In this issue’s Q&A, Texas+Water Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Todd Votteler, interviews Dr. Earthea Nance, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Regional Administrator for Region 6 – South Central Region.

Dr. Nance is an environmental engineer who has, for two decades, worked with communities at disproportionate risk of environmental hazards. As a professor and graduate student, she conducted community-based research after Hurricane Katrina, during the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, and in communities without safe water and sanitation in Brazil and Mozambique.

After Hurricane Harvey, she brought community and equity perspectives into regional disaster policy during her service on the Greater Houston Flood Mitigation Consortium and the Harris County Community Flood Resilience Task Force. As a public official serving as director of disaster mitigation and planning for the City of New Orleans after Katrina, Dr. Nance managed $60 million in flood mitigation funds and created the City’s first approved plans for hazard mitigation, sustainability, and green energy. Before that, she served as an environmental engineer at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where she was part of a groundbreaking program to mitigate the risk of dispersal of radioactive material.

What is the EPA’s role regarding Texas water management?

The main federal laws for water regulation are the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). In Texas, EPA has delegated the main authority for administering these laws to several state agencies, such as the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Texas Water Development Board. EPA’s role is mostly focused on administering grants and other types of funding and overseeing the state’s CWA and SDWA programs. It’s important to note that the EPA does not regulate or manage water supply, although the agency supports voluntary programs such as WaterSense to help consumers use less water.  

Can you describe some of the water-focused programs at EPA for us?

Under the federal Clean Water Act, EPA works with the State of Texas to ensure that surface waters like rivers, streams, reservoirs, and lakes are safe for public recreation and are protective for fish and other aquatic organisms. One of the primary ways we do this is by ensuring that industrial and municipal wastewater discharges and stormwater runoff are appropriately controlled in order to protect the uses of waterbodies that receive those discharges. 

EPA also works with the State of Texas to reduce the adverse effects of nonpoint sources of pollutants that may impact water quality. This includes providing technical assistance and grants to watershed protection groups that create and implement plans for managing stormwater and other sources of runoff.

Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, EPA works with the State of Texas to ensure that drinking water provided by water supply systems complies with Drinking Water Standards that have been established to protect each of us. In addition, under the Safe Drinking Water Act, we protect the drinking water sources underground.

In addition to funding state water programs, EPA allocates grant funding through two State Revolving Fund (SRFs) programs to Texas. The SRF programs provide below-market rate loans to fund infrastructure improvements to water and wastewater systems to protect public health and water quality and ensure compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act. This helps states fund the large costs of building and maintaining water infrastructure in a sustainable, manageable way. The Texas Water Development Board administers the SRF programs in Texas. 

We also work closely with the North American Development Bank to fund water and wastewater infrastructure projects in the US-Mexico Border region in Texas and to prevent raw wastewater discharges from adversely impacting water quality for Texas residents of the Border area. For example, in the last few years, several communities around El Paso have been connected to wastewater and drinking water lines for the first time. The positive impact these services has on communities cannot be overstated, and I’m very proud of our work in helping to make it happen. 

How does the landmark Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) benefit Texas?

As many of your readers understand, the cost of building and maintaining effective water infrastructure can be difficult or even impossible for many communities to meet. That’s what makes the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and its historic funding levels from the Biden-Harris Administration so significant. The Texas Water Development Board will manage over $500 million of federal fiscal year 2022 IIJA funds for clean water and drinking water improvements in Texas through the SRF program. Under President Biden’s Justice40 initiative, at least 40 percent of this money must go to disadvantaged communities—places where this type of funding is the key to having effective, reliable water infrastructure. The money will also help reduce exposure to lead through identifying and replacing lead service lines and reducing exposure to perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and other emerging contaminants in drinking water and wastewater.

What are some of the EPA Region 6’s accomplishments and projects regarding water that you are most proud of?

I’m very proud of our partnership with the Texas Water Development Board and other agencies that give financial assistance to so many Texas communities. This partnership has resulted in projects like the ones in border communities I mentioned previously. To know that so many families, for the first time, will be able to turn on a tap and get access to safe drinking water instead of relying on bottles being trucked into their community—that gets to EPA’s fundamental mission of protecting human health. Our staff in Region 6 work incredibly hard with our state partners to make sure every resident of Texas has access to this basic human right. 

What do you consider to be the biggest challenge facing Texas over the next 20 years regarding water?

Of course, climate change poses many potentially compounding problems for water quality in Texas. Impacts such as droughts, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, sea level rise, and saltwater encroachment will progressively degrade water quality in Texas in years to come. Drinking water sources will then require more treatment and drive up the costs of potable water, which will affect disadvantaged communities most of all. And as we learn more about emerging contaminants such as PFAS, testing for and treating them will add to the obligations of water treatment systems.