U.S. EPA Announces $6.5B for Drinking Water Infrastructure Upgrades
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on April 4 announced over $6.5 billion for states, tribes, and territories for essential drinking water infrastructure upgrades across the nation through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF). Thanks to a $6 billion boost from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, EPA is increasing the investments available to rebuild the nation’s water infrastructure.
EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan announced the $6.5 billion investment on the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America tour in Rockford, Illinois, with Senator Dick Durbin (IL), Senator Tammy Duckworth (IL), and Congressman Eric Sorensen (IL-17), highlighting the President’s historic funding for water infrastructure upgrades.
The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to strengthening the nation’s water infrastructure, while providing significant resources to address key challenges, including climate change, emerging contaminants like per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and cybersecurity.
These DWSRF allotments to states are based on the results of EPA’s 7th Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment (DWINSA). The survey, which is required by the 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act, assesses the nation’s public water systems’ infrastructure needs every four years and the findings are used to allocate DWSRF grants to states. The drinking water utilities need $625 billion in infrastructure investments over the next 20 years to ensure the nation’s public health, security, and economic well-being.
At the direction of Congress, EPA’s 7th Drinking Water Assessment, for the first time included a survey on lead service lines and is projecting a national total of 9.2 million lead service lines across the country. This best available national and state-level projections of service line counts will help advance a unique opportunity to employ a separate lead service line allotment formula for the Infrastructure Law DWSRF Lead Service Line Replacement Funding that is based on need.
Almost $3 billion of the recently announced funding will be provided specifically for lead service line identification and replacement, taking a key step toward the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of achieving 100% lead free water systems.
The Infrastructure Law is investing over $50 billion in water and wastewater infrastructure improvements across the country between FY 2022 and FY 2026. In its second year of implementation, $6 billion the funding will be available to states, Tribes, and territories through the DWSRF.
SOURCE – U.S. EPA
