Guest Columns

The Association of Metropolitan of Water Agencies (AMWA) recently joined more than 150 national, state and local organizations in writing to congressional leaders to express strong support for continued funding for the Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP) at Department of Health and Human Services inRead More

The Biden-Harris administration is announcing the availability of more than $20 million in grant funding to support training and career opportunities for water and wastewater workers through the U.S. EPA’s Innovative Water Infrastructure Workforce Development Grant program. Frontline workers at water and wastewater treatment utilitiesRead More

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule in September that it said will provide the agency, its partners and the public with the largest-ever dataset of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) manufactured and used in the United States. The agency said rule buildsRead More

By John Ryan Congress certainly looks like an exciting place this fall, with plenty of political fireworks and intense drama over spending. But there’s no doubt legislators and their constituents will also want to see progress on some basic things that are clearly beneficial, aren’tRead More

In late August, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of the Army (the agencies) announced a final rule to amend the definition of “waters of the United States” to conform with the recent Supreme Court decision in Sackett v. EPA. The agenciesRead More

In August, 18 water sector organizations including those representing U.S. utility systems, wrote to Congress to reiterate support for funding the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds (SRFs) to the maximum authorization in federal law, $3 billion each, for fiscal year 2024. InRead More

By Soren Rasmussen Protecting the environment has never been so high on the agenda. So, isn’t it peculiar that in the wastewater industry, almost everything is still archaically structured to purchasing the cheapest possible equipment, which can all too soon end up as waste thatRead More

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced the availability of nearly $50 million in regular funding through the Sewer Overflow and Stormwater Reuse Municipal Grant program to help communities address stormwater and sewer infrastructure needs. States may now apply for grant assistance to fundRead More

By John Ryan The WIFIA loan program offers an interest rate derived from current U.S. Treasury (UST) yields at loan closing. Other large-scale federal infrastructure loan programs like TIFIA and CIFIA do the same. The underlying idea is that the loan should cover the government’sRead More

California Attorney General Rob Bonta last week, leading a bipartisan coalition of 22 attorneys general, announced the state’s opposition to a proposed class action settlement that he says fails to adequately hold accountable the 3M Company for contaminating Americans’ drinking water supply. Under the proposed settlement, water providers wouldRead More