ASDWA

Category: Drinking Water Headlines

  • Full Agenda Now Available for ASDWA’s Virtual Annual Conference Next Week!

    The full agenda is now available and there is still time to register for the ASDWA’s virtual Annual Conference taking place next week from October 18-21, 2021.

    October 18-19, 2021: General registration is available for the Opening session and topic sessions that will feature a variety of speakers from states and a few other organizations to discuss the latest information and new ideas on important drinking water topics.

    • Opening Session: This session will feature the presentation of the Bridget O’Grady Excellence in Service Award, and provide EPA and Congressional updates.
    • Lead Service Line Inventories: This session will include speakers from states, EDF, and DC Water, and a states-only Teams meeting to discuss the Lead Service Line Inventory Framework.
    • California SAFER and Drinking Water Needs Assessment: This session will share information about the state’s innovative Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience (SAFER) program and needs assessment to help water systems that are most at risk.
    • PFAS: State Actions and Challenges: This session will share different state approaches for assessing and addressing PFAS and feature a panel discussion on successes and challenges.
    • Workforce: Operators & Small Systems: This session will highlight opportunities to address operator and small system workforce needs.

    October 20-21, 2021: Registration is limited for the State-EPA Roundtable (for states and EPA only) and the States-Only Roundtable. The State-EPA Roundtable agenda on October 20 will feature sessions on Consumer Confidence Reports (CCRs), Data and Measures, SRF and Infrastructure, and Cybersecurity, and the conference will wrap up with the States-Only Roundtable on October 21.

    Visit the ASDWA 2021 Annual Conference web page to register and view the October 18-19 full agenda. Please plan to join us!

  • EPA Releases 2021 Climate Adaptation Plan

    EPA has released its 2021 Climate Adaptation Plan that was developed in response to Executive Order 14008: Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. The Plan includes five priority actions the Agency will take over the next four years to increase human and ecosystem resilience as the climate changes and disruptive impacts.

    1. Integrate climate adaptation into EPA programs, policies, rulemaking processes, and enforcement activities.
    2. Consult and partner with tribes, states, territories, local governments, environmental justice organizations, community groups, businesses, and other federal agencies to strengthen adaptive capacity and increase the resilience of the nation, with a particular focus on advancing environmental justice.
    3. Implement measures to protect the Agency’s workforce, facilities, critical infrastructure, supply chains, and procurement processes from the risks posed by climate change.
    4. Measure and evaluate performance.
    5. Identify and address climate adaptation science needs.

    For more information, visit the EPA website.

  • EPA Announces $21.7 Million for FY 2021 Small System Training and Technical Assistance Grants

    On October 1, EPA announced the availability of $21.7 million for FY 2021 grant funding for training and technical assistance providers to improve water quality and enable small public water systems to provide safe drinking water. Eligible applicants are nonprofit organizations, nonprofit private universities and colleges, and public institutions of higher education. Applicants will have 60 days to apply and awards are expected by spring 2022. For more information, visit the EPA website.

  • USGS 2022 Funding and Information Sessions for National Ground-Water Monitoring Network

    The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) will award up to $1.7 million in cooperative agreements to support participation in the National Ground-Water Monitoring Network (NGWMN) in 2022. The NGWMN is designed as a cooperative groundwater data collection, management, and reporting system that will include data from selected wells in existing federal, state, tribal, and local groundwater monitoring networks. The network is envisioned as a long-term collaborative partnership that will help determine regional and national trends in groundwater levels and groundwater quality and facilitate the evaluation of transboundary groundwater resources.

    Cooperative agreements will provide support for both new and existing data providers in the NGWMN. The USGS will fund new data providers to select and classify sites within existing monitoring programs, to set up web services that will link the data to the NGWMN portal and to produce a report describing this process. Existing data providers will receive funds for web services and to update data, and may receive funds to collect new data and maintain wells or drill new wells, and for monitoring equipment.

    The proposal submittal period for this funding opportunity started on September 28, 2021 and is open through January 20, 2022 on Grants.gov, number G22AS00002. For more information, view the one-page summary and visit the website that include links to participate in the informational session Teams meetings that will be held October 20, November 10, and December 8, 2021. For questions, contact Daryll Pope of USGS at dpope@usgs.gov.

  • State Associations Request Additional Program Funding From Congress

    This week the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA) joined the Association of Clean Water Administrators (ACWA), the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS), and the Western States Water Council (WSWC) in a letter to US House and Senate leadership requesting increased resources for state environmental departments to administer their programs and support new infrastructure investments. The associations called upon Congress to fully fund the State and Tribal Assistance Grants (STAG), including the Safe Drinking Water Act Public Water System Supervision grant and the Clean Water Act Sec. 106 grants and Sec. 319 grants to ensure that insufficient staffing and administrative resources do not cause delays or bottlenecks with projects funded through the American Rescue Plan Act funds and expected supplemental funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal and Reconciliation package.

  • Register Now for the Virtual ASDWA Annual Conference!

    On October 18-21, 2021, ASDWA is holding its virtual Annual Conference. Registration is now open and free to attend. Please join us to participate in the following sessions.

    • Monday and Tuesday, October 18-19, 2021: General registration is available for the Opening session and topic sessions on Lead Service Line Inventories, the California SAFER and Drinking Water Needs Assessment, PFAS: State Actions and Challenges, and Workforce: Operators & Small Systems.
    • Wednesday and Thursday, October 20-21, 2021: Registration is limited for the State-EPA Roundtable (for states and EPA only) on October 20 and the States-Only Roundtable on October 21.

    For more information and to register, visit the ASDWA 2021 Annual Conference web page.

  • ASDWA, ACWA, and ECOS Submit Joint Comments on EPA’s Proposed TSCA PFAS Reporting Rule

    On September 27, ASDWA, the Association of Clean Water Administrators (ACWA), and the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) submitted a joint letter of comment to EPA on the “TSCA Section 8(a)(7) Reporting and Recordkeeping Requirements for PFAS.” Our joint comments support the promulgation of a robust, comprehensive, and transparent rule as part of a holistic, whole-of-government approach that will help states’ and water systems’ understanding of, and ability to assess and address PFAS. The letter provides seven specific recommendations for EPA to:

    1. Establish Consistent Annual PFAS Reporting Requirements
    2. Provide Easy Access to Reporting Data
    3. Require Reporting of PFAS in Articles
    4. Amend the PFAS Structural Definition and Applicability to Include Entire Class of PFAS
    5. Limit CBI PFAS Data Reporting Exemptions
    6. Require Analytical Methods Reporting
    7. Clarify and Require Reporting when the Specific PFAS is Not Known or Reasonably Ascertainable
    8. Work with States to Ensure PFAS Reporting Addresses Needs Across Programs

    For more information, read the letter here.

  • EPA OIG Report on Need for an Agencywide Strategic Action Plan to Address Harmful Algal Blooms

    The EPA Office of Inspector General (OIG) has released report #21-E-0264 entitled, “EPA Needs an Agencywide Strategic Action Plan to Address Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs).” The OIG report says that by creating a strategy, EPA can reduce HABs and their impacts on human health and the environment (and drinking water sources) using the authorities and tools provided by the Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Acts, and enable improved collaboration with EPA offices and regions, and federal, state, and external partners. The OIG recommends that EPA’s strategic action plan should describe how the Agency will maintain and enhance a national program to forecast, monitor, and respond to freshwater HABs. The OIG also found that EPA has not fulfilled its 2015 commitment to Congress to develop additional drinking water health advisories for cyanotoxins and needs to take further action to develop revised nitrogen and phosphorus numeric water quality criteria recommendation. For more information and to view the full report and report at a glance, visit the EPA website.

  • Congressional Update: Shutdown Avoided & Infrastructure Package

    On Thursday, the Senate passed a bipartisan stopgap funding measure in a 65-35 vote to keep the government open after the new fiscal year begins on October 1st. The Senate was able to pass the measure after dropping a provision that would suspend the debt ceiling until after the midterm elections. That provision had been included in an earlier version of the stopgap funding measure, which Republicans blocked earlier this week on a procedural vote of 48-50.File:US Congress 02.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

    The House then voted to pass the amended continuing resolution (HR 5305) after the Senate passed the measure. Once President Biden signs the bill into law, federal agencies’ current spending levels are extended through December 3rd, giving additional time for Congress to reach agreement on fiscal 2022 appropriations.

    Up next, the House will now turn to the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, which has passed the Senate. House leadership is working to strike a deal with progressive Democrats, who have said they won’t vote for the infrastructure package before reaching a deal on the larger $3.5 trillion reconciliation spending bill. Congress still has a few weeks to work through the debt ceiling suspension; the House passed a stand-alone bill this week to waive the statutory debt ceiling until after the midterm elections. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are not supporting the bill and are pushing for Democrats to use the reconciliation process to pass the debt-ceiling increase so that it can pass along party lines with a simple majority, rather than the traditional 60 votes needed to pass a bill in the Senate.

  • WRF Webcast on PFAS in Biosolids

    On Thursday, October 14, from 1:00 – 2:00pm (eastern time), the Water Research Foundation (WRF) will host a free webcast entitled, “PFAS in Biosolids Under a Land Application Scenario: Biotic Weather, Leaching, and Transport.” This webcast will focus on Assessing Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substance Release from Finished Biosolids (project 5042). During the webcast, Dr. Erica McKenzie with Temple University will describe the ongoing efforts to understand what factors influence PFAS partitioning between biosolids and surrounding water; and Dr. Charles Schaefer with CDM Smith will present findings from the completed microcosm study that assessed vertical transport of PFAS through a soil column, simulating land application of biosolids. Register for the webinar here.