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House T&I Panel Digs Deeper Into Wastewater Financing
Tasha Eichenseher, E&E Daily reporter
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Water Resources and Environment
Subcommittee will hold a second hearing this week on how the nation should
finance repairs and upgrades to aging sewer systems.
At issue is finding a way to plug a funding gap, estimated at $300 billion to
$800 billion over the next 20 years. Both environmental and industry groups have
encouraged Congress to address the situation as soon as possible, citing the
potential for public health problems and expensive penalties.
At a hearing last week, witnesses discussed a trust fund solution similar to
those that support federal highway and aviation projects. While most supported a
fund, questions remained about where the money would come from.
A poll released in March by Frank Luntz, president of Luntz Research Companies,
indicates that nearly 85 percent of Americans support a clean water trust fund.
Polling results also showed that 71 percent of survey respondents would rather
see dedicated federal funding for clean water programs than for additional road
and airport projects.
How to work out the specifics regarding who would contribute to the trust fund
are less clear, as lawmakers look for an agreement on the use of a tax or fee on
a broad base of water consumers, ranging from the bottled beverage and computer
industries to farmers and homeowners.
With the federal government currently paying less than 10 percent of the cost of
maintaining clean water, several experts on the subject agree that even with a
trust fund, supplemental funding would have to come from other sources, such as
rate increases.
This week's hearing will focus on rate increases, flush taxes, bonds,
state-federal partnerships for improved asset management and other financing
mechanisms.
Some witnesses, including Kevin Ward, executive administrator of the Texas Water
Development Board, will discuss the benefits of the U.S. EPA's Clean Water State
Revolving Fund, which provides low interest loans to states.
No one has yet floated a trust fund bill, with previous efforts to increase
wastewater funding directed at increasing the SRF (E&E Daily, June 9). But both
the Senate and the House are working on financing legislation that looks at
long-term dedicated revenue sources, according to Capitol Hill staff.
Members of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies and the Water
Infrastructure Network, which are spearheading the trust fund legislation
effort, say draft language should be available this summer.
NAWCA President Ken Kirk has said that legislation is unlikely to come before
Congress for a couple of years. In an E&ETV interview last month, Kirk said: "Is
it going to go through in the 109th Congress? No. Is it going to go through the
110th? No, but we have to start somewhere, and we're planning on keeping the
fire lit under this issue until the job gets done."
Both Kirk and Nancy Stoner, head of the Natural Resources Defense Council's
Clean Water Project, said that unless something is done to restore aging
wastewater infrastructure in this country, water quality will deteriorate to
pre-Clean Water Act conditions.
"We certainly would want to make sure that we don't have to go through the
appropriations battle every year," Stoner said. "We want to have a dedicated
trust fund where it's clear where that money is going and that it's not being
expropriated for some other use."
Schedule: The hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, June 15, at 10 a.m. in 2167
Rayburn.
Witnesses: Donald Hill, deputy mayor pro tem, Dallas, Texas; Stephen Howard,
Lehman Brothers, senior vice president; Jag Khuman, director, Maryland Water
Quality Financing Administration, Maryland Department of the Environment; Deb
Martin, program director, Great Lakes Rural Community Assistance Partnership;
Valerie Nelson, director, Coalition for Alternative Wastewater Treatment;