areas are water quality standards, monitoring and assessment, NPDES, nutrients, sustainable watersheds, climate change, and Clean Water Act jurisdiction. ASIWPCA cited a growing need to continue to restore and upgrade the nation's wastewater infrastructure and recommended that $5 billion annually be appropriated for wastewater infrastructure through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund and called for $1 billion annually to “bridge the funding gap” for the Clean Water Act's core program. ASIWPCA's Call for Change is available at http://www.asiwpca.org.
EPA Issues Interim Guidance on Developing an Operational Strategy for Contamination Warning Systems
EPA announced on November 4 that it has issued guidance to assist drinking water utilities with developing standard operating procedures for the monitoring and surveillance components of a contamination warning system. Interim Guidance on Developing Consequence Management Plans for Drinking Water Utilities will aid utilities with developing plans for validating, responding to, and recovering from a contamination incident in the drinking water distribution system. These guidance documents reflect lessons learned from EPA’s implementation of a comprehensive drinking water contamination warning system pilot in Cincinnati. Further, EPA has released a detailed report, Cincinnati Pilot Post-Implementation System Status, which describes enhancements associated with the pilot in the areas of online water quality monitoring, consumer complaint surveillance, public health surveillance, contaminant sampling and analysis, physical security, and consequence management. The document link below, Water Security Initiative Available Products, provides a brief summary of these publications, as well as earlier documents from the Water Security Initiative. These documents, along with additional information about the Water Security Initiative, are available at http://cfpub.epa.gov/safewater/watersecurity/initiative.cfm.
Final Amendments Issued for Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act Notification Requirements
EPA announced in the November 3 Federal Register that it is finalizing changes to the Emergency Planning Notification, Emergency Release Notification and Hazardous Chemical Reporting regulations that were proposed on June 8, 1998. EPA proposed four major revisions and provided draft guidance on various reporting options that States and local agencies may wish to consider in implementing the hazardous chemical reporting requirements. Specifically, the changes in this final action include: (1) Finalizing some of the proposed revisions on applying threshold quantity and the reporting of mixtures under EPCRA sections 311 and 312; (2) removing the Tier I and II inventory forms and instructions from the CFR, as well as making some minor changes to the forms and instructions; and (3) codifying certain existing policies and interpretations in 40 CFR parts 355 and 370. The action also: (1) Re-writes the regulations in 40 CFR parts 355 and 370 in plain language, using a question and answer format; (2) re-numbers and re-organizes each section in 40 CFR parts 355 and 370; and (3) adds tables in order to improve the clarity and understanding of certain reporting requirements. This final rule is effective on December 3, 2008. To view the Federal Register notice, visit: http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-WASTE/2008/November/Day-03/f25329.htm.
Quote of the Week
Live neither in the past nor in the future, but let each day's work absorb your entire energies, and satisfy your widest ambition.
- Sir William Osler (1849 - 1919), to his students
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.