Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - AMSA in the News
New bill on wastewater systems to appear
Water Resources
Daily
03/11/2002
Rep. John Duncan (R-Tenn.), chairman of the House Transportation and
Infrastructure Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee, will hold a hearing
Wednesday on still-developing legislation to address the nation's aging
wastewater systems.
The details behind Duncan's bill, named the Water Quality Financing Act of 2002,
were not available Friday.
The scheduling of a House hearing on the issue marks the most substantial move
to date by the panel's leadership. Legislation in the Senate Environment and
Public Works Committee, which has support among Democrats, Republicans and
Committee Chairman Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.), is now slated for a March 21 markup,
according to Jeffords spokeswoman Diane Derby.
The Senate bill, S. 1961, would authorize $35 billion for both drinking water
and wastewater infrastructure projects over the next five years. To address
drinking water infrastructure in the House, the Energy and Commerce's
Environment Subcommittee must act. Staff from that committee did not return
calls for comment as of press time Friday.
Reps. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) and Sue Kelly (R-N.Y.), both members of the
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, have already staked out turf on the
issue. The lawmakers last month introduced five-year, $25 billion legislation,
H.R. 3792, that focuses solely on wastewater infrastructure while also
incorporating enhanced security measures around water treatment centers. H.R.
3792 contrasts with S. 1961 in that it establishes a grant program -- instead of
loans -- to help financially disadvantaged communities cope with wastewater
treatment needs and to meet federal clean water standards.
Witnesses at a legislative hearing last month on S. 1961 indicated controversy
is likely over the issue of whether or not to include prevailing wages under
provisions of the Davis-Bacon Act. An Environment Committee source said that
while Davis-Bacon is not currently in S. 1961, it is likely to come up during
the markup as an amendment. The issue, the source noted, kept brownfields reform
legislation from passing into law for more than a year.
Other concerns raised over S. 1961 include funding levels, language shifting the
nature of the Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund to operate more like its
drinking water counterpart, and whether states receiving federal funds should be
required to follow federal mandates when managing infrastructure construction's
effects on land use and sprawl.
The Bush administration does not support the funding levels as called for in S.
1961 because of its current fiscal focus on homeland defense and overseas
military operations, said Benjamin Grumbles, EPA deputy assistant administrator
for the Office of Water. Meantime, several water interest groups, including the
Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies and the American Water Works
Association, have called on lawmakers to approve an even greater $57 billion
authorization bill over five years. The National Association of Water Companies
has questioned whether Congress would even appropriate funding levels of the
nature in S. 1961.
Schedule: The hearing is at 10 a.m., Wednesday, March 13, in 2167 Rayburn.
Witnesses: Representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, state and
local government and infrastructure groups will testify.
-- Darren Samuelsohn