Infrastructure Week 2024 recently served as a strong reminder that the need for continued investment in clean water infrastructure persists, despite strides that have been made in federal funding for the water sector. The National Association of Clean Water Agencies echoed the call for increased federal investment as the water sector continues to confront a complex set of regulatory and ratepayer affordability issues.
"The passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 was a critical first step toward closing the funding gap for water infrastructure," says Adam Krantz, NACWA CEO. "But utilities and municipalities across the nation face myriad challenges — from climate change to population shifts, and from emerging contaminants like PFAS to a growing number of low-income households struggling to pay their rising water bills. These challenges are once again widening the water funding gap and NACWA is committed to advocating for increased federal funding. We look forward to continuing our work with Congress to find the appropriate local/state/federal partnership to address the clean water funding gap.”
Clean Watershed Needs Survey
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also recently released its much-anticipated 2022 Clean Watershed Needs Survey Report to Congress, identifying $630.1 billion in needed but unfunded investment in the nation’s clean water infrastructure. This represents a 73% increase in total reported needs since the previous 2012 report a decade ago.
"Today’s Report to Congress confirms what public clean water utilities across America already know — that there is a massive gap between available funds and the dollars actually needed to invest in the country’s clean water infrastructure, and that the gap is growing at a rapid and unsustainable pace," says Krantz. "Local utilities and their ratepayers simply cannot continue to bear the full burden for these costs."
Unlike the Drinking Water Needs Assessment, which the EPA is required by statute to complete every four years, there is no similar statutory requirement for EPA to complete the CWNS on a specific timeline. The last survey was in 2012, and NACWA advocated strongly to include language in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law requiring EPA to produce an updated CWNS.
