Guest Columns

By Gilad Horn Across North America, water utilities face a difficult financial and operational reality: unplanned repairs on aging infrastructure run anywhere from two to five times the cost of scheduled maintenance. And those emergency bills keep climbing as labor and materials grow more expensive.Read More

By John Ryan What is happening at EPA’s Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan program? The mysterious issue is not the near-complete cessation of loan closings under Trump 2.0. The reason for that is clearer: the Office of Management and Budget’s pause on federal grantsRead More

On Thursday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the availability of $6.5 billion in Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) funding for water systems, with an additional $550 million available to states. The agency also announced the approval of five WIFIA new loans.Read More

The director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Water Infrastructure Finance & Innovation Authority (WIFIA) program Jorianne Jernberg is leaving the agency, according to a colleague. The news was acknowledged in a Nov. 13 LinkedIn post from Tracy Mehan, AWWA’s executive director of governmentRead More

On Monday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a proposal designed to improve the scope of its perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) reporting regulations under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The changes, EPA said, are aimed at making the rules more implementable and toRead More

By Ken Sansone & Kyla Tengdin Disbursements from the landmark Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) Products Liability Litigation settlements with 3M and DuPont began this past summer for eligible water systems that submitted claims documentation on time. For many systems, awards from these settlements willRead More

The National Rural Water Association (NRWA), which supports water and wastewater professionals that serve small and rural communities in the United States, said without additional funding, it will receive a “stop work order” on Nov. 1 for its water Circuit Rider program. “The National RuralRead More

In a decision earlier this month, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed all claims brought by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), an environmental group seeking to force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to prematurely issue regulations for certain PFAS in biosolids.  In the decision, the court held thatRead More

Water sector groups are reacting favorably to the reintroduction of the Water Infrastructure Resilience and Sustainability Act. The bipartisan legislation would fund upgrades to drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure and make them more resilient against threats ranging from cyberattacks to extreme weather. The billRead More

The Water Coalition Against PFAS, a coalition of drinking water and wastewater sector organizations, is calling on Congress to pass legislation protecting passive receivers of PFAS from litigation after U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin called for new statutory authority in September. The WaterRead More