Latest News

APWA CEO Tours LA Wildfire Damage

  • At the invitation of Los Angeles County Public Works Director and APWA member Mark Pestrella, APWA CEO Scott Grayson, CAE, toured the communities of Pacific Palisades and Eaton, where wildfires have destroyed more than 40,000 acres of homes, businesses, and memories in the past 2.5 weeks;
  • Grayson had contacted Pestrella as the fires raged and he said Pestrella told him, “He had to see this”;
  • Grayson arrived Tuesday morning and returned home on Thursday;
    • APWA Government Affairs Media Manager Mark Shade went, too, to share the story with APWA members
  • Grayson told APWA Reporter Magazine he was “surprised” by how so many agencies and government entities are working together
    • “Every entity has their own way of doing things, but it was evident that people were willing to be flexible to accomplish the task of protecting lives, collecting debris in a safe way while protecting the environment,” he said.
  • The Reporter Magazine’s story will appear in the March edition.

Contact Your U.S. Representative and U.S. Senators to Welcome Them to the 119th Congress

  • Sworn in on Jan. 3, the new 119th Congress is just weeks old;
  • Take a minute to send a pre-generated welcome message to your U.S. Representative and two U.S. Senators via this link;
  • Though the message is pre-written, you can alter it if you wish;
  • As a public works professional and voice of APWA, it is critical your elected representatives in Washington, D.C. hear from you on legislation affecting public works;
  • Stay tuned for more action alerts from the APWA Government Affairs Team, and text PWX to 52886 to receive the alerts to your mobile phone.

Executive Order “Unleashing American Energy” Impacts for Transportation

  • During his first week back in office, President Trump signed numerous executive orders (EO) including one impacting funding for electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act;
  • The Unleashing American Energy EO initially caused confusion as it was misinterpreted by some as pausing funding from both laws;
  • The Office of Management and Budget released a memo to clarify;
  • Pausing funds and regulations at the start of a new administration is not a new exercise, and allows incoming federal agency officials time to get into their new roles and review laws;
  • Also of note, in Section 5 of the same EO, there is a provision directing the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) chairman to provide guidance on implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and to convene an agency level working group to expedite permitting approvals;
  • All of President Trump’s recently signed EO’s may be found at www.whitehouse.gov.

Senate Committee Unanimously Approves DOT Nominee

  • The U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee unanimously approved the nomination of former Wisconsin Congressman Sean Duffy to lead the U.S. Department of Transportation;
  • During his recent confirmation hearing, Duffy stressed his top priority for the department is safety, and he spoke most directly about highway and aviation safety with a focus on restoring trust;
  • The full Senate is expected to easily approve Duffy’s nomination and may vote this week.

EPA Releases Report on PFAS in Biosolids

  • The draft scientific report confirms PFAS in wastewater accumulates in sewage sludge, which could portend regulations from more states limiting or banning the use of sludge as fertilizer, as Maine did in 2022, and require companies to prevent releasing PFAS in wastewater treatment plants;
  • Highlighted findings include:
    • People who live near farms and other sites where fertilizer laced with PFAS is applied, as well as people who regularly eat food or drink water produced at those sites, may be exposed to two PFAS with some cases showing human health risks posed by sludge containing PFOS and PFOA at unacceptable levels “sometimes by several orders of magnitude”
    • No impacts were found on the general food supply, such as milk, eggs and other farm products purchased from grocery stores
    • About 56% of the nation’s sludge is applied on soil or land as fertilizer though some questioned EPA’s assertion that most food produced in the U.S. “is not grown on fields where sludge is land applied,” as well as EPA’s decision to only study the presence of PFOA and PFOS
    • Other options for dealing with sludge include incinerating it or disposing of it in landfills, but those also come with health and environmental risks
    • EPA suggested potential best practices for managing PFAS in wastewater and sludge such as more monitoring by treatment plants and their operators requiring companies sending waste to first treat for or remove PFAS — a practice already in use by some facilities with EPA highlighting some state programs with industrial sources achieving a 98% reduction in PFOS sewage sludge concentrations through industrial pretreatment initiatives
  • Known as a risk assessment, the report does not require action from companies making products containing PFAS or from wastewater treatment plants, EPA’s Acting Administrator did say though this “provides important information to help inform future actions by federal and state agencies as well as steps that wastewater systems, farmers and other stakeholders can take to protect people from PFAS exposure, while ensuring American industry keeps feeding and fueling our nation;”
    • The assessment will be open for public comment before a final version is released
  • It’s unclear what the Trump administration will do given mixed actions during his first term and incoming Administrator Zeldin being a supporter of more aggressive action regarding PFAS;
  • The Biden administration increased scrutiny of these types of chemicals and began work on regulations to require specific industries to limit PFAS in their wastewater though those regulatory efforts stalled with a White House review in June.

Updated Rule Places More Emphasis on Environmental and Social Impacts of Water Projects

  • The Army Corps will give equal weight to the “environmental, economic and social effects” of water projects and consider a wider array of flood protection tools, according to a new rule;
  • The rule will apply to projects that have not yet gone through the environmental review process and since it deals with the Army Corps’ process for studying water projects it does not mandate which projects get selected;
  • The rule was developed in response to a 2007 law in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and replaces a policy dating back to the Reagan administration of justifying projects primarily based on economic development issues;
  • The policy’s long-term impacts could depend though on how it is implemented and because the rule was finalized late in the Biden administration, it could also be overturned by Congress under the Congressional Review Act.

U.S. Senate Confirms Noem as Department of Homeland Security Secretary

  • The U.S. Senate has confirmed South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem as the next Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary;
  • Pending the nomination, and subsequent appointment of a Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency (CISA) Director and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator, Secretary Noem will also have oversight over CISA and the FEMA, which fall under the DHS umbrella.

FEMA Launches National Hazard Mitigation Investment Dashboard

  • FEMA is out with a hazard mitigation investment dashboard;
  • This dashboard highlights the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) and Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) grant program investments nationally and was created to provide greater transparency on the BRIC and FMA grant programs;
  • BRIC and FMA grants help reduce disaster risk to natural hazards through community-driven resilience and hazard mitigation planning and projects;
  • The dashboard provides data visually and geographically allowing external stakeholders to obtain additional information on when and where these federal investments are being spent.

On the Horizon

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