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Voinovich drops bill offering $15B for wastewater grants
Water Resources
E & E Daily
02/07/2001
Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) reintroduced legislation Tuesday offering $3
billion per year for five years in grants to states that would then loan the
funds to local communities to repair and upgrade existing wastewater collection
and treatment facilities.
The Clean Water Infrastructure Financing Act is headed for the Senate
Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Water,
which is chaired by Sen. Mike Crapo (Idaho). Susan Wheeler, communications
director in Crapo's office, said the issues from Voinovich's bill are relevant
to other panel discussions on wastewater infrastructure needs, though she said
no decision has been made on a hearing for the specific bill.
Voinovich introduced the same bill, S. 1699, last year. Hearings were held on
the legislation, but it did not move beyond the subcommittee.
Also last year, a House companion bill -- H.R. 2720, which had 101 cosponsors --
was introduced by Reps. Sue Kelly (R-N.Y.) and Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.). Both
lawmakers will introduce a similar bill this session, said April Kaufman,
Tauscher's press secretary. Rep. Kelly's office did not return calls for
comment.
The Voinovich bill provides technical and planning assistance to small water
systems, expands the types of projects eligible for loan assistance and offers
financially distressed communities extended loan repayment periods and principal
subsidies.
The money would go to the Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund, a program
created in 1987 that Voinovich said has not received adequate provisions to keep
up with nationwide water infrastructure needs. Last year, Voinovich secured
funding through the omnibus appropriations bill for $1.5 billion over two years
in grants for improvements to wastewater treatment facilities nationwide.
Statistics on wastewater capital needs can be traced to a 1996 Environmental
Protection Agency survey that showed a $139 billion nationwide crunch. That
figure was updated in 1999 to nearly $200 billion. Private studies have
estimated the costs to be closer to $300 billion.
"With such massive needs nationwide the federal government is really the only
entity that can help local communities make the necessary improvements to water
quality," Voinovich said.
Ken Kirk, executive director of the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage
Agencies, said his group will work with Voinovich, Environment and Public Works
Committee Chairman Bob Smith (R-N.H.) and others on Capitol Hill during the
107th Congress to fund loans and grants for both wastewater and water
infrastructure needs. The Water Infrastructure Network, a coalition of elected
officials, drinking water service providers, state and environmental health
administrators, engineers and environmentalists, will offer a report Feb. 13
that sets forth a broad array of recommendations to deal with both issues. Kirk
said that the pricetag for such efforts amounts to $1 trillion dollars over the
next 20 years. -- Darren Samuelsohn