Government Affairs Committee Update May 2022

gov't update2022 National Water Week Fly-In
The 2022 National Water Week Fly-In was attended by two PNCWA representatives from Oregon who had great informative and inspirational meetings with their legislators. More details to come next month.

Water Affordability
The National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), along with the Water Environment Federation (WEF) and American Water Works Association (AWWA), filed comments in opposition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proposed 2022 Financial Capability Assessment Guidance and asked that the proposal not be finalized. NACWA opposes the guidance for multiple reasons, including that it is inconsistent with the Biden Administration's professed focus on environmental justice concerns. WEF, NACWA, and AWWA provided comments and recommendations and released a joint statement of their opposition.

The Proposed 2022 Clean Water Act (CWA) Financial Capability Assessment (FCA) Guidance outlines strategies for communities to support affordable utility rates and investments in water infrastructure. These investments will support CWA implementation.

The suggestion from the associations mentioned in the joint statement is for the EPA to instead use the guidance proposed in 2020 (released in 2021), because it:

  • provides two viable methods for assessing financial capabilities;
  • includes the lowest quintile residential income indicator in a framework that supported meaningful decision-criteria; and
  • represents a straight-forward evolution of current enforcement practices.

NACWA released a separate opposition statement illustrating its concerns, including that affordability is an environmental justice issue and water policy issues should be guided by policy experts, not enforcement personnel. Other specific issues brought to light by NACWA include these:

  • The 2022 Proposed FCA guidance no longer considers financial impacts on low-income households.
  • The EPA has effectively abandoned the use of the Lowest Quintile Residential Indicator (LQRI) metric from the 2020 Proposed FCA Guidance that examined the costs of planned compliance measures on economically disadvantaged households.
  • The EPA’s request for public comment centers on the merit of these two approaches but does not seek comment on the more important question of whether it is appropriate to abandon the LQRI metric from the 2020 Proposed FCA Guidance.
  • The 2022 Proposed FCA guidance imposes a new requirement on utilities to conduct a Financial Alternatives Analysis.

In AWWA’s separate statement regarding the proposed guidance, it mentions that this proposed guidance is “inconsistent with EPA’s recently announced strategic plan and frequently spoken-of focus on achieving environmental justice.” AWWA references a National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) report that provides recommendations that would help revise the proposed guidance.

A letter to Congress from 10 water associations including WEF regarding The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) notes that a hazardous substance designation under CERCLA could pose severe unintended consequences on water systems. Find more info here.

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