AMWA-backed legislation intended to help water and wastewater utilities adapt their infrastructure to the impacts of climate change and extreme weather will be reintroduced in the U.S. Senate this month, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) announced during an August visit to the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission.
The bill, the “Water Infrastructure Resiliency and Sustainability Act,” is expected to mirror the version of the same bill Senator Cardin introduced last year during the 112th Congress, and which Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) sponsored as H.R. 765 in the House of Representatives this past February. The legislation would offer up to $50 million per year to help water and wastewater systems upgrade infrastructure to better meet changing hydrological conditions. Funds awarded through the program could cover up to 50 percent of the total cost of a given project.
Projects eligible for funding would include 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.
In a press release announcing his plans to reintroduce the bill, Cardin explained that the new program would “complement, not replace” the existing Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds (SRF) and would help grow the economy by delivering more local construction jobs across the country.
Rep. Capps’ House of Representatives version of the bill has attracted 21 cosponsors, all Democrats, since its introduction in February.