Description
This bimonthly roundup features highlights of the hottest news storiesof recent months as reported in WATERWEEK, AWWA’s weekly newsletterto member utilities. Topics covered include: water suppliers want their treatment plants excluded from a bipartisan chemical security billbefore the Senate; a federal district court inFlorida is considering another case addressing whether transfers of nutrient-pollutedambient waters by South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) flood-control pumpsfall within the permitting requirements of Section 402 of the Clean Water Act (CWA); a new AWWA report providescomprehensive guidance to helpwater and wastewater utilitiesestablish mutual aid and assistancenetworks to respond to naturaldisasters or other wateremergencies; a National Research Council (NRC) panel that reviewed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) limits on fluoride indrinking water concluded that USEPA’s current maximum contaminant level goal (MCLG) for fluoride does not protectchildren from suffering severe enamel fluorosis and should be lowered to do so; acting to aid USEPA’s effort to proposerevisions to the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR), the National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC) on March 10 approved keyparts of a larger report prepared by the Working Group on Public Education Requirementsfor the LCR that will require U.S. water utilities to undertake expanded efforts to communicate lead risks totargeted at-risk audiences; Massachusetts water suppliers would have to reduce perchlorate levels to 2 µg/L androutinely monitor for the rocket-fuel chemical under a regulation proposed by the stateDepartment of Environmental Protection (DEP); a new report funded bythe Water Industry Technical Action Fund concludes that a perchlorate standard as high as 24.5 µg/L “should pose little or no incremental risk tothe large majority of individuals in the most sensitive subpopulations exposed in theUnited States at current levels of perchlorate in water”; a USEPA advisory boardhas concluded that the affordability of water and wastewater service in the United States “is primarily ahousehold problem” that is best addressed “through careful design of utility policiesregarding subsidies, rates, collections, and financial assistance”; USEPA reports in its newest CWSRF annual report that it has, along with various states, invested almost $54 billion over the past 18 years in theClean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) program to improve wastewaterinfrastructure; and, legislation was introduced March 8 in the U.S. Senate toaddress the deteriorating conditions of the nation’s drinking water systems, roads, bridges,and other public works by establishing a National Commission on the Infrastructure ofthe United States and charging it with completing a study of current conditions andrecommending federal priorities in three years.
Product Details
- Edition:
- Vol. 98 – No. 7
- Published:
- 07/01/2006
- Number of Pages:
- 15
- File Size:
- 1 file , 81 KB
- Note:
- This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus
