Senator Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho)

Bipartisan Group of Senators Introduces S. 3262 to Allow More Tax-Exempt Private Activity Bond Funding for Water Projects

The National Association of Water Companies and 60 other organizations supported the introduction of a bipartisan Sustainable Water Infrastructure Investment Act of 2010, S. 3262, by Senator Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and cosponsors Senator Kit Bond (R-Mo.), Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), and Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.). The bill will remove state volume caps on private activity bonds (PABs) for water and wastewater projects, freeing up billions of private capital dollars for investment in the nation’s water infrastructure. A similar bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives last year by Congressman Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) was passed by the House as part of the Small Business and Infrastructure Tax Act (H.R. 4849) last month.

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Urban Land Institute Reports on Need for Better Management, More Public-Private Partnerships for Water Infrastructure

The Urban Land Institute (ULI), a nonprofit land-use organization, and Ernst & Young, a major financial services firm, released a report recommending public-private investment as a viable means of closing the water infrastructure funding gap. The report also recommended that the federal government “establish a national infrastructure bank, modeled on the European Investment Bank which could help promote more investment-grade decision making and attract more private capital into infrastructure investments.”

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Veolia Water North America Stars in Hollywood Movie

Wilsonville, Ore., is miles from Hollywood, but Veolia Water North America employees working at the city’s surface water treatment plant last spring may have felt as if they were much closer when CBS Films, a film division within CBS Corporation, spent time on-site shooting scenes for its movie, Extraordinary Measures, starring Harrison Ford, Brendan Fraser and Keri Russell.

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NAWC Members Help Communities Commemorate Earth Day from Coast to Coast

Earth Day, the day set aside globally to appreciate our planet, provides an opportunity to consider what we as individuals, or as representatives of organizations, can contribute to the ecological health and vitality of the Blue Planet.

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From Green Alma Maters and Design-Builds to Lifetime Meals

Director of Congressional Relations Erika Berlinghof traveled to her alma mater, Connecticut College, to speak to students about the benefits of “green collar” jobs as part of a campus-wide Earth Day Celebration. Connecticut College is a national collegiate leader in environmental issues; in 1999, Connecticut College became the first college or university in the United States to address its own carbon emissions with offsets. Again in 2001, Connecticut College achieved another “first,” becoming the first school in the country to purchase a significant portion of its energy from clean, renewable sources.

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