July 1, 2024

On Friday, June 28, the House Appropriations Subcommittees on Energy and Water Development and Interior and Environment passed draft FY 2025 appropriations legislation that includes funding for key water recycling programs administered by the Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The House Interior and Environment Appropriations bill reduces EPA funding by 20 percent relative to last year. Despite the overall reduction, the bill includes $3 million for the Pilot Program for Alternative Water Source Grants, which would become the first nationwide program dedicated to advancing water recycling. The bill reduces funding for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) Program by 27 percent to approximately $1.2 billion and reduces funding for the Drinking Water SRF by nearly 22 percent to just over $880 million. Of the amounts provided for the Clean Water and Drinking Water SRFs, 46 percent and 54 percent, respectively, would be reserved for earmark projects. The bill maintains level funding of $72 million for the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) Program. While the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development also passed its draft bill, it did not release the accompanying report detailing funding levels for Bureau of Reclamation programs. WateReuse expects to report more information about funding levels for the Title XVI Water Reuse Grants Program and Desalination and Water Purification Program in the coming days. In addition to shoring up support for water recycling investments and fighting the proposed cuts to the SRF programs, WateReuse will be working closely with the Senate as it drafts its version of the funding bills.

Read the House FY 2025 Interior-Environment Appropriations bill here.

Read the House FY 2025 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill here.

On June 28, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-2 in the case of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, choosing to end the longstanding precedent known as “Chevron deference.” For decades, Chevron deference has dictated that the courts will generally defer to the executive branch agency of expertise when a statue is ambiguous on a technical issue. In this case, a fishing company sued the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) over whether the agency can require companies to pay for the inspectors that companies are required by law to have on their boats. The law is ambiguous on who must cover that cost, so NMFS had determined that companies should do so. Lower courts applied the Chevron doctrine, ruling that NMFS has sufficient legal grounds to make that determination. In last week’s ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court disagreed and vacated the Chevron doctrine entirely.

The impact of this ruling on statutes relevant to water reuse, such as the Clean Water Act, could be quite significant. That said, it is important to remember that the Court did not always defer to the Executive Branch on issues of technical ambiguity, even before this ruling. The recent Maui vs. Hawai’i Wildlife Fund case is one such example with significant implications for water recycling and groundwater recharge. In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court chose not to apply the Chevron doctrine. Instead, it ruled in favor of the plaintiff and went a step further by dictating a set of factors to be considered in determining whether a groundwater discharge is “functionally equivalent” to a surface water discharge. Moving forward, WateReuse will be keeping a close watch on cases that involve potentially ambiguous statutory language related to clean water, drinking water, and other relevant laws.

Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton has announced the appointment of Roque Sánchez as Deputy Commissioner of Reclamation. In this role, Sánchez will oversee Reclamation’s internal and external relations strategies with Congress and the public to increase awareness and understanding of Reclamation’s mission priorities, policies, and programs. Prior to joining Reclamation in 2022 as a senior advisor, Sánchez served at the White House as policy advisor for the Office of Domestic Climate Policy and startup facilitator for the Office of Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation. WateReuse congratulates Sanchez on his appointment and looks forward to working with him to advance water recycling.

Last week, WateReuse member Orange County Sanitation District (OC San) announced the election of Ryan Gallagher, Mayor Pro Tem for the City of Tustin, as the Board Chairman, and Jon Dumitru, Councilmember for the City of Orange, as the Board Vice-Chairman. Gallagher succeeds Chad P. Wanke, Councilmember for the City of Placentia, who led the OC San Board for two years, overseeing the completion of various strategic plan goals which included recycling 100 percent of OC San’s reclaimable flow. “OC San is one of the best clean water agencies in the state, and I am honored to have the opportunity to continue to serve its mission,” Gallagher said.

The June issue of Smart Water Magazine focused on water reuse, spotlighting many WateReuse Association leaders and members. The magazine includes a profile of Patricia Sinicropi, WateReuse Association’s Executive Director, who highlights the many successes of WateReuse members and the need for increased water reuse funding. The issue continues its exploration of the water reuse industry with a roundtable discussion on water reuse featuring quotes from WateReuse member Carollo’s Eva Steinle-Darling, Water Research Foundation’s Peter Grevatt, and WateReuse Association’s Ben Glickstein. “The technologies are there,” Steinle-Darling says, “I do not doubt in our capability to produce any particular water quality that we need to achieve.” Throughout the issue, other WateReuse members are spotlighted, including Sacramento Area Sewer District and Microsoft.

CBS News aired a nationwide segment on Direct Potable Reuse, featuring WateReuse members Orange County Water District (OCWD) and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. CBS’s correspondent Danya Bacchus tasted purified water with OCWD’s John Kennedy and repeats his famous tagline: “It tastes like water, because it is water!”

WateReuse members Stantec and City of San Diego will continue working together on Pure Water San Diego’s Phase 2. Stantec, which is also working on Phase 1, was selected to provide program management, planning, regulatory, technical engineering, operational readiness planning, and construction support services to a new phase of projects that include an advanced water treatment facility, water reclamation plant, pump stations, and pipelines. “Pure Water is creating a safe, sustainable, reliable, and cost-competitive water supply while reducing treated water discharges to the Pacific Ocean,” said Juan Guerreiro, director of Public Utilities for the City of San Diego. “We are pleased to continue our partnership with Stantec, given the team’s local knowledge of San Diego’s water system and demonstrated commitment to the program and its importance.”

WateReuse member H2O Innovation and their partners Cycle Capital announced the close last week of the Cycle H2O Fund, a watertech venture capital fund with a targeted size of $30 million Canadian dollars dedicated to investing in innovative water technologies. The fund aims to support the development and commercialization of seed and early stage innovative water technology companies from Québec and Eastern Canada in areas including water recycling, sustainable agriculture, digital treatment technologies, and more.