America’s Water Infrastructure Act Legislation Clears Congress, Awaits President’s Signature

From AWWA Connections ®
A landmark water bill that passed the U.S. Senate last week reauthorizes the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) for two more years and removes its pilot designation, another key milestone in the American Water Works Association’s work to confront the water infrastructure challenge.

“The reauthorization of WIFIA at $50 million – and the fact that it is no longer a ‘pilot’ — is a significant milestone for the program and a great victory for the entire water sector,” said AWWA CEO David LaFrance. “AWWA’s members can be proud of their work to elevate the issue of water infrastructure renewal, craft a workable solution, and then refine and fund it.”

The legislation — America’s Water Infrastructure Act — was approved by the Senate on Oct. 10 after passing through the U.S. House of Representatives in September and now awaits President Trump’s signature.

It is a combination of regular, two-year water resources development legislation and a Safe Drinking Water Act bill that the House produced. AWWA provided substantial input, including advocating for stronger requirements for notifying downstream water utilities of chemical spills and updating security and resiliency provisions to reflect an all-hazards approach. The legislation establishes a Drinking Water System Infrastructure Resilience and Sustainability Program to award grants to increase resilience to natural hazards. (See AWWA analysis)

“We think the legislation strikes an important balance in applying an all-hazards approach to evaluating risk and resilience in the water sector,” said AWWA Federal Relations Manager Kevin Morley, who oversees the Association’s security and emergency preparedness work. “We believe that many of the resources AWWA has developed will aid utilities in meeting these new requirements.”

Morley pointed to the best practices embodied in AWWA’s J100 standard and G440 and G430 standards as key supports for meeting the requirements in the legislation.

Section 2013 of the legislation requires community water systems to complete and update risk and resilience assessments (formerly vulnerability assessments) every five years; complete and update an emergency response plan every five years; and submit a letter of certification to EPA on a schedule based on system size.

The WIFIA reauthorization appropriates $50 million in both 2020 and 2021 for loans to finance large-scale water infrastructure projects. Congress first provided funding for WIFIA loans in the 2017 fiscal year, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) received 43 letters of interest. Twelve candidates were invited to submit formal applications and a total of $2.3 billion in loans was approved. In the second round of WIFIA loans, EPA received 62 letters of interest seeking $9.1 billion in loans for a 2018 appropriation of $5.1 billion.

The water bill also reauthorizes the Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund (DWSRF) – which had expired in 2003 — for three years: $1.17 billion in 2019, $1.3 billion in 2020, and $1.95 billion in 2021. It increases states’ flexibility to provide SRF assistance to disadvantages communities.

The bill would also require that consumer confidence reports be provided twice, instead of once a year. However, the legislative language is vague on whether the underlying data needs to be updated twice a year.

“America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018, includes authorization of EPA WaterSense,. WaterSense is a voluntary public-private partnership that has saved American consumers more than $68 billion while conserving more than 2.7 trillion gallons of water since 2006.” (Alliance for Water Efficiency)

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