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The Key to Thwarting Non-Revenue Water? Understanding It

/in , , /by /Water Finance & Management

Non-revenue water loss is among the biggest challenges facing the water industry and the world. Nearly one-third of all water, amounting to $39 billion annually, is lost before it ever reaches a customer, according to a report from Frost & Sullivan. Water scarcity will proliferate with the aging water infrastructure, rapid urbanization and worsening disaster seasons throughout the world.

Bodies like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are doing their part to make strides toward improved infrastructure. Earlier this year, the agency announced the availability of $2.7 billion in funding to support infrastructure projects that help protect surface and drinking water. However, with AWWA’s estimated cost of more than $1 trillion to manage water infrastructure over the next 25 years, the responsibility must fall to the industry to understand these challenges and prepare a strategy to understand and respond to them.

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Biden’s EPA Expected to Pass Limits on Some ‘Forever Chemicals’

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Pat Rizzuto

The EPA under a future Biden administration is expected to quickly move to set regulations on “forever chemicals” in water and other areas, but not to restrict the entire group of thousands of the substances, attorneys said in recent interviews.

The Environmental Protection Agency is already expected to set national drinking water limits for two of these chemicals, perfluorooctane sulfonate, or PFOS, and perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, said Cynthia AM Stroman, a partner in King & Spalding LLP’s Washington, D.C. office.

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EPA Announces $108M to Improve Water Quality in the California Delta

/in , , /by /Water World

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced a $108 million Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan to the Stockton Public Financing Authority to help modernize the city’s wastewater treatment facility and reduce nitrogen discharges to the San Joaquin River. With this loan, EPA is supporting a regionally significant project that will improve water quality and support public health and the economies of the California Delta.

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Redwood City Salt Ponds Subject to Environmental Protections, Judge Rules

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Michael Williams

A federal judge on Monday ruled that a sprawling collage of salt ponds in Redwood City is subject to protections under the Clean Water Act — going against a previous decision by the Environmental Protection Agency that would have eased development along the bay.

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City of San Diego Saves Nearly $300M for Ratepayers by Refinancing Pure Water Project

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San Diego, Calif. – In an important cost-savings agreement, the City of San Diego has refinanced a loan with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that will save an estimated $293 million for taxpayers as the City’s Public Utilities Department embarks on the first phase of Pure Water San Diego – the largest infrastructure project in City history.

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E.P.A. to Promote Lead Testing Rule as Trump Tries to Burnish His Record

/in , , /by /The New York Timesby Lisa Friedman

The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to overhaul the way communities test their water for lead, a policy change that will be pitched ahead of Election Day as a major environmental achievement for a president not noted for his conservation record.

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Broad ‘Fishnet’ PFAS Testing Worries Industry, Helps Regulators

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Sylvia Carignan

North Carolina, the EPA, and an international standards organization want to use a method for detecting known and unknown “forever chemicals” in water that the chemical industry opposes for being too broad. The test they want to use measures total organic fluorine amounts in water and can provide a broader picture of all per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in a sample instead of testing for one or a few substances at a time.

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EPA Administrator Announces Projects to Address Sewage Spills at Border, An End to South Bay Beach Closures

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union Tribuneby Andrew Dyer

Federal investments in Tijuana River Valley infrastructure to address ongoing problems with sewage runoff could mean an end to beach closures that have plagued the South Bay in recent years, officials announced today in San Diego.

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Two Projects Promise Cross-Border Sewage Relief for South Bay Region

/in , /by /KPBS San Diegoby Erik Anderson

The Environmental Protection Agency is spending $25 million on two projects to help stop the flow of cross border sewage and trash.

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler met with state and local officials Wednesday to discuss the persistent problem and to announce two short-term solutions would move ahead.

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California Leads Suit Against Trump Administration Over Weakened Environmental Laws

/in , , /by /Times of San Diegoby Chris Jennewein

California and 20 other states sued the Trump administration over its plan to curtail environmental regulations in permitting infrastructure projects that can take years to complete and have long-lasting consequences on land and communities. Led by California and Washington, the lawsuit seeks to block changes the administration has proposed to how the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act is implemented. It was filed in federal court in San Francisco against the White House Council on Environmental Quality and its chairman, Mary Neumayr.

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