Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - NACWA in the News
Highway Bill
Water and environmental groups claimed a victory on the $284 billion federal highway bill. The Senate voted 51-49 to provide nearly $868 million over six years to manage flooding and pollution caused by runoff from roads and highways. The vote defeated an amendment by Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) that would have reduced funding for the Highway Stormwater Discharge Mitigation Program. Opposing the bond amendment were U.S. Conference of Mayors, the Association of State Water Pollution Control Administrators, the Environmental Council of States, the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies, and others. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) said stormwater runoff from roads, parking lots and other paved surfaces is the largest source of water pollution, occurring when stormwater overwhelms sewer pipes and treatment plants. NRDC said more than 50,000 cities, towns and counties must now meet Clean Water Act stormwater regulations (many large cities already manage stormwater pollution) in order to meet discharge permits and other Clean Water Act regulations. The EPA estimated the cost to comply with these regulations to be about $1 billion/year. The highway bill would earmark 2% of Surface Transportation Program funds to be used for highway stormwater discharge mitigation.