This bimonthly roundup features highlights of the hottest news stories
of recent months as reported in WATERWEEK, AWWA's weekly newsletter
to member utilities. Topics covered include: water suppliers want their treatment plants excluded from a bipartisan chemical security bill
before the Senate; a federal district court in
Florida is considering another case addressing whether transfers of nutrient-polluted
ambient waters by South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) flood-control pumps
fall within the permitting requirements of Section 402 of the Clean Water Act (CWA); a new AWWA report provides
comprehensive guidance to help
water and wastewater utilities
establish mutual aid and assistance
networks to respond to natural
disasters or other water
emergencies; a National Research Council (NRC) panel that reviewed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) limits on fluoride in
drinking water concluded that USEPA's current maximum contaminant level goal (MCLG) for fluoride does not protect
children from suffering severe enamel fluorosis and should be lowered to do so; acting to aid USEPA's effort to propose
revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule (LCR), the National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC) on March 10 approved key
parts of a larger report prepared by the Working Group on Public Education Requirements
for the LCR that will require U.S. water utilities to undertake expanded efforts to communicate lead risks to
targeted at-risk audiences; Massachusetts water suppliers would have to reduce perchlorate levels to 2 µg/L and
routinely monitor for the rocket-fuel chemical under a regulation proposed by the state
Department of Environmental Protection (DEP); a new report funded by
the Water Industry Technical Action Fund concludes that a perchlorate standard as high as 24.5 µg/L "should pose little or no incremental risk to
the large majority of individuals in the most sensitive subpopulations exposed in the
United States at current levels of perchlorate in water"; a USEPA advisory board
has concluded that the affordability of water and wastewater service in the United States "is primarily a
household problem" that is best addressed "through careful design of utility policies
regarding 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 the
Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) program to improve wastewater
infrastructure; and, legislation was introduced March 8 in the U.S. Senate to
address the deteriorating conditions of the nation's drinking water systems, roads, bridges,
and other public works by establishing a National Commission on the Infrastructure of
the United States and charging it with completing a study of current conditions and
recommending federal priorities in three years.
| Edition : | Vol. 98 - No. 7 |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 81 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 15 |
| Published : | 07/01/2006 |
