Investments in Our Nation's Water Systems

Floor Speech

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Mr. TONKO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to support much needed investments in our Nation's water systems.

Earlier this year, EPA estimated some $472 billion is needed to maintain the Nation's drinking water infrastructure over the next 20 years.

We have woefully underinvested in drinking water for far too long, and now crumbling pipes and failing systems pose a serious threat to public health and public safety.

Later today, the House is expected to vote on S. 3021, America's Water Infrastructure Act, the latest iteration of WRDA.

It is a good bill, the result of bipartisan and bicameral negotiations.

I am incredibly proud of the work done by both majority and minority members of the Energy and Commerce Committee on H.R. 3387, the Drinking Water System Improvement Act, which was reported out of committee unanimously in July of 2017. Nearly all of that bill has been incorporated into S. 3021.

I would like to highlight a number of the provisions that I am pleased were included in the final package.

Since 2014, I have introduced legislation to reauthorize the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, the primary source of Federal funding for our water systems. Since its creation, the program has never been reauthorized, and funding has been flat, despite the growing needs in our communities.

S. 3021 would increase the authorization from $1 billion annually until it reaches a $1.95 billion level in fiscal year 2021.

In addition to providing significantly increased funding through the SRF, I want to mention a number of other provisions.

First, WRDA makes numerous important changes to the SRF program, including extending the length of loans from 20 to 30 years, and up to 40 years for disadvantaged communities, while increasing the set-aside for these communities by raising the maximum and, importantly, instituting a minimum amount of assistance.

It provides $125 million annually to support State water offices through the Public Water Systems Supervision grant program.

It seeks to improve the availability of compliance data submitted by water systems and States.

It promotes better asset management practices, improves consumer confidence reports, and reauthorizes the Source Water Petition Program.

It includes funding for EPA to review methods and technologies to prevent and detect leakage, contamination, and other problems.

It requires Buy America standards for SRF projects through fiscal year 2023 and prevailing wage standards to ensure that American workers are benefiting from these investments.

It provides funding for systems to conduct risk assessments of their resilience to extreme weather.

It establishes a grant program to help schools and daycare centers replace water fountains containing lead components.

Also related to lead, it requires future EPA needs assessments to include the cost of replacing lead service lines.

I know a number of communities are dealing with emerging contaminants, such as PFOA and PFOS. Currently, only systems serving more than 10,000 people are required to test for unregulated contaminants. This bill requires water systems serving over 3,300 people to monitor for these contaminants, empowering local residents to take action to mitigate serious health threats that they may not have known existed otherwise.

This would mean that thousands of communities, communities like Hoosick Falls, New York, and similarly sized systems would no longer have emerging contaminants go undetected, potentially threatening their residents for years.

Finally, while not included in the committee-passed bill, WRDA authorizes $100 million for areas hit by natural disasters to repair their water systems, enabling post-Maria Puerto Rico to access funds without the financial burden of State matching requirements.

This is not an exhaustive list of provisions in this title, but it gives a sense of the breadth of policies that were included to improve the Safe Drinking Water Act.

This bill is not a clean water silver bullet, but it will put us on the path to end the decades of neglect of our water infrastructure and make the investments needed to maintain and upgrade our systems in order to protect public health.

I want to thank my colleagues, Representative Harper, Chair Shimkus, Chair Walden, and their staffs for working with our side of the aisle on this legislation. I want to acknowledge the contributions of our ranking member Representative Frank Pallone, Jackie Cohen, Jean Fruci, and Rick Kessler, and other members of the Energy and Commerce minority staff for their hard work.

I always say that every life and every job in this country depends on access to safe drinking water. The needs are great and the cost of inaction is high.

Today, Congress has the opportunity to act. I urge my colleagues to support America's Water Infrastructure Act and for the Senate to take it up immediately

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