At the recent summer workshop in Denver, Tom Curtis described and section leaders discussed a new way to advocate on behalf of our utility membership: “Fly Ins” held in the state offices of your Senators and the district offices of your Representatives. The idea is that the AWWA Washington Office (working with the Water Utility Council)would identify critical and timely issues in Congress, develop materials for use by the sections, and issue a “call to action” at the grass roots level. Sections would then organize meetings in their Senators’ and Representatives’ local offices, and delegations representing our membership would meet with their Senators or Representatives (or their staff). By using the same AWWA materials to advocate on behalf of our utility members, we would ensure a common message in all states. We believe this represents an effective way to make AWWA even stronger as the voice of the water community in national affairs. This activity is not a substitute for the Washington DC Fly In – which we will still hold each spring – but in fact reinforces and multiplies the effectiveness of the Washington DC Water Matters! Fly In.
We are now entering the Congressional August recess, when many members of Congress will be at home in their state and district offices. And there are two timely and important issues on which we need your help. These are: SRF reform legislation. The House has passed legislation that streamlines the State Revolving Fund program for both water and wastewater and significantly expands authorized funding levels for these programs. Now the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has passed a companion bill. We would like the full Senate to pass the SRF bill and for Congress to send a bill to the President this year.
Chemical security legislation. The House has passed a bill which does several good things but also takes ultimate decision authority for the choice of disinfectant away from many water and wastewater systems. In contrast, the Senate Homeland Security Committee has reported a bill that extends the current program – from which the water sector is exempt – for another three years. We would like to see the Senate pass the Homeland Security Committee bill without amendment and insist the House accede to that bill in conference.
Please consider scheduling a meeting with your Senators during the August recess at one or more of their state offices. In addition or instead, please consider asking the utilities in your state to write their Senators in support of the AWWA position. Because it is likely that more than one person in your section has received this memo, it is very important that you coordinate section activities through one point of contact, such as the section chair. We will not be well served by different individuals seeking meetings with Senators on behalf of the same membership.
We have prepared several kinds of material to help in this effort:
• To identify the locations of your Senators’ state offices, please go to
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
• To download a letter template, please go to
http://www.awwa.org/files/GovtPublicAffairs/August_letter_template.doc
• To download background papers that you can place on your own Section or utility
letterhead, please go to
http://www.awwa.org/files/GovtPublicAffairs/August_Alert_SRF.doc and
http://www.awwa.org/files/GovtPublicAffairs/August_Alert-chemical.doc
• To download this whole package, including “Tell-Ask” talking points, please go
to http://www.awwa.org/files/GovtPublicAffairs/August_Alert_package.pdf
For questions or comments, please get in touch with one of us via phone or e-mail. Our website has our contact information if you don’t already have that. Many thanks for considering this kind of grassroots advocacy! Remember, if we don’t advocate on behalf of utilities and their customers, who will?
August XX, 2010
The Honorable XXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXX
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator XXXXXXXXXXXXXX,
Two urgent issues are facing the Senate that affect the provision of safe drinking water in the United States: chemical security and financing investment in water infrastructure.
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs recently reported out an improved version of chemical security that it received from the House, H.R. 2868. The Senate version, which is an amendment in the nature of a substitute, extends the current chemical security program for the chemical industry for another three years and maintains the existing exclusion of water utilities. Drinking water and wastewater utilities are very different from chemical industries, with unique public health and public safety missions that could be compromised if they are treated like industry.
That is why we are asking you to vote for H.R. 2868 as reported by the Senate Homeland Security Committee without amendment on the Senate floor. The other issue, investment in water infrastructure, centers around S. 1005, a bill that would not only boost funding for the drinking water and wastewater state revolving loanfund (SRF) programs, but make needed administrative improvements in those programs.
The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works reported out that bill last summer. Please ask Senate leadership to bring S. 1005 to the floor of the Senate, and please vote for it.
We have attached two background documents that further explain these issues. We look forward to discussing these issues with you further as they develop in the Senate.
Sincerely,
CHEMICAL FACILITY SECURITY
• Action Requested: Vote for the chemical security legislation, H.R. 2868, that was reported out of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs as is, without amendment.
Background
Legislation authorizing chemical facility security anti-terrorism standards (CFATS) expires in September of this year and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs has reported out a bill, H.R. 2868, to extend the program another three years. While drinking water and wastewater utilities are currently exempt from CFATS, there is interest in Congress in ending those exemptions. The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works is considering legislation that would expand federal chemical security programs to the water sector. The House did this in its earlier version of H.R. 2868.
However, since September 11, 2001, the water sector has already taken significant steps to address homeland security concerns. Water systems serving more than 3,300 people have developed vulnerability assessments and emergency response plans. Most have restricted access and enacted other measures to secure critical assets, including chemical supplies.
AWWA has invested significant resources in developing tools and standards that water systems use to ensure they are meeting the highest level of performance on security issues. In light of the steps the water sector has already taken to address security, it could make sense to require periodic updates of vulnerability assessments and security plans. It does not make sense (and could cause harm) to prohibit the use of particular chemicals, including chlorine gas, which is the aim of some well meaning, but misguided groups.
Drinking water utilities have been handling gaseous chlorine for more than 100 years and are well aware of what is required to safeguard this tool, from secure storage sites to scrubbers that neutralize leaks to warning systems. Utilities have addressed perimeter security at treatment facilities and reservoirs for years. Utilities that use certain chemicals are already subject to the risk management planning provisions under section 112(r) of the Clean Air Act; to emergency
planning and community notification provisions under the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act; and to additional state and local standards for safe storage and handling of hazardous chemicals. When Congress passed the Public Health Protection and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (Bioterrorism Act), which required vulnerability assessments and updates to existing emergency response plans, the water sector took those requirements several steps further and developed extensive training programs and tools for utilities.
Here are some other steps the water sector has taken to improve security:
A Guide to Choosing the Appropriate Disinfectant Disinfectants are the primary chemicals of concern in water security discussions, with chlorine gas the particular target. AWWA understands that the choice of disinfectant is based on a variety of critically important local factors, such as local water chemistry, local pathogens,environmental factors, and local infrastructure. In that light, AWWA in 2009 prepared a guide to assist drinking water and wastewater systems in re-evaluating their choice of disinfectant titled, Selecting Disinfectants in a Security Conscious Environment. The guide describes a step-bystep process to evaluate disinfection options that meets the unique needs of each water, wastewater, and water reuse system.
Selecting Disinfectants builds on existing water sector engineering practices, manuals of practice, costing tools, and public communication techniques to address disinfection objectives, both statutory and those set by the community served; reflect local circumstances; compare disinfection options consistently; take into account operational, process, and supply-chain reliability factors; as well as environmental, operator, and community safety considerations;
provide transparency in the decision-making process; and incorporate appropriate risk communication within the decision-making process and the community.
Development of Security Standards
AWWA formed a partnership with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ (ASME’s)
Innovative Technologies Institute last year to develop a standard for analyzing and managing the risks associated with malevolent attacks and naturally occurring hazards against critical water infrastructure. The final document received certification from ANSI this summer. It is titled, “ANSI/ASME-ITI/AWWA J100-10 Risk Analysis and Management for Critical Asset Protection (RAMCAP®) Standard for Risk and Resilience Management of Water and Wastewater Systems.”
This guidance is based on a methodology used for other critical infrastructure, called Risk Analysis and Management for Critical Asset Protection (RAMCAP®). When applied to the water sector, RAMCAP provides a consistent, efficient and technically sound methodology to identify, analyze, quantify and communicate the level of risk and resilience (i.e., the ability to withstand disruption or to quickly return to an acceptable level of service after an interruption) and the benefits of risk reduction and resilience enhancement. It provides a process for identifying security vulnerabilities, consequences and incident likelihood and provides methods to evaluate the options for reducing these elements of risk. The RAMCAP standard does include recognition of the effort undertaken to meet the requirements of the 2002 Bioterrorism Act.
Water Sector Security Organizations
The Water Sector Coordinating Council was formed in the fall of 2004 to enhance communications about security issues among water professionals, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Water Information Sharing and Analysis Center (WaterISAC) provides immediate, on-line sharing of threat and incident information among those institutions. The men and women who operate drinking water systems consider securing the water they treat and provide to their consumers to be an inherent and daily part of their jobs and calling.
Water and Wastewater Agency Response Networks (WARNs)
Most states now have a WARN, a network of utilities helping other utilities to respond to and recover from emergencies. WARNs provide a method whereby water/wastewater utilities that have sustained or anticipate damages from natural or human-caused incidents can provide and receive emergency aid and assistance in the form of personnel, equipment, materials, and other associated services as necessary from other water/wastewater utilities. They provide rapid, short-term deployment of emergency services to restore the critical operations of the affected water/wastewater utility.
###
Talking points for your use in meetings; do not leave behind
Chemical Facility Security
Tell
• Who you are and what you do.
• My utility serves …. [XX,XXX people in your district/state]
• We/I appreciate the opportunity to meet.
• Drinking water utilities have already performed vulnerability assessments, updated emergency response plans, developed security standards, developed decision methodologies for choosing disinfectants, and performed other security measures under existing laws.
• A drinking water utility is a public safety & public health service, and is generally an instrument or agency of local government.
• Congress therefore exempted water utilities from chemical facility law of 2006.
• The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs has reported out a bill, H.R. 2868, to extend the current chemical security program for the chemical industry for another three years. The committee approved an amendment in the nature of a substitute to the original House bill.
• Another Senate committee, Environment and Public Works, is considering legislation that would include water utilities in chemical facility security regulation even though certain provisions would be inappropriate for water utilities.
• A particular concern is a provision that allows state officials to second guess decisions by local officials on which chemicals to use.
• Choice of disinfectants and other chemicals reflect characteristics of local waters & infrastructure to ensure public safety and health is protected.
• The choice of disinfectants has to be made locally.
Ask
• Your senator to vote for H.R. 2868 as reported out of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security without amendment.
Thank
• Thank your host for the meeting.
• Offer to follow up or provide any additional information that might be useful.
Leave
• The leave-behind paper (if this is a personal visit) packet, and a business card or other contact information.
Support Improvement of the State Revolving Loan Fund;
Bring to the Floor and Pass S. 1005
• Action Requested: Support reform and expanded capitalization of state revolving loan fund programs for drinking water and wastewater. To that end, the Senate should bring to the floor and vote for S.1005, the Water Infrastructure Financing Act.
Background: High-quality drinking water and wastewater systems are essential to public health, business, and quality of life in the United States. AWWA and others have documented that our water and wastewater infrastructure is aging and that many communities must begin to increase their levels of investment in the repair and rehabilitation of water infrastructure in order to protect public health and safety and to maintain environmental standards.
AWWA has long believed that Americans are best served by water systems that are self sustaining through rates and other local charges. However, we recognize that at present, some communities need assistance due to hardship or special economic circumstances. According to the US Conference of Mayors, in 2004-2005 Americans invested $84 billion in water and wastewater infrastructure, of which more than 95 percent represented state and local funds without subsidies or federal assistance.
The primary federal role in water infrastructure is one of leadership. Among other things, that role includes demonstrating and encouraging:
• Utility use of modern asset management tools and full-cost pricing;
• Use of rate structures that accommodate low and fixed-income customers as much as
practical;
• Adoption of green technologies and approaches such as water and energy conservation, water reuse, and non-traditional stormwater management;
• Use of cost-saving watershed and regional strategies, such as system consolidation,
regional management, and cooperative approaches among water, wastewater, and highway agencies within a region; and
• Use of advanced procurement and project delivery methods. S. 1005 contains elements of all of these roles. There is also an important role for the federal government in lowering the cost of capital for water and wastewater investments. Almost 70 percent of American communities use bonds to finance local infrastructure. They pay billions of dollars in interest costs each year. Lowering the cost of borrowing for water and wastewater infrastructure is an important way to leverage local funding and help America rebuild and rehabilitate our aging water infrastructure.
The House of Representatives has passed legislation to boost funding and make administrative improvements to the drinking water SRF program (H.R. 5320) and the wastewater SRF program (H.R. 1262). Action is needed quickly in the Senate to bring this issue to a conference committee.
America does not face a water infrastructure crisis at the present, but action is needed now to avert more serious problems in the years to come.
###
Talking points for your use in meetings; do not leave behind
State Revolving Loan Fund Legislation, S. 1005
Tell
• Who you are and what you do.
• My utility serves …. [XX,XXX people in your district/state]
• We/I appreciate the opportunity to meet.
• The drinking water community has long been sounding the warning that the nation needs to invest in drinking water infrastructure.
• Needs are large and we need federal leadership.
• The state revolving loan fund (SRF) program – which provides low-cost loans to water systems that revolve to other water systems as they are paid back – is a sound approach, but needs more capital and some administrative improvements.
• S. 1005, reported out of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works last summer makes such improvements to the SRF program.
Ask
• Please urge Senate leadership to bring S. 1005 to the floor of the Senate.
• Vote for S. 1005.
Thank
• Thank your host for the meeting.
• Offer to follow up or provide any additional information that might be useful.
Leave
• The leave-behind paper (if this is a personal visit) and a business card or other contact information.
No comments:
Post a Comment