Federal Water Tap, November 18: Most of Country’s Hazardous Waste Sites Exposed to Climate Risks

The Rundown

• GAO maps hazardous waste facilities at risk from climate change.
• EPA watchdog identifies U.S. water utilities with cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
• NOAA publishes final assessment on a record-early Lake Erie harmful algal bloom.
• Defense Department research program seeks proposals for PFAS remediation in groundwater.
• NRCS finalizes a plan to decommission and breach nine aging dams in a western Wisconsin watershed as part of a flood-safety project that includes one new dam.
• EPA seeks more information about a tire chemical that is lethal to salmon.
• Members of Congress introduce last-minute bills on a $20 billion national water-bill affordability program, Texas farmer compensation along Rio Grande, and a Virginia town’s contaminated wells.
• New Mexico’s congressional delegation asks for resolution to Rio Grande lawsuit by year’s end.

And lastly, members of Congress from states damaged by Hurricane Helene lobby for federal disaster funding.

“So with Congress back in session, we should waste no time. And before we get to next year’s agenda, we should put at the top of the to-do list: addressing the needs of those who have been so devastated –their lives, their businesses, their homes – everything devastated by these floods.” – Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) speaking on the Senate floor about the need for federal aid to repair the damage from Hurricane Helene, which has been estimated at more than $53 billion in North Carolina alone.

By the Numbers

26.6 Million: People served by water utilities that were identified as having “critical or high-risk cybersecurity vulnerabilities.” The assessment was conducted by the EPA Office of the Inspector General and comes amid increasing attempts by foreign actors to manipulate and hack the computer systems that control U.S. water infrastructure. These attacks are a threat to public health and the economy, the report warns: “If malicious actors exploited the cybersecurity vulnerabilities we identified in our passive assessment, they could disrupt service or cause irreparable physical damage to drinking water infrastructure.”

6.6: Rating, on a 10-point scale, of this year’s harmful algal bloom on Lake Erie. NOAA researchers categorized the bloom as “moderately severe,” which reflects its size but not its toxicity. This year’s bloom was the earliest to form since systematic monitoring began in 2002 and was slightly worse than early-season models had forecasted. The bloom is fueled primarily by nutrients flushed from farm fields.

News Briefs

EPA’s Farm Advisory Committee Recommendations
A group of farm and ranching interests that advises the EPA submitted its recommendations for water, climate, and energy adaptation.

The recommendations eschew regulatory sticks, instead favoring a variety of financing and technical assistance carrots. Key points include flexibility to use “market-based” and “pay-for-performance” approaches for implementing conservation practices – for example, nutrient trading programs in which farmers would be paid to reduce polluted runoff if they can do so at lower cost than a municipal waste treatment plant.

Another suggestion is to allow the ag sector access to $14 billion from the EPA’s National Clean Investment Fund, a pot of money for clean energy.

Lethal Tire Chemical
To inform potential future regulation, the EPA is seeking more information about a tire chemical that can kill salmon and other aquatic species.

6PPD makes car tires more durable. The chemical also degrades into 6PPD-quinone, which researchers have determined is lethal to salmon when they return to urban streams, where chemical concentrations are highest. So far, coho salmon have been found to be most susceptible.

The EPA is acting on a petition from three Pacific Northwest tribes.

Public comments are being accepted for 60 days via www.regulations.gov using docket number EPA-HQ-OPPT-2024-0403.

Water Bills in Congress
The hour is late, but new water-related bills continue to be introduced.

• Eighteen House Democrats sponsored legislation to establish a national program for helping low-income households pay their water and sewer bills. The H2O UP Act, which would be run by the EPA, would be authorized at $20 billion annually for 10 years. The bill includes provisions for data collection by utilities and the Census Bureau.
• Monica De La Cruz (R-TX) introduced a bill to provide $280 million in grants to farmers along the Rio Grande in Texas who have suffered crop losses due to water shortages from the river.
• Tim Kaine (D-VA) wants NASA to pay for relocating drinking water wells for Chincoteague, Virginia. The town’s wells, located on NASA property, were found to be contaminated with PFAS.

Studies and Reports

Natural Hazards for Hazardous Waste
The Government Accountability Office, a watchdog arm of Congress, found that 68 percent of the nation’s hazardous waste facilities are at risk from at least one of four types of natural hazards that could intensify in a changing climate.

The GAO report looked at flooding, wildfires, storm surge, and sea-level rise. It identified 743 facilities that are exposed to at least one of these threats. This could be an undercount, the GAO says, because of incomplete data.

The report did not assess measures those facilities may have taken to reduce risk – measures such as berms or elevating structures.

Hazardous waste sites – those publicly or privately owned facilities that treat, store, or dispose of toxic chemicals – are regulated by the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Such facilities include tanks, landfills, waste piles, and impoundments.

On the Radar

Rio Grande Lawsuit
New Mexico’s five members of Congress asked the federal government to resolve a lawsuit over Rio Grande water use by the end of the year.

Texas sued New Mexico in 2013 in the U.S. Supreme Court for pumping too much groundwater that was affecting river flows. The states came to an agreement two years ago that would have settled the lawsuit. Lawyers for the federal government objected, saying that the government’s interests – the operation of a federal irrigation project – were not protected in the deal. The high court agreed in June, sending the parties back into negotiations.

Defense Department Research Funding
The DOD’s environmental research program is accepting applications for about $10 million in research funding for 2025. Areas of interest include:

• Ecological toxicity of PFAS
• Developing sensors to detect PFAS in groundwater in real-time
• Chemically transforming PFAS in groundwater in-situ

The application deadline is January 7, 2025.

Dam Decommissioning
The Natural Resources Conservation Service signed a record of decision that will result in the decommissioning and breaching of nine aging dams in the West Fork Kickapoo watershed. One new dam will be built as part of the $25 million project to modernize flood control in the western Wisconsin valley.

Two of the dams failed during heavy rains in August 2018. Seven others in the watershed were deemed to have a high likelihood of future failure. Those nine dams will be breached so that they can pass the 100-year flood without any water pooling behind them.

The federal government will cover 98 percent of the project cost.

Huge dam removal projects like in the Klamath basin attract the spotlight. But most dams that are removed are smaller, like those in the West Fork Kickapoo, which range in height from 28 to 60 feet.

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