Formally titled the “Water Infrastructure Improvements Act for the Nation (WIIN) Act” (S. 612), the compromise WRDA legislation that won congressional approval in the hours before both chambers adjourned for the year runs more than 700 pages and reflects several AMWA priorities, such as:
- Authorizing a new $300 million, five-year EPA grant program to support the replacement of lead service lines. Priority for funding will go to communities otherwise unable to pay for lead service line replacements and which have exceeded EPA’s action level for lead within the previous three years. Grant funding may not be used to pay for partial lead service line replacements, but in the case of low-income households, the bill will allow the use of grant funds to subsidize replacement of both publicly and privately owned portions of a lead service line. The program is based on legislation introduced earlier this year by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and endorsed by AMWA, but Congress will have to appropriate additional funding before the program can be operational.
- Modifying the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) program to give all loan recipients the option to finance WIFIA application fees over the life of the loan rather than paying them in full up front. The bill also expands WIFIA project eligibility to explicitly include drought mitigation projects.
- Authorizing $100 million over five years for a new grant program to help schools and childcare centers voluntarily test their drinking water for elevated levels of lead. State or local educational agencies that receive grant funds will have to spend the dollars in accordance with EPA’s “3Ts for Reducing Lead in Drinking Water in Schools” guidance and post a copy of the test results on school websites.
- Updating public notification requirements under the Safe Drinking Water Act to require water systems to notify the public within 24 hours of learning of a lead action level exceedance that has the potential to have serious adverse effects on human health in the short-term – mirroring the public notification standard for water quality violations that carry serious adverse human health effects. The bill also establishes a process through which EPA must notify local officials if it obtains scientifically valid data indicating that the drinking water of a particular household served by that water system contains lead at a level in excess of EPA’s lead action level. The public water system would then be responsible for disseminating that information to the homeowner, along with information on the human health effects of lead exposure and steps being taken by the utility to mitigate the concentration of lead. EPA or the state would be required to deliver that information to the homeowner if the utility fails to do so in a timely manner.
- A “sense of Congress” finding in support of an initial WIFIA appropriation of $20 million – the same amount that Congress subsequently provided for the program in its stopgap FY17 funding bill.
AMWA endorsed the WIIN Act in a December 7 letter to Congress. The House went on to pass the bill by a 360 – 61 margin, and the Senate ultimately followed suit by a vote of 78 – 21. These overwhelming tallies were achieved despite several last-minute controversies, including Democrats’ displeasure that the final bill only extends “Buy American” requirements for iron and steel products used on DWSRF-funded projects through the 2017 fiscal year, after the Senate’s earlier version of the bill would have made the “Buy American” rules permanent. Additionally, California Senator Barbara Boxer opposed the WIIN Act due to its inclusion of provisions that would temporarily allow increased pumping of water from the Bay Delta region to agricultural regions and other areas affected by the state’s ongoing drought. (Conversely, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California’s other Democratic senator, supported the drought package) But in the end, these issues were not enough to temper most lawmakers’ support for the overall legislation.