Mayor Suttle Joins National Effort to Address CSO Costs
Mar 29, 10:51 AM CST
March 29, 2010 – Mayor Jim Suttle announced today that he has been appointed to the Mayors Water Council by the President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Mayor Elizabeth Kautz of Burnsville, Minnesota.
The primary purpose of The Mayors Water Council (MWC) is to assist local governments in providing high quality water resources in a cost effective manner. This objective includes working to address federal mandates to cities for Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) projects.
“I am excited about this opportunity to work with mayors from around our nation seeking relief for local ratepayers from the costly unfunded federal mandate for CSO control,” Mayor Suttle said.
The Mayors Water Council is establishing a technical working group and a policy negotiating team that will meet with federal officials from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Justice (DOJ). This team is working with the EPA and DOJ to develop a more flexible and cost-effective CSO compliance protocol. For example, the Council’s membership has proposed a 50/50 cost sharing model between local and federal governments. Mayor Suttle plans to participate in these negotiations.
Overall, the goal of the Mayors Water Council is to help develop a mutually agreeable cost-sharing model between local governments and the federal government to effectively execute CSO projects. “The solutions to help our community implement this mandate lie in a partnership between local government and the federal government,” Mayor Suttle said. “That is where we need to seek progress to keep this program affordable for our local ratepayers.”
As a professional civil engineer and former director of the Omaha Department of Public Works, Mayor Suttle said he looks forward to bringing his professional experience to the Mayors Water Council as the group seeks to build a better partnership between local governments and federal authorities. In addition, Mayor Suttle will continue to work with Omaha’s congressional delegation to secure funds from Congress, such as those secured in past years by Senator Ben Nelson and Representative Lee Terry.
– by Missy Wigley | Send this to a friend
