Underground Construction - June 2019 - 12

WASHINGTONWATCH

Stephen Barlas | Washington Editor

EPA Develops Water Reuse Action Plan
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
has begun an effort to develop a new program to support water reuse. The agency will
be putting together an action plan, based on
input from industry groups and local governments, with the intention of using funding
provided by the Water Infrastructure
Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) for
whatever types of projects are eventually
deemed eligible. Congress provided the EPA
with $68 million in funding for WIFIA loans
in fiscal 2019, which ends Sept. 30, 2019.
"One of the four priority areas targeted by EPA in this round covers projects
that bring 'new or innovative approaches
including water reuse and recycling,'"
explained Dan Hartnett, chief advocacy
officer for Legislative and Regulatory Affairs
at the Association of Metropolitan Water
Agencies (AMWA). "This does not mean
that any particular number of reuse projects
will be offered a WIFIA loan, but it does
indicate that EPA plans to seek out these
types of projects."
The action plan would presumably
provide some guidelines on the types of
projects the EPA is looking for and local
governments are eager to proceed with.
But water industry groups are leery of an
action plan veering too sharply into federal
regulatory waters. The National Association
of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) points
out that it advocates that water reuse and
recycling initiatives continue to be part
of state regulatory frameworks, without
federal intervention.
"There is a concern that federal guidance
documents can be inappropriately used to
influence permit writers or can be incorporated into federal or state regulatory frameworks," explained Emily Remmel, NACWA's
Director of Regulatory Affairs, in a letter
to the EPA. "NACWA strongly advocates
that guidance documents, including EPA's
Action Plan on Water Reuse, when finalized,
remain voluntary in nature and be used for
assistance only."
In a March 22, 2019, letter to David
Ross, EPA assistant administrator for
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JUNE 2019 | UConOnline.com

water, Diane VanDe Hei AMWA CEO,
appeared to pour cold water on the notion
that water reuse will be particularly popular
among communities. She wrote,
"While some utilities may choose to
employ direct and indirect reuse methods
and treat water to varying degrees, not all
communities may wish to take advantage
of water reuse or potable uses," she wrote.
"Important strides have already been made
regarding water reuse, but significant work
remains to be done. The federal government,
and in particular EPA, should focus first on
what progress can be made within their own
organizations and at their own facilities in
order to inspire action among other stakeholders and industries to consider fit-forpurpose applications of water reuse."

"One of the four priority areas
targeted by EPA in this round covers
projects that bring 'new or innovative
approaches including water reuse
and recycling,'" explained Dan
Hartnett, chief advocacy officer
for Legislative and Regulatory Affairs
at the Association of Metropolitan
Water Agencies (AMWA).
First Pipeline Safety Bill
Introduced
Two Massachusetts Senators, one of
them a Democratic presidential candidate,
have introduced the first pipeline safety
bill as Congress works to put together legislation reauthorizing the Pipeline Safety
Act, which expires on Sept. 30. Other bills
will be introduced in the next few months,
and the Leonel Rondon Pipeline Safety
Act, named for the young man who died
in the Merrimack Valley distribution line
explosion in September 2018, will probably
be subsumed into a broader bill.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is one of
the sponsors of the Rondon bill (S. 1097),
which focuses exclusively on distribution

line safety and does not lap over to transmission pipelines. But some of the bill's
provision could be adapted to interstate
pipelines, as Congress puts together what
will be an "omnibus" pipeline bill. However,
new safety mandates are likely to be minimal, whether distribution or transmission
focused, since many mandates in the 2011
and 2016 bills have never been implemented by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration (PHMSA).
One provision in the bill applies to both
intra- and interstate pipelines: an increase
in the federal civil penalty limit from
$200,000 to $20 million per day and from
$2 million to $200 million for a related
series of violations. Other provisions in the
Rondon bill with the best chance of making
it into whatever broader pipeline bill emerges, according to Annie Cook with Troutman
Sanders Pipeline Safety Practice Group, include: a requirement to study and report on
whether PHMSA should require operators
to maintain Pipeline Safety Management
Systems in accordance with industry standard RP 1173, and possibly some additional
requirements associated with management
of change and/or overpressure protection.
But other pipeline issues may come up, as
was the case in the May 1 House hearings in
the Energy & Commerce Committee. Besides
ticking off the delayed rulemakings from the
2011 and 2016 laws and PHMSA's failure
to implement recommendations from the
National Transportation Safety Board,
Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) brought up
a report issued that day by the Government
Accountability Office (GAO) highlighting
gaps in the security measures used by
transmission pipelines and overseen by the
Transportation Security Administration.
"On a bipartisan basis, we invited TSA
to testify on its Pipeline Security Program,
which the Government Accountability Office
has criticized for having 'significant weaknesses,'" Pallone said. "I'm concerned that
TSA lacks the resources, expertise in energy
delivery systems and, frankly, commitment,
to keep up its obligations under the law."
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