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WaterNews for February 17, 2006Benjamin Grumbles WaterNews is a weekly on-line publication that announces publications, policies, and activities of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water. In This Week’s WaterNews:
Tools Released to Help Small Drinking Water SystemsEPA has released two new tools and a suggested affordability approach for small water utilities trying to balance the demands for quality water with their financial ability to deliver. The approach signed on February 14 is part of an overall program to protect public health, support small water systems and keep costs of water manageable. The targeted systems serve 3,300 customers or fewer. "These tools help deliver on EPA's commitment to sustainable and affordable drinking water systems for small communities across America," said Benjamin H. Grumbles, Assistant Administrator for Water. "We're proposing a new way to identify affordable and effective treatment technologies and providing guidance to help recover the cost of running community water systems." The first document, “Setting Small Drinking Water System Rates for a Sustainable Future,” will help owners and operators understand the full costs of providing a quality and adequate supply of drinking water to their customers and guide them in setting water rates that will support these costs. The second document, “Case Studies of Sustainable Water and Wastewater Pricing,” provides real-world examples of eight drinking-water systems and their approach to determining and establishing rates. In another action, EPA is requesting public comment on several proposed revised methods to determine when variances can be granted by state agencies to small systems that cannot afford to comply with future drinking water standards. A small-system variance allows a drinking water system to use a treatment technology that is both affordable and protects public health. Variances are not available for microbial contaminants such as bacteria, viruses, or other organisms. The Safe Drinking Water Act requires EPA to identify affordable treatment technologies for small systems for each new drinking-water standard. This proposal responds to a request from Congress and other stakeholders that EPA review its approach for assessing the affordability of drinking water regulations. EPA is seeking public comment and will further refine the proposal to reflect the best information available. Comments will be accepted for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. A pre-publication copy of the proposal and more information on small-system variances is available at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/smallsys/affordability.html. The documents and additional information on EPA’s sustainable infrastructure efforts are available at http://www.epa.gov/water/infrastructure. Source Water Protection Vision Statement SignedOn February 17, EPA and thirteen national organizations signed a vision statement expressing the members’ commitment to work together to protect drinking water now and in the future. "This is an important step forward in our source water and watershed cooperative conservation efforts," said Benjamin H. Grumbles, Assistant Administrator for Water. "We look forward to working with our partners and stakeholders in shaping the nation's drinking water protection goals." This Source Water Collaborative agrees to do the following:
Drinking water protection should be built into land-use planning and stewardship. The quality, quantity, and cost of drinking water depend on it. The recent droughts and disasters have underscored the nation's dependence on a safe and reliable water supply. Indeed, this is a time of opportunity. Action now can protect drinking water for generations to come. The vision statement will be posted at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/protect.html Source Water Protection: A Webcast Series
EPA and the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA) are working on a series of interactive Webcasts designed to allow owners and operators of drinking water utilities to share their experiences with source water protection. The first Webcast, “Source Water Protection: Monitoring and Data Sharing,” aired on January 25, 2006. This Webcast, which addressed issues including real-time reporting, water monitoring, emerging contaminants, and data sharing, attracted approximately 200 viewers. It is available for viewing at:
https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/encounter/view?id=11347531610127 The next Webcast on land development and growth will air on February 22, 2006, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., Eastern Time. Headquarters’ participants can view the Webcast in Room 2123 in EPA East. The third Webcast on collaborative communication and regulatory and non-regulatory tools will air on March 22, 2006, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., Eastern Time. Registration must be made in advance to participate in the Webcasts. Participants will need a telephone and a computer with an Internet connection. Complete instructions will be provided upon registration. To register, visit EPA’s Drinking Water Academy Training Calendar at: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwa/calendar.html . This Web site also contains links to information about speakers and specific presentation topics. Questions about the Webcast series may be directed to Tracy Hudak at hudak.tracy@epa.gov. Subscribe to WaterNewsPlease forward this message to your friends and colleagues who share an interest in water-related issues and would like to hear from EPA's Office of Water. To subscribe to the WaterNews listserve: Send an email message, leave the subject line blank, and address it to: In the body of the message write: Subscribe WaterNews firstname lastname (Please leave one blank space between each word, do not include any other message, and use your actual name- i.e. Subscribe WaterNews Robert Jones) A welcome message will appear in your email box once you are officially subscribed.
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