AWWA Legislative Director Tommy Holmes Discusses Pending Chemical Security Legislation: 
AWWA Legislative Director Tommy Holmes reviews the enacted economic stimulus bill: 
AWWA Regulatory Specialist Cynthia Lane discusses AWWA activities on climate change issues: 
AWWA Regulatory Engineer Steve Via reviews new project on drinking water advisories: 
See video archives | Water Utility Council Advancing
New Water Infrastructure Tool At its Spring meeting in Washington, D.C., March 25-26, the AWWA Water Utility Council accepted a recently completed report on potential new infrastructure investment tool and voted to seek its adoption in legislation on Capitol Hill. The two tool is a new federal water infrastructure bank. Senate Committee Passes Bill
to Boost SRF ProgramsThe Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on May 14 passed S. 1005, a bill that authorizes $14.7 billion to capitalize drinking water state revolving loan fund (SRF) programs over five years. S. 1005, the Water Infrastructure Financing Act, also makes a number of administrative improvements to the SRF program that AWWA has been seeking for some time: the replacement and rehabilitation of aging infrastructure and security upgrades would be explicitly eligible for SRF loans, greater weight is given to SRF applicants that can demonstrate long-term financial planning and asset management programs, EPA would be required to study ways to streamline SRF application processes, and other improvements. Now the bill must go before the full Senate, and if that body passes the bill, then the House of Representatives. See more details in an AWWA Washington Report. Members of Congress Drafting
Chemical Security Bill for WaterAlthough no bill has been introduced yet, members of Congress are working on legislation that would include drinking water utilities in federal chemical facility security law for the first time. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would likely have primary jurisdiction over the program. The existing law on chemical facility security -- targeted primarily at chemical manufacturers and similar businesses -- will expire at the end of September. The legislation being drafted would renew that law, as well as include drinking water. Watch these pages for more news in the near future. A major concern for AWWA and other members of the drinking water community is what kinds of provisions this bill will have regarding "inherently safer technologies." AWWA strongly believes that the choice of chemicals and processes, such as those for disinfecting drinking water, must remain with local officials directly answerable to local consumers. AWWA Members 'Fly In' to DC
to Meet with Members of CongressMore than 130 AWWA members from 48 states converged on Washington, D.C., March 24-25 to communicate the interests and concerns of the drinking water community to the House of Representatives and the Senate in the association's eighth annual Water Matters! Fly-In. The key issues this year were water infrastructure investment, chemical facility security, climate change and appropriations. The 2010 Fly-In will also be March 24-25. |
