On Friday, 9/16, EPA awarded Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) funding to the first 18 states across the country for water infrastructure improvements. The BIL allocates more than $50 billion over five years toward repairing the nation’s water infrastructure. More than $1.1 billion in BIL capitalization grants have been issued to 18 states through the State Revolving Funds (SRFs), with additional capitalization grants forthcoming. The grants mark the first significant distribution of BIL water infrastructure funds. State allocations were previously announced.
EPA awarded SRF capitalization grants to 18 states, including: Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia. The Federal funding announced on 9/16 represents 2022 Fiscal Year (FY22) awards for states that have submitted and obtained EPA’s approval of their plans for use of the funding. Capitalization grants will continue to be awarded, on a rolling, state-by-state basis, as more states receive approval throughout FY22. States will also receive additional awards over the next four years. Once grants are awarded, state programs will begin to deliver the funds as grants and loans to communities across their state. More information on EPA’s infrastructure funding efforts can be found here.
September 16, 2022
This week, EPA posted information detailing collective bargaining negotiations between U.S. rail carriers and union-represented workers and potential impacts to the chemical supply chain. After the recent issuance of a report in August that included recommendations for ending the stalemate in negotiations, the rail carriers and unions reached a tentative agreement on September 15, potentially avoiding a stoppage of rail carrier service at the end of a negotiation cooling off period on September 16. This agreement may result in the lifting of embargoes on the transport of hazardous materials, allowing for production and transport of chlorine products to begin to return to normal levels.
On September 12, rail carriers began to issue embargoes on the transport of hazardous materials, which include chlorine products needed for water and wastewater treatment. The purpose of the embargoes is to avoid the potential for safety-sensitive and hazardous materials being left unsecured and unprotected in the event of a work stoppage.
September 14, 2022
AWWA invites water utilities, sections, states, and other partners to join the Association in recognizing Source Water Protection Week from September 25 – October 1, 2022. Throughout the week, advocates will be raising awareness about the importance of caring for the nation’s drinking water sources. Keeping our rivers, lakes and underground wells free from pollution makes it easier and less expensive to keep drinking water safe and healthy. Source Water Protection Week materials are now available, and many additional resources will be added soon. For more information about how to spread the word and celebrate, visit the AWWA website.
September 13, 2022
On Tuesday, October 4, 2022, from 2:00pm – 4:00pm (eastern time), the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Center for Scientific Evidence in Public Issues (AAAS EPI Center) will hold a webinar on “Advances in PFAS Destruction.” During the webinar, expert panelists will share the scientific evidence related to current and emerging technologies on PFAS destruction to support decision-makers in their state or community. There will be a question-and-answer session following expert presentations from the webinar panelists. The panelists and presentations are:
For more information and to register for the webinar, visit the website here.
Tags: PFAS
On September 7, California’s State Water Resources Control Board unanimously approved a proposed policy handbook establishing a standard method for testing and reporting drinking water supplies for microplastics. The development of this new testing method was required by a California state law passed in 2018. Under this law, California must use this method to test drinking water for four years. The policy handbook outlines a two-phase iterative approach for monitoring, with each phase lasting two years along with an interim period between the two to “allow for State Water Board staff to assess results from the first phase and plan the second phase of monitoring accordingly.” The plan states that, for both phases, public water systems and/or wholesaler providers will be ordered to monitor for microplastics in both source waters and/or treated drinking water.
September 9, 2022
Yesterday, the Biden Administration launched a website that provides a live dashboard to help communities see extreme weather and other hazards from climate change, while also providing maps projecting how each community could be impacted in the future. The new Climate Mapping for Resilience and Adaptation portal will help state, local, Tribal, and territorial governments and leaders better track real-time impacts and access federal resources for long-term planning.
In addition to providing more detailed, location-specific data about climate threats, the new portal also brings together multiple federal information sources and funding opportunities to help communities better prepare for and respond to climate impacts—including resilience funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The portal’s Assessment Tool utilizes information from federal initiatives including: Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, Building Code Adoption Tracking Portal, and Updated Sea Level Rise data.
Click here for more information.
The U.S. House of Representatives approved fiscal year 2023 appropriations under HR 8294 on July 20, 2022. The bill combines the text of six fiscal year 2023 spending bills for Transportation-HUD, Agriculture, Energy-Water, Financial Services, Interior-Environment, and Military Construction-VA. The Senate Appropriations Committee released their bills on July 28, 2022; however the bills have not yet been voted on by the senate. A summary of the senate Interior-Environment appropriations bill, as well as the full text are available. As the government fiscal year comes to an end on September 30th, Congress will likely take up a stopgap funding measure to avoid a partial government shutdown, as requested by President Biden’s office last week. President Biden’s office will be providing technical assistance to congress on a short-term continuing resolution, expected to provide stopgap funding through mid-December.
September 8, 2022
Last Friday (9/2), EPA announced the approval of two programmatic waivers from the requirements under the Build America, Buy America Act (BABA). The first, an Adjustment Period Waiver for the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds (SRF), exempts SRF projects that submitted engineering plans and specifications to a state agency before May 14, 2022 – the day BABA went into effect. The second waiver is a temporary public interest waiver for selected water infrastructure and water resources protection programs under EPA’s Office of Water. Both can found on EPA’s ‘Approved BABA Waivers’ page. ASDWA provided support for both waivers when they were initially proposed,
September 7, 2022
Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) submitted a “Technical Cybersecurity Support Plan for Public Water Systems” to Congress as required under the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), commonly referred to as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, or BIL. Congress directed EPA, in coordination with Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), to develop the report detailing their approach for providing voluntary support to public water systems (PWSs). The report follows the release of a separate document required under the BIL, the Prioritization Framework, that describes a methodology for prioritizing PWSs for technical cybersecurity support that “if degraded or rendered inoperable due to an incident, would lead to significant impacts on health and safety of the public.”
Pursuant to the BIL, the Support Plan outlines: “(i)…the methodology [as established by the Prioritization Framework] for identifying specific PWSs for which cybersecurity support should be prioritized, (ii)…timelines for making voluntary technical support for cybersecurity available to specific PWSs, (iii)…PWSs identified by [EPA], in coordination with [CISA], as needing technical support for cybersecurity, and (iv)…specific capabilities of [EPA] and [CISA] that may be utilized to provide support to PWSs…including (I) site vulnerability and risk assessments, (II) penetrations tests; and (III) any additional support determined to be appropriate by [EPA].”
Here’s a brief summary of the major components of the Plan:
ASDWA will continue to track developments as the Agency implements the Support Plan and will share information on new support resources as they become available.
September 1, 2022
EPA’s new Water Infrastructure and Cyber Resilience Division (formerly the Water Security Division) is gearing up for National Preparedness Month in September by holding a new Power Resilience Webinar Series and announcing the release of a new Wildfire Story Map.
For more information on CRWU projects, please contact Curt Baranowski (Baranowski.curt@epa.gov), Wesley Wiggins (Wiggins.wesley@epa.gov), and Audrey Ramming (ramming.audrey@epa.gov).
August 31, 2022
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