Update on Stimulus Funding for Drinking Water

Tommy Holmes, AWWA's Legislative Director located in Washington, DC, provided the following information. Tommy says:

"You may have seen the news reports that House and Senate conferees have come to an agreement on the $790 billion economic stimulus bill. It includes $2 billion for drinking water infrastructure projects, to be administered via state SRF programs. I contacted the head SRF guy at EPA this morning to ask for advice to utilities on how to proceed. He said utilities interested in funding should immediately start talking to their state SRF administrators. I have a link on the Government Affairs portion of the AWWA website where you can download a PDF of that list: (ED - Click here for direct access to pdf file.)

I’ll post additional information on this site as it becomes available. The House will call up the bill on Friday and then after passage, send it to the Senate. They hope to have it on the President’s desk for his signature by Presidents’ Day (Monday).

I haven’t gotten a copy of the legislation itself yet, but Senate staff tells me the final bill will have the administrative provisions of the Senate version. If that’s true, that would mean priority will be given to projects that can start within 180 days of enactment of the bill. Also, funds may be used for “additional subsidization, including forgiveness of principal and negative interest loans.” No state match is required. No less than 15% of the funds shall be used for “green infrastructure, water efficiency improvements or other environmentally innovative projects.” I have tried to tell Senate staff that replacing a leaking water main is “green” because you are conserving water resources and you are saving energy. Don’t know how that will fly in the end, though. "