Government Relations

Aspen Institute Releases Sustainable Water Systems: Step One – Redefining the Nation’s Infrastructure Challenge

Recognizing the increasing challenges facing America’s drinking water and wastewater systems, the Aspen Institute convened a multi-stakeholder dialogue to help provide clarity and promote leadership on addressing those challenges. The Aspen Institute’s Dialogue on Sustainable Water Infrastructure in the U.S. brought together distinguished leaders from the water utility industry; federal, state and local government regulators; and non-profit environmental groups to develop policy recommendations that address water infrastructure planning and management challenges for the coming decades.

The National Association of Water Companies (NAWC), the Water Environment Federation (WEF) and CH2M HILL were primary sponsors of the Dialogue on Sustainable Water Infrastructure in the U.S. Between May 2008 and March 2009, participants in the dialogue met on four separate occasions, employing their broad range of expertise to peel back the layers of complexity surrounding our nation’s water resources.

The Aspen Dialogue gave rise to a set of ten policy recommendations. View the full report.

Donald Correll, president and CEO of American Water, NAWC executive director Michael Deane (former associate assistant administrator, Office of Water, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency); Glen T. Daigger, senior vice president, chief technology officer, CH2M HILL; Eric Thornburg, president and CEO, Connecticut Water Company; and Patrick Cairo, executive vice president, Suez Environment North America were among the esteemed participants.

On July 29, 2009, the Aspen Institute will host a Roundtable Discussion highlighting some of the report's key findings at their office headquarters in Washington, DC. If you are interested in attending this Roundtable, contact regan.nelson@aspeninstitute.org.

Rep. Blumenauer to Introduce Water Trust Fund

This week, Rep. Blumenauer is expected to introduce the long awaited “water trust fund” bill. Early drafts of the bill indicate it would create a dedicated revenue source through a tax on several industries to fund the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and several new grant programs.

NAWC has generally not been supportive of the trust fund idea because such a fund would effectively mask the value of water and discourage water conservation through heavy utility subsidizations.

As drafted, the trust fund would assess six new taxes to raise $10 billion annually. Taxes would be levied on water-based beverages such as Coca-Cola; consumer products such as soaps, detergents, feminine products, toothpaste, toiletries, toilet tissue, water softeners, and cooking oils; pesticides; fertilizers; pharmaceuticals; and a carve-out from the corporate income tax.

The trust fund would subsidize an amended Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund that would distribute up to 80 percent and no less than 50 percent of the funds in the form of grants. The Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund would be amended to expand categories of eligibility and make it user friendly for large municipalities. The Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Funds funding structure would not be drastically altered to favor grants and non-repayment of loans.

Six new grant programs would be created to fund water and wastewater system security, infrastructure that could be connected to climate change mitigation and adaptation, workforce development, sewer overflows, research development and technology demonstration programs, and a drug take-back program.

Though the bill is expected to be introduced shortly in the House, there is little expectation that such a trust fund will be enacted into law anytime soon; both its tax hikes and increased spending make the bill contentious. Furthermore, the Senate has thus far shown little interest in the trust fund idea, and the bill will presumably be referred to several committees of the House, only one of which is showing any interest. A hearing on the bill, however, will be held by a subcommittee of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on Wednesday, July 15, 2009.

GAO Releases Trust Fund Report

The U.S. General Accountability Office (GAO) has released its long awaited report on issues to be considered when designing a clean water trust fund. The report was requested by Congress (see related story).

Specifically, GAO was asked to obtain stakeholders’ views on the issues that would need to be addressed in designing and establishing a clean water trust fund, and identify and describe potential options that could generate about $10 billion in revenue to support a clean water trust fund.

In conducting this review, GAO administered a questionnaire to 28 national organizations representing the wastewater and drinking water industries (including NAWC), state and local governments, engineers, and environmental groups, and received 22 responses. GAO also reviewed proposals and industry papers; interviewed federal, state, local and industry officials; and used the most current data available to estimate the revenue that could potentially be raised by various taxes on a range of products and activities.

Regarding potential funding sources, GAO concluded that while “a number of options have been proposed in the past to generate revenue for a clean water trust fund…several obstacles will have to be overcome in implementing these options, and it may be difficult to generate $10 billion from any one option by itself.” The obstacles seem considerable and include “defining the products or activities to be taxed, establishing a collection and enforcement framework, and obtaining stakeholder support for a particular option or mix of options.”

A copy of the report can be found here: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09657.pdf

Security Mutual Aid and Assistance Webinar Announced

The WaterISAC, and representatives from the U.S. EPA and the California Water and Wastewater Agency Response Network (CalWARN), are planning a “webinar” on mutual aid and assistance in the water sector.

The water sector has been actively developing Water and Wastewater Agency Response Networks (WARNs) since 2006, and there are currently 43 WARNs covering 42 states and the National Capital Region. Public and private drinking water and wastewater systems of any size can participate in a WARN.

This webinar will discuss: the history of the WARN program; historical examples of WARN success stories; tools, training and technical assistance available to support a more robust WARN; and the future of WARNs in an all-hazards security environment.

The webinar will take place on Aug. 4 at 2:30 p.m. EST. Please register using the following link: https://portal.waterisac.org/clearspace_community/pages/newsevents.jspa. To sign up, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "Event Sign Up."

Bill Introduced to Provide for Clean Renewable Water Supply Bonds

Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) has introduced a bill to provide for clean renewable water supply bonds. Senator Nelson is a member of the Senate Finance Committee with jurisdiction over this issue. The bill, S.1371, would authorize a new tax credit bond program. The bonds could be used to finance a desalination, water recycling or groundwater clean-up facility.

This new financing instrument would have a 20-year bullet maturity. The proceeds from the sale of the bonds would result in an interest-free loan to the issuing agency. Instead of the issuing agency having to make interest payments to the holders of the bonds, the federal government would provide the bond holders with a tax credit equal to what the interest payments would have been.

Tax credit bonds have become increasingly popular with the taxation committees. No counterpart to Senator Nelson’s bill exists in the House of Representatives.