Congressman Hal Rogers, Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations, addressed the joint House-Senate Conference Committee yesterday (December 8, 2011) on the remaining FY 2012 Appropriations bills. In Chairman Rogers’ statement, he praised Committee members on their leadership and guiding hands during this difficult process. The following is an excerpt from the Chairman’s statement:

Today, the House of Representatives passed Congressman Geoff Davis’ bill, H.R. 10, the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, by a bipartisan vote of 241 to 184.

Congressman Davis said, “The point of the REINS Act is accountability. Each member of Congress must take a stand and be accountable for regulations that will have the greatest impact on our economy. Regulatory compliance costs small businesses an estimated $10,500 per employee annually.

FRANKFORT, Ky.– Governor Steve Beshear today announced $1.8 million in grants are available for projects in Kentucky to help clean up polluted streams, rivers, lakes, and groundwater and for projects that protect water resources. “Protection of our water resources is fundamental to our environment, our economy and good public health,” Gov. Beshear said. “These grants will fund efforts to help control pollution from sediment, pesticides and other substances that run off our land when it rains.”

House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers today applauded the passage of the Conference Report on the Fiscal Year 2012 Agriculture, Commerce/Justice/Science, and Transportation/Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bills – also known as the “Mini-bus” (House Report 112-284). The report passed on a vote of 298-121.

The conference report reduces base discretionary spending by $757 million below last year, funds a variety of federal programs and agencies, including the food and drug safety

The Division of Water has announced that EPA is moving to a free, web-based tool that allows National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permittees to electronically sign and submit their discharge monitoring reports (DMRs) and other reports required by NPDES permits to EPA through a secure internet connection (NetDMR).
Kentucky is in the process of converting from the old EPA system of PCS to ICIS, which means that in the near future Kentucky’s regulated community will have the opportunity to use NetDMR to electronically submit DMRs.
To prepare permittees to use this new process, EPA is …

The Department of Defense, through the Defense Logistics Agency / Energy (DLA Energy) has accepted a proposal from Hardin County Water District No. 1 (HCWD1) to assume ownership of the Fort Knox water system. HCWD 1 will operate the system with Louisville Water as a partner. The agreement was signed September 30 and includes a four month transition period.

John Dix has joined the Warren County Water District as Manager of Engineering and Construction. In this position, Dix will be responsible for system planning, design and construction for Warren, Butler and Simpson County Water Districts. Dix was previously employed at the water districts from 1992 to 2001 as Project Engineer and then Manager of Operations.

The Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) has initiated a review of 807 KAR 5:001 (Rules of Procedure) and 807 KAR 5:011 (Tariffs). These regulations were last revised in 1993 and 1984 respectively. PSC indicated this review should take several months and the Commission would like to involve stakeholders at all stages in the process. As part of the first stage, the PSC requests written comments and suggestions on these two regulations.

One of the highlights of last week’s H2O-XPO was the Tribute to Excellence awards ceremony held on October 4 when the National Rural Water Association (NRWA) presented an “Excellence in Legislative Representation” award to Kentucky Rural Water Association. NRWA President Joe Liles reminded rural water that the close relationships the organization has established with government have been built through consistent contact at local, state and national levels.

The just-held ICUEE 2011 was a tremendous success, attracting nearly 16,600 registered attendees to make it the second largest in show history. More than 800 exhibitors took more than 1.1 million net square feet for product displays and extensive hands-on equipment demonstrations in job-like conditions.

The 2011 International Construction and Utility Equipment Exposition (ICUEE) was held October 4-6, 2011 at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Kentucky.