U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee of Flint, Michigan, has announced that he will ask Congress to provide $50 million for the continuation of the Flint Registry, which is a federally funded program providing services to the victims of the Flint Water Crisis.
The legislation will be introduced as the Flint Registry Reauthorization Act, and it aims to keep the program funded beyond 2021.
“It does sound like a lot of money and it is,” Kildee said, according to Mlive.com. “But this is the consequence of the failure to make the investment we need to make in cities’ water infrastructure. As a society, we pay a price one way or another.”
San Francisco Awarded $513M for Wastewater Upgrades
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced a $513 million Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) in California to help finance needed pretreatment and other related improvements to its Southeast Treatment Plant, which treats 80% of San Francisco’s wastewater. This action marks the second WIFIA loan supporting San Francisco’s Southeast Treatment Plant and represents the latest effort by EPA to help protect public health and the environment in the Bay Area.
“Not only will this project provide environmental and public health benefits, it will create more than 3,000 jobs in the Bay Area,” says EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator John Busterud. “Rebuilding our aging water infrastructure at low cost to communities is a top priority for EPA.”
Michigan Clean Water Program Reaches Milestone
Michigan’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund reached a milestone recently after four new low-interest loans for water/wastewater infrastructure brought the program’s grand total of funding to more than $5 billion since its inception in 1989.
The program has provided loans to more than 600 communities in 61 of Michigan’s counties. The loans help communities afford infrastructure improvements to water and wastewater systems, stormwater systems and pollution control projects.
