National Association of Clean Water Agencies

National Association of Clean Water Agencies
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Virtual Workshop: Ensuring a Stable Revenue Future for Your Utility
May 19-20 l 1:00 - 4:00 PM ET
Explore practical approaches to help utilities navigate financial complexity and build long-term sustainability.
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2026 Strategic Communications: H2O Workshop
June 2-3 | Las Vegas, NV
Take your outreach to new heights with strategies that build stronger connections between utilities and the communities they serve. Don’t miss this premier event for clean water communicators!
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National Pretreatment Workshop + Training
May 5-8 l Portland, ME
Get insights on critical topics impacting pretreatment programs nationwide and identify issues to prepare for in the future. Join us for the only national conference designed for pretreatment professionals, plus unsurpassed training and valuable peer-to-peer networking.
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Clean Water Heroes
NACWA’s members work tirelessly to protect public health and provide their communities with clean and safe water and a healthy environment. We thank these clean water heroes for all that they do!
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Shaping Federal Clean Water Policy
NACWA engages on the federal legislative, regulatory, legal, and communications fronts to advance policies that enable public clean water utilities to provide affordable and sustainable clean water for all communities.
Our Advocacy
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Our Water. Our Future.
Over 55 years strong, the National Association of Clean Water Agencies is the nation’s recognized leader in legislative, regulatory, communications, and legal clean water advocacy—helping to build a resilient and sustainable clean water future.
NACWA is the only national association that solely represents the interests of public clean water utilities nationwide and serves as the advocacy voice on behalf of the clean water sector. Our unique network fosters unity among clean water leaders, promotes a proactive peer-to-peer exchange of best practices and helps to shape the future of clean water.
Advocacy Priorities
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Affordable Water, Resilient Communities
Biosolids Explained
PFAS
Toilets Are Not Trashcans
Integrated Planning
Climate Adaptation & Resiliency
Nutrients & Farm Bill
Stormwater
Affordable Water, Resilient Communities
There is no issue more central to NACWA’s advocacy than increasing the availability of infrastructure funding for public clean water utilities, which includes increased federal funding to support this critical infrastructure sector.
Originally founded in 1970 as an organization focused on ensuring appropriate distribution of federal construction grant dollars under the Clean Water Act, the Association has maintained a strong commitment to advancing federal clean water funding.
At the same time, NACWA has also evolved over the years to recognize the importance of other water infrastructure funding mechanisms including municipal bonds, innovative financing approaches, and public-private partnerships.
Biosolids Explained
PFAS are released into the environment in many ways, such as through the products that contain them, through improper disposal by manufacturers, and by fire-fighting foam when it is used. Because PFAS are a part of so many products, they are often
found in soil and water samples, too. Your wastewater service provider receives water from homes and businesses that contains PFAS, likely from our bodies, dishes, and clothes.
While wastewater systems were not designed to specifically treat or remove PFAS, your providers are prepared to – and have already begun to – study and assess PFAS’ impacts on their treatment facilities, the quality of the water
they discharge, and the amount of PFAS that may be found in biosolids.
Your wastewater utility does not generate PFAS
Your wastewater utility receives PFAS when they get into the wastewater from homes, businesses, and industrial processes. While the utility and its customers cannot be expected to bear the full costs involved in addressing PFAS, they are strong
partners in reducing PFAS in our communities.
PFAS
Publicly owned clean water utilities are “passive receivers” of PFAS, since they do not produce or manufacture PFAS but de facto “receive” these chemicals through the raw influent that arrives at the treatment plant. This influent can come from domestic, industrial, and commercial sources and may contain PFAS constituents ranging from trace to higher concentrations, depending on the nature of the dischargers to the sewer system.
Although the influent is not generated by the utility, the utility is responsible for treating it under the Clean Water Act. Municipal clean water utilities were not traditionally designed or intended with PFAS treatment capabilities in mind. Today, there are no cost-effective techniques available to treat or remove PFAS for the sheer volume of wastewater managed daily by clean water utilities.
NACWA’s advocacy priorities on PFAS include urging source control, empowering the Clean Water Act pretreatment program, preventing public utilities and their customers from unintended liabilities and costs of PFAS management, and advancing research to support sound rulemaking that protects public health and the environment.
Toilets Are Not Trashcans
NACWA's Toilets Are Not Trashcans campaign is focused on protecting the pipes, pumps, plants, and personnel of wastewater utilities across the nation by reducing the materials that are inappropriately flushed or drained into the sewer system.
Products such as wipes, paper towels and feminine hygiene products should not be flushed, but often are, causing problems for utilities that amount to
billions of dollars
in maintenance and repair costs—costs which ultimately
pass on to the consumer.  Other consumer products contain ingredients, such as plastic microbeads and triclosan, which may harm water quality and the environment.  Fats, oils and greases (FOG) and unused pharmaceuticals should also be kept
out of the sewer system.
Integrated Planning
Over the last 45 years, communities have been responding to a growing list of Clean Water Act (CWA) regulatory mandates to improve the nation's water quality. Often taking on compounded wastewater and stormwater responsibilities, many communities are struggling to adequately allocate strained financial resources to these clean water needs.
Thanks to advocacy efforts by NACWA, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and others, EPA recognized the regulated community’s need for flexibility, and developed its
Integrated Municipal Stormwater and Wastewater Planning Approach Framework
(IP Framework) in 2012. NACWA and its members have been working with EPA and state water regulators ever since to ensure the Framework can be utilized by communities when appropriate.
Climate Adaptation & Resiliency
Climate change impacts are already affecting clean water agencies and are projected to grow in the years ahead. Increased intensity of storm events and flooding, the threat of sea level rise at treatment works—traditionally located on low-lying coastal land in a community—and increased attention to water scarcity and reuse are just some of the ways in which clean water agencies are seeing impacts from a rapidly changing climate. As the public and government at all levels becomes more concerned, legislative, regulatory and legal pressures to control greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change impacts will grow. Given the critical services clean water agencies provide in their communities, our sector needs to be closely engaged in climate and resiliency conversations.
NACWA believes that climate change is primarily a water issue. The Association’s advocacy focuses on the interrelationships between water resources and climate change. NACWA is also committed to ensuring that greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater treatment are accurately estimated, and that any efforts that impact the wastewater sector are reasonable.
Nutrients & Farm Bill
Pursuing New Tools to Address Nutrient-Related Water Quality Challenges
Nutrient pollution remains a substantial challenge to the water resources of the United States. Deficiencies in the federal regulatory and policy framework, as well as the lack and inflexibility of financial resources, have constrained needed progress. These factors are driving a strong interest across nutrient management stakeholders in developing and implementing alternative nutrient management approaches.
At the same time, as outlined in more detail below, NACWA played a leading role in securing legislative language in the 2018 Farm Bill that will help public clean water utilities better engage upstream with agricultural partners to achieve meaningful water quality improvements through a holistic, watershed approach.
Stormwater
As the nation’s leading advocacy voice for municipal stormwater utilities across the country, NACWA is dedicated to protecting water quality; addressing large scale watershed impacts, such as flooding and erosion; and solving related modern-day challenges, such as water quality impairment from stormwater runoff and land-use impacts.
The Association and its individual members are committed to advancing robust, innovative programs and working collaboratively with regulators and stakeholders. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA)
MS4 General Permit Remand Rule
, issued in early 2017, represents a change in the development and issuance of National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for small Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s).
Member Spotlight
How Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority is Reviving the Rio Grande
The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority is the largest water and wastewater utility in New Mexico, serving more than 650,000 residents in the greater Albuquerque area. Its Southside Water Reclamation Plant (SWRP) discharges approximately 55 million gallons per day of high-quality treated effluent into the Rio Grande, maintaining roughly 6.5 miles of connected river even during periods of upstream drying — a lifeline for the endangered Rio Grande Silvery Minnow (RGSM) and the broader riparian ecosystem.
Featured Event
Apr 14, 2026 - Apr 14, 2026
2026 National Water Policy Fly-In
All Events
May 05, 2026 - May 08, 2026
2026 National Pretreatment Workshop & Training
May 19, 2026 - May 20, 2026
2026 Affordability & Revenue Virtual Workshop
Jun 02, 2026 - Jun 03, 2026
2026 Strategic Communications: H2O Workshop
Jul 14, 2026 - Jul 17, 2026
2026 Utility Leadership Conference & 56th Annual Meeting
Nov 09, 2026 - Nov 10, 2026
2026 Fall Strategic Leadership Meeting
Nov 11, 2026 - Nov 13, 2026
2026 National Clean Water Law & Enforcement Seminar
Stay Up To Date
Clean Water Current
April 23, 2026
EPA Launches Water Reuse Action Plan (WRAP) 2.0 to Expand Water Reuse, Cut Costs and Strengthen National Water Supply
April 23, 2026
HRSD’s Dr. Charles Bott Named Chair of EPA’s Science Advisory Board
April 23, 2026
NACWA Urges Key Funding Priorities for Clean Water in FY 2027 Testimony to House Appropriations Subcommittees
April 23, 2026
Water Sector Advocates Gather in Washington for National Water Policy Fly-In; NACWA Board Approves Preliminary 2027 Budget
April 23, 2026
NACWA Launches New Utility Workforce & HR Workgroup
April 23, 2026
NACWA Brings Utility Perspective to National Water Infrastructure Summit, Urges Protection of SRF Funding and Affordability Solutions
April 9, 2026
President’s Proposed FY 2027 Budget Calls for Massive Cuts to Clean Water Funding – Utility Advocacy Needed!
April 9, 2026
NACWA Comments on Federal Proposals Concerning Hazardous Substances Discharge Rule, Pharmaceutical Disposal
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2026 Utility Leadership Conference
2026 Affordability & Revenue Virtual Workshop
2026 StratComm: H2O Workshop
2026 National Pretreatment Workshop & Training
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