Legislation that would help water and wastewater utilities adapt their infrastructure to the impacts of changing hydrological conditions and extreme weather was reintroduced in the Senate on September 17, seven months after a similar bill was proposed in the House of Representatives.
The bill, the “Water Infrastructure Resiliency and Sustainability Act,” has been top priority of AMWA since it was first drafted in 2009 during the 111th Congress. The measure would establish a competitive EPA program to offer funding assistance to water and wastewater utilities undertaking projects to further the sustainability of their infrastructure or to study the potential impacts of changing hydrological conditions on their water system.
Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) introduced the bill in the House of Representatives in February as H.R. 765, and it currently has the support of 21 Democratic cosponsors. The Senate version offered this month by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) as S. 1508 is nearly identical, except it includes a “Davis-Bacon” provision that would require the payment of local prevailing wages to all laborers working on projects funded in whole or in part by assistance from the bill.
Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) have backed S. 1508 as original cosponsors.
Both bills would offer assistance to support a wide range of water conservation and efficiency improvements; “green infrastructure” measures that protect source water quality or reduce flood vulnerability; relocation or modification of existing infrastructure that is or will be impaired by changing hydrological conditions; water reuse, recycling, or desalination projects that serve existing communities; efforts to enhance a utility’s energy efficiency or to utilize renewable energy in the management and treatment of water; and local or regional studies that identify specific climate-related risks to given communities.
To display the proposal’s broad appeal, AMWA led a coalition of water and environmental organizations in writing to Sen. Cardin on September 18 to express support for the legislation. A similar letter was sent to Rep. Capps after she introduced her version of the bill in February.