Where Has All the Money Gone?

Posted on February 29, 2008 | Filed Under Clean Water, Green Infrastructure, Healthy Waters 

baerKatherine Baer, Director
Healthy Waters Campaign

Guess how much money is needed to fix our crumbling water infrastructure? Now guess higher. The Environmental Protection Agency’s now estimates that we need over $202 billion to fix sewer and storm water systems to meet Clean Water Act goals. Guess how much money the President proposed in his budget for clean water. $555 million - talk about fuzzy math…

The decline in funding for clean water infrastructure is felt all over the country as we’ve documented on our Act for Healthy Rivers site with more and more sewage spilling from old pipes into our local streams and rivers. We need more money at the local, state, and federal levels and it must be better spent, as American Rivers president Rebecca Wodder pointed out recently in the San Francisco Chronicle:

We can stretch those [federal] dollars even further with smart storm water management techniques such as rain gardens, permeable surfaces and by protecting our wetlands. These proven approaches capture rainwater before it becomes a problem, instead of allowing it to overwhelm the system and threaten public health and safety

Green infrastructure approaches are gathering momentum and create jobs that cannot be exported. Hopefully, this will be combined with the increased recognition that failing infrastructure is a national problem that will only worsen in the face of global warming forcing us to make smart investments in our water infrastructure for the future. Instead of promoting sprawl and creating more problems (as documented in a new report by Environmental Advocates of New York), federal money should be used to fix existing problems and fund infrastrcuture that can best adapt to emerging ones. As the Senate looks to reauthorize the federal clean water revolving fund and a new clean water trust fund is being proposed it will be key to keep sustainability at the forefront.

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Comments

3 Responses to “Where Has All the Money Gone?”

  1. In rivers, the water that you touch… — Leonardo daVinci : American Rivers Blog on March 12th, 2008 6:02 am

    [...] that we need over $202 billion to fix sewer and storm water systems to meet Clean Water Act goals. More River Quotes are posted weekday mornings. Want to see your favorite river quote here? Email it to [...]

  2. Money on The Finance World For News and Information Around The World On Finance » Blog Archive » Where Has All the Money Gone? on April 1st, 2008 11:28 am

    [...] Where Has All the Money Gone? Guess how much money is needed to fix our crumbling water infrastructure? Now guess higher. The Environmental Protection Agency’s now estimates that we need over $202 billion to fix sewer and storm water systems to meet Clean Water Act … [...]

  3. Global Warming in the Great Lakes : American Rivers Blog on April 14th, 2008 11:52 am

    [...] and elsewhere. As I’ve written before - and in line with Dr Rose’s recommendations - investing in effective water infrastructure and galvanizing support for such investment through sewage right to know are two solutions key to [...]

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