Proposed ballot initiative capping annual water and sewer rate increases to 2.5% is ill-conceived and poorly timed - to MA Attorney General
Sustainable Water Resources Bill is unnecessary and duplicative - to MA Legislature Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture
Coalition endorses Initial Report of Water Infrastructure Finance Commission, "Toward Financial Sustainability" - to Governor Patrick
Public Lands Preservation Act is unwarranted and an unnecessary burden - to MA House of Representatives
Nutrient-related water quality goals must be attainable, measurable and meaningful - letter from co-signatories to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson
Letter to Senator Scott Brown urging support of S3481
EPA's Executive Order 13563 Improving Regulations Plan
EPA's proposed Draft Massachusetts Interstate, Merrimack and South Coastal Small MS4 General Permit
MassDEP on proposed changes to Clean Water State Revolving Fund Interest-Free Loan Program.
EPA's Questions on its Proposed Sanitary Sewer Overflow and Peak Flow Rulemaking.
EPA's Draft General Permit for Residually Designated Discharges.
EPA on Draft North Coastal Small MS4 General Permit.
Coalition opposes Public Lands Preservation Act.
Upper/Middle Charles River Draft TMDL for Nutrients
EPA Science Advisory Board Rejects New EPA Guidance on Nutrient Criteria Derivation
Draft NPDES General Permit for Discharges from Potable Water Treatment Facilities (MA and NH)
Coalition letter to MA Congressional delegation regarding EPA Enforcement Actions Against 9 Communities
EPA's press releases about the enforcement action:
- EPA Press Release - Enforcement Actions Against Nine Communities (August 12, 2009)
- EPA enforcement action against Plaistow, NH - Eagle Tribune (August 14, 2009)
- EPA enforcement action against Concord, MA - Concord Journal (August 19, 2009)
- EPA enforcement action against Winthrop, MA - Winthrop Transcript (August 26, 2009)
- Town Manager to discuss enforcement action with EPA - Winthrop Transcript (September 5, 2009)
- Canton Faces $50,000 EPA Fine for Stormwater Runoff - Boston Globe (September 27, 2009)
Support of the override of the Governor's veto of the Water Infrastructure Finance Commission.
EPA issues DRAFT Handbook for Developing Watershed Total Maximum Daily Loads. The Coalition's Response Letter.
It's not just transit costs that are soaring - Boston Globe Opinion piece
EPA moratorium a good idea for Clean Water Act regulations too - Wall Street Journal Opinion piece
Coalition President Bob Moylan's Opinion piece on EPA's action against the Boston Water and Sewer Commission and the implications for other Massachusetts communities.
An Unhealthy Glow Boston Globe West article on Upper/Middle Charles TMDL
Coalition Wins NACWA Award
The Coalition received a 2009 National Environmental Achievement Special Recognition Award
from the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) for taking a leadership role in advocating for Clean Water Act reforms and highlighting the need for a new, holistic approach to improving clean water permitting. The Coalition accepted the award on May 4 at NACWA's National Clean Water Policy Forum in Washington, D.C. The basis for the award was the Coalition's work with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 1 (EPA) and Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) that resulted in its Report to the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation on Regulatory Reform.
Permitting Task Force for Regulatory Reform
In 2007, the Coalition published a White Paper - A Case for Environmental Regulatory Reform: Clean Water Act NPDES Permitting, which described the serious challenges communities face trying to meet increasingly stringent federal Clean Water Act requirements without federal assistance while balancing the competing needs of their citizens, an unsustainable situation. As a result of the White Paper, the Coalition's Permitting Task Force spent eight months in 2008 meeting with EPA and MassDEP to discuss Clean Water Act regulatory policy issues and opportunities for reform. A Report to the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation on Regulatory Reform was published in December 2008 summarizing the meeting discussions, the issues and recommendations. The report stresses the need for better communication, considering cost and affordability and the use of holistic watershed-based approaches and science-based criteria in policy and regulatory decision making. The Coalition made several recommendations for policy changes in federal regulations to US EPA Region 1, MassDEP and the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation.