Senate Water Bill Contains New Language on: Water- Inside the Issue: Senate Bill 2848 Water Resources Sewer-Ports-Harbors- Development Act (WRDA-2016) passes Environment and Public Dams & Levees Works Committee, waiting for S. 2848 floor time, Integrated Planning provisions favorable to cities The Senate Environment & Public involving ports and harbors, dams and Mayors Water Council meets in Works (EPW) Committee, on April levees and inland waterways. Hollywood, FL on April 14-15, 7, 2016, released a bipartisan 2016 The bill- S. 2848, the 2016 Water 2016, a digest of speaker themes is included Water Resources Development Act Resources Development Act, was (2016 WRDA). WRDA has been the the subject of a hearing on April 7; Jon Runge of the Ductile Iron traditional legislative vehicle to fund and Lima, OH Mayor David Berger Pipe Research Association dis- and give direction to the Army Corps testified on behalf of the US Confer- cusses resiliency and innovative of Engineers and inland waterway ence of Mayors in favor of the provi- pipeline solutions for cities projects. 2016 WRDA includes im- sions regarding Integrated Planning. A portant provisions involving the Safe subsequent Senate Committee (EPW) Mary Ostrowski from the Chlo- Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and the mark-up resulted in a 19-1 vote in fa- rine Chemistry Council gives Clean Water Act (CWA); in addition vor of the bill with a recommendation an update on EPA’s perchlorate to the traditional attention to projects to press for Senate floor time. rulemaking continued on next page Michael Deane from the National Association of Water Companies comments on “Truth from the Mayors Water Council Co-Chairs Tap”, a new information program designed to ensure that decision makers have straightforward facts, not spin, when deciding how best to provide reliable water services to their communities EPA’s new rulemaking on Risk Management Program (RMP) will require cities to process nearly 12,000 emergency planning reviews, and submit to additional regulations for their water and Jill Techel, Mayor, Joy Cooper, Mayor, wastewater treatment plants City of Napa (CA) City of Hallandale Beach (FL) Continued from Previous Page... Senate Water Bill Contains New Language Regarding the public water/sewer sec- • Authorization of funds (grants) to A copy of the mark-up version of tor some key provisions would: assist cities to pay for stormwater the bill adopted by the Senate EPW, • Codify Integrated Planning and management, combined sewer and a copy of Mayor Berger’s Senate require the EPA to initiate new overflows and sanitary sewer testimony can be accessed at: http:// Guidance to replace the 1997 overflows. usmayors.org/urbanwater/. Guidance that relies on Median • Authorization of funds to address Please note that at the time of this Household Income as the bench- lead service line replacements. writing the House has not yet com- mark of affordability • Authorization of funds to promote pleted a WRDA companion bill. It is • Promote Green Infrastructure as water reuse/recycling and desali- expected, however, that the House ver- part of stormwater control plans nation technology. sion is not likely to add non-traditional provisions like the Senate. THE UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF MAYORS Mick Cornett Mayor of Oklahoma City President Mitch Landrieu Mayor of New Orleans Vice President Stephen K. Benjamin Mayor of Columbia, SC Second Vice President Tom Cochran CEO and Executive Director 2 Newsletter for theTHE Mayors UNITED Water Council STATES of TheCONFERENCE United States Conference OF MAYORS of Mayors—Summer 2016 Mayors Tackle Problems of Too Little By Rich Anderson ... and Too Much Water at Florida Meeting The Mayors Water Council convened beating the target between June 2015 and flexibility in providing safe and in Hollywood, FL led by Co-Chairs and February 2016. The two supply adequate water. The location in Tampa Mayor Joy Cooper, City of Hallandale reservoirs were measured full after 4 Bay demonstrates the availability of Beach, FL, and Mayor Jill Techel, City years of drought. The city continues to raw water for current and future use. of Napa, CA. The two-day meeting, reach out with education programs but Northern Texas is experienc- April 14-15, 2016, covered several lo- may revisit the consumption restric- ing, simultaneously, drought mixed cal public water issues. Water supply, tions later in the year. Right now, how- with intense precipitation and deadly resiliency planning and affordability ever, the city is counting acre feet and flooding. The water pendulum phe- were the stand out topics. (Affordabil- strategically planning for the future. nomenon in the north-central Metro- ity is addressed in a separate article in Switching to the east coast plex region complicates planning, but US Mayor). showered with generous precipitation one sure solution is to increase reser- the water issues involve flooding, sea voir capacity to catch flood waters and Water Supply — the pace of rise, salt water intrusion, and growth in to then treat and use the catch. This is progress water consumption. Jeff Miller, Gen- important because the Metroplex re- Cities in different regions have dif- eral Manager of Tampa Bay Water’s gion is estimated to be double in popu- ferent water supply priorities. This is Desalination Facility, a Public Private lation in the next 50 years. Richard demonstrated by the advanced water Partnership (P3) between Tampa Bay Peasley, Board Director for Frisco on conservation programs in place in Water and American Water Services. the North Texas Municipal Water Dis- California still suffering from half a The plant can produce 25 million trict (District; a 13 city member joint decade of drought, low snow-pack and gallons a day (MGD) but is used as a government organization) commented high temperatures. Mayor Techel made supplemental supply at present. It will on efforts to develop a new reservoir a progress report on Napa conserva- begin providing 12-16 MGD this sum- in the Lower Bois D’Arc Creek area tion efforts. The city’s state mandated mer according to Miller. The ability to serve the growing population and to turn the plant on and off provides target is to reduce consumption by continued on next page 20%; and it has reduced 23% of use, Tampa Bay Water with both efficiency Mayor Maher Maso, Frisco, TX; Mayor John Dickert, Racine (WI); Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson, Toledo (OH); Mayor David Berger, Lima (OH); Mayor Pete Buttigieg, South Bend (IN); Mayor Jill Techel, Napa (CA); Mayor Daniel Horrigan, Akron (OH); Mayor Paula Zelenko, Burton (MI); Mayor Joy Cooper, Hallandale Beach (FL) Newsletter for the Mayors Water Council of The United States Conference of Mayors—Summer 2016 3 Continued from Previous Page... Florida Meeting commercial establishments. Peasley about the sheer size and complexity of cover all risk mitigation investments. stated that the 1956 population of resilience planning in the multi-county Dr. Jurado from the Broward 32,000 in the area is projected to grow area that is surrounded by fresh and County Department of the Environ- to 3.7 million in 2070. The new water sea water. ment gave a sobering review of the supply is critical infrastructure. The Kenel and Nightingale of multi-county compact established to District was granted a permit by the Black & Veatch reviewed how resil- identify and assess the impacts of ris- Army Corps of Engineers, but held up ience is defined by professional societ- ing sea level, salt water intrusion and by the Regional EPA office. Peasley ies. In the end they suggest the proper the growing extent of southern Florida discussed the challenges they encoun- “Focus is on ability to sustain func- flooding events. Dr. Jurado presented tered over the project implementation. tion and a defined level of service.” maps delineating the compact develop- He said these types of large land area One way to set priorities for needed ment in Broward County cities and the projects take up to 30 years to com- investment to make infrastructure surrounding waters: ocean, rivers, high plete. In this case, the District acquired resilient is to quantify or monetize the groundwater. When high precipitation 15,000 acres for the reservoir foot- consequence of failure multiplied by events occur Jurado said “…the water print, and a 12,000 acre separate miti- has nowhere to go, so we have extend- gation site. All of the permit reviews ed flooding that disrupts everything.” were completed, including mitigation Broward County has a land area of modeling, and unexpectedly the EPA 1,300 square miles and 1.8 million determined that additional mitigation people situated on the considerably modelling was necessary. Director smaller developable areas. Popula- Peasley remarked that the project de- tion is expected to exceed 2.5 mil- lays will cost the consumers served by lion by 2025. Jurado said “There are the District some $17 million a year. 1,800 miles of canals, porous geology, a shallow Biscayne aquifer and 39 Local Resiliency and Water/ wellfields pumping 224 MGD.” She Sewer Utilities suggested that these are perfect condi- Every American city is tions for flooding and water contami- nation disasters. She stated, “… state exposed to natural and manmade Dr. Jennifer Jurado disaster episodes; and local govern- ocean outfall legislation is requiring the cities in the county to reuse water ment is responsible for, and expected the probability of failure. They con- and reduce 60% of the outfall flows.” to deal with them. Land use authority structed a 10 step model to guide local Broward County and its combined with modern science helps government through the process of member cities have established a planners prepare and prevent, as well risk evaluation. The risk of flooding or governance structure to deal with the as recover from disasters. Black & earthquake, for example, can be com- problems.