Funds may aid sewers
By: Bruce Geiselman
August 01, 2005

The Senate Environment Committee on July 20 approved legislation that would provide $38 billion over five years for improving the nation's water and wastewater systems.

The bill next moves on to the full Senate for consideration.

The money would go into revolving funds that would loan money to local water and wastewater districts needing to upgrade and modernize their facilities to meet Clean Water Act standards. Money also could be awarded as grants.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., the committee chairman, along with Sens. James Jeffords, I-Vt., Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., sponsored the Water Infrastructure Financing Act.

``The funding authorized by this bill is critical to helping communities repair crumbling Infrastructure,'' Jeffords said.

``There are three major estimates of the size of the need for water Infrastructure, which range from $200 billion to $500 billion over the next 20 years,'' he said. ``It is imperative that we take care of this looming problem.''

Ken Kirk, executive director of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, commended the sponsoring senators for ``taking the lead in addressing the most important Infrastructure challenge facing our nation.''

Kirk expressed concern about whether the federal government would be able to provide the authorized funding should the measure pass, and he called for the federal government to create a clean water trust fund to ensure its availability.

Kirk's group is a national trade association representing publicly owned wastewater treatment utilities.

Contact Waste News government affairs editor Bruce Geiselman at (330) 865-6172 or bgeiselman@crain.com