Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - NACWA in the News
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America Needs a Water Treatment Infrastructure Trust Fund 3/24/2007 |
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By Ken Kirk and Wenonah Hauter |
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The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency hosted a conference March 21-23 in
downtown Atlanta on so-called innovative and sustainable strategies to
help close a major clean water infrastructure funding gap. EPA estimates
this gap at $300 billion - $500 billion over the next 20 years.
Ironically, the EPA conference coincides with the Bush administration's
plan to once again slash the very funding cities, such as Atlanta, rely
on to build and operate their clean water infrastructure. Essentially,
the federal government is washing its hands of the commitment it made 35
years ago with the passage of the Clean Water Act to help states and
municipalities provide safe, affordable water for all Americans.
Many U.S. cities operate drinking water and sewage systems designed and built before World War I. As these critical systems age, they deteriorate causing sewage to spill into streams, rivers, lakes, and ocean, raising serious public health concerns. EPA's most recent assessment shows that 58% of Georgia's rivers and 25% of her lakes are "impaired" — unsafe for fishing, swimming, or drinking. Comparable levels of impairment exist nationwide. In passing the 1972 Clean Water Act, Congress declared it "the national policy that Federal financial assistance be provided to construct publicly owned waste treatment works." Congress put those words to action with more than $61 billion in grants to ensure clean and safe water. In 1987, Congress switched from grants to a low interest loan program called the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) to pay for these improvements. This fund has seen repeated cuts since fiscal year 2004 when Congress provided $1.35 billion. The request for the current fiscal year is nearly half that amount at $688 million. What's worse, the Bush administration has threatened to veto recent legislation overwhelmingly approved by the U.S. House of Representatives that would provide $14 billion for needed infrastructure improvements (H.R. 720). So how does the administration propose to fix this ever-widening funding gap? One prong of its shortsighted approach is for cities to simply raise their water and sewer rates, a tactic that ignores several crucial facts. First, for many cities, doubling, tripling, or even quadrupling sewer fees would not be enough to meet replacement needs. Second, for the past five years, utilities have raised their rates at double the rate of inflation. Moreover, raising rates is just not an option in some economically distressed communities.
The Bush administration is also encouraging the privatization of public utilities by proposing to raise state caps on private activity bonds. While cities support having a variety of tools at their disposal to address infrastructure needs, there is little, if any evidence, to suggest that these tax-exempt bonds, designed to encourage private investment in public projects, will spur infrastructure investment in any meaningful way. Furthermore, the private bond caps in 49 of 50 states are not even met today. Communities have already experimented with privatization and learned that the private sector cannot solve their infrastructure needs. The innovative approaches EPA recommends are good ideas that most publicly owned treatment plants are already employing; but what is needed to close the gap, are real federal dollars. Rather than engaging in a politically charged debate every year about more money for pipes and treatment plants or about outdated and discarded fixes such as privatization, Congress should protect America's water by establishing a trust fund to pay for infrastructure improvements. National priorities that transcend state and local boundaries should receive perpetual funding streams, immune from shifting political currents. Trust funds already pay for highways, airports and social security. Why not water? |
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