Federal Water Tap, January 6: Water Affordability Meetings Scheduled This Week

The Rundown

• EPA advisory board will meet this week to vote to approve a draft report on actions the agency can take on water affordability.
• EPA staff will hold a separate meeting the next day to discuss the agency’s recent water affordability report.
• Congressional Budget Office forecasts U.S. economic impact of low-probability climate scenarios.
• New session of Congress begins as President Biden signs legislation from the previous edition.
• FDA updates its “healthy” labeling requirements to automatically apply to bottled water.

And lastly, EPA adds nine PFAS to a list of toxic chemicals that industrial facilities must report on.

“Discussions about how to make water more affordable for low-income households often begin and end with customer assistance programs (CAPs). As important as these programs are, affordability can be addressed at various levels from capital investments to operations to rates to federal financial support.” – Excerpt from an EPA advisory group’s draft report on water affordability.

The EPA, acknowledging the rising cost of drinking water and sewer services, charged the Environmental Financial Advisory Board with providing recommendations on advancing affordability nationwide. In its report, the board explored customer assistance programs, but also ways to save money through capital expenditures and operations, as well as rate designs that alleviate financial burdens on low-income households.

In context: Millions of Americans Are in Water Debt

By the Numbers

9: PFAS added to the Toxics Release Inventory for 2025. Industrial facilities that use chemicals on this list must report annually on the volumes released into the environment. The additions mean that 205 PFAS are now on the TRI.

News Briefs

Final Acts
In the last month of his presidency, Joe Biden signed a number of water-related bills into law.

The biggest is the Water Resources Development Act, legislation that authorizes levees, ports, flood management, ecosystem restoration, and other Army Corps projects.

Another bill grants federal agencies the authority to assist with fisheries, irrigation, and ecosystem restoration in the Klamath basin to defuse conflict over water deliveries.

First Acts
The new session of Congress began on January 3. A first order of business for the Republican-led House was to adopt rules governing its legislative procedures.

The rules package puts a dozen GOP-priority bills on the fast track for approval – by prohibiting committee hearings or amendments and limiting floor debate. Among them is a bill to prohibit a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing.

Beverage Labelling
The Food and Drug Administration finalized rules for applying the “healthy” label to food and beverages.

Under the rules, plain bottled water – carbonated and still – would automatically qualify. Some commenters worried that such a label might steer people away from tap water, but the FDA disagreed.

Studies and Reports

Climate and Economy
The Congressional Budget Office published a report that assesses economic consequences to the United States of low-probability climate outcomes.

The report focuses on GDP and financial and housing markets but also considers human health, social equity, immigration, and national defense.

GDP is more likely to decline with warming. More coastal flooding is expected. The military will see increasing demands and a greater need to adapt. More people will likely be driven to immigrate to the U.S., but the number that arrive will be determined by political and legal decisions.

The outcomes in the report are at the ends of the spectrum of severity – those that have equal likelihood of occurring, but with vastly different physical and financial results.

One end is less damaging. That means sea level rises by two feet or less by 2100 and global temperatures rise by less than two degrees Celsius. The other end is the dark mirror, equally likely but far more damaging. That is more than four feet of sea-level rise and more than four degrees of warming. The CBO estimates that each of these outcomes has a 5 percent chance of occurring.

On the Radar

Water Affordability Meeting
An EPA advisory group will meet on January 8 to vote to approve a draft report on how the agency can assist communities with the affordability of their water services.

The Environmental Financial Advisory Board meeting will be held via webcast, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern.

The meeting follows the publication last month of the EPA’s first report on the affordability of water and sewer services nationwide.

Register by tomorrow to attend.

Water Affordability Meeting, Part II
Speaking of water affordability, the EPA will host a webinar on January 9 to discuss the findings from its investigation into the matter.

That report found between 12.1 million and 19.2 million U.S. households do not have affordable water services

Register for the 1:00 p.m. Eastern meeting.

Federal Water Tap is a weekly digest spotting trends in U.S. government water policy. To get more water news, follow Circle of Blue on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter.

Brett Walton

Brett writes about agriculture, energy, infrastructure, and the politics and economics of water in the United States. He also writes the Federal Water Tap, Circle of Blue’s weekly digest of U.S. government water news. He is the winner of two Society of Environmental Journalists reporting awards, one of the top honors in American environmental journalism: first place for explanatory reporting for a series on septic system pollution in the United States(2016) and third place for beat reporting in a small market (2014). He received the Sierra Club’s Distinguished Service Award in 2018. Brett lives in Seattle, where he hikes the mountains and bakes pies. Contact Brett Walton