Click Here to see previous Fax Alerts
February 11, 2000
House, AMSA Criticize EPA's 2001 Clean Water Funding
This week, AMSA joined the House Subcommittee on Water Resources & the Environment in criticizing EPA for underfunding municipal clean water infrastructure. On February 9, the committee heard testimony from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Assistant Administrator for Water Chuck Fox on “Agency Budgets and Priorities for FY2001.” Fox defended the president's 2000 budget, which contains an $800 million contribution to the State Revolving Loan Fund to support local wastewater infrastructure projects.During the hearing, Subcommittee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) expressed disappointment with the Clinton Administration's budget, which significantly reduces expenditures for clean water initiatives from $1.35 billion to $800 million. Boehlert noted that this dramatic cut comes on the heels of an EPA clean water needs survey that placed funding needs at well over $200 billion. “We must continue to adequately fund proven environmental programs that touch the lives of as many Americans as possible,” Boehlert said. “Clean water is simply not a resource we can afford to underfund. In fact we should be investing more into these vital programs based on the EPA's own projections,” he said.
AMSA did not testify, but echoed Boehlert in a statement that called for an “expanded federal commitment to meet staggeringly expensive wastewater needs” and urged “Members of Congress to reject the administration's request and provide adequate funding to begin to close the massive funding gaps facing local governments across the country.”
Boehlert also noted that the president's budget ignores the recommendations made in a December 14, 1999 letter from Boehlert, Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bud Shuster (R-Pa.), ranking Democrat James Oberstar (D-Minn.), and the subcommittee's ranking Democrat Robert Borski (D-Pa.) to increase support for the nation's clean water infrastructure programs.LaTourette Touts H.R. 3570 as Clean Water Funding Solution
The recently introduced Urban Wet Weather Priorities Act of 2000 — H.R. 3570 — which AMSA and other municipal stakeholders developed and promoted, also featured prominently in the discussions as a partial solution to the funding dilemma. Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio) questioned Assistant Administrator Fox on EPA's support for funding urban wet weather programs during the hearing. While Fox said that the administration would support loans for municipal wet weather control, LaTourette asserted that the needs are greater than the assistance that loans would provide and that H.R. 3570's combination or regulatory clarifications and grants would better address urban wet weather challenges.AMSA Prepares TMDL Testimony . . . Next week, AMSA is submitting testimony to the House Subcommittee on Water Resources & the Environment in support of including nonpoint source pollution reductions in total maximum daily loads (TMDLs). AMSA has maintained that TMDLs will be ineffective without their inclusion, but interests representing nonpoint sources have lobbied heavily against EPA's efforts.