from “This Week In Washington” (Water Environment Federation)
House Hearing Focuses on Integrated Planning
On Thursday, May 19, the Water Resources & Environment Subcommittee of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee held a hearing examining the EPA’s implementation of the integrated planning policy, and looked at ways to help EPA, states, and municipalities in developing and implementing integrated plans that provide flexibility for municipal projects necessary to meet CWA regulatory obligations. The Subcommittee received testimony from representatives from the U.S. Conference of Mayors, National Association of Counties, National League of Cities, Environmental Council of the States, American Public Works Association, and the National Resources Defense Council.
While most of the testimony was uniform in support of advancing integrated planning as a tool to help communities, several key points stood out. First, there was strong support for more collaboration between the EPA regional offices, state regulators, and local utilities to embrace integrated planning through a voluntary approach, rather than the more commonly used consent decree approach. The mounting costs to utilities to comply to consent decrees may be better addressed through voluntary implementation of integrated planning. There was also strong support for increased federal funding to help communities make necessary investments to meet federal regulatory obligations. The need to fully fund the SRF programs, WIFIA and other federal funding program were talked about at length. Finally, there was strong consensus for green infrastructure as an approach that has multiple benefits, such as being cost effective, environmentally effective, improving community lifestyle and public health, and promoting economic growth.
A final point that was made was that our national needs to protect the environment, and public health needs the support of all stakeholders; that Congress needs to provide funding and policy support; federal and state agencies need to work productively with utilities; and local utilities need to be creative and flexible in pursuing solutions to challenging problems.