Congress reaches a surprising consensus on clean water

Why improved water infrastructure matters to public health

This week, the clean water community made some progress in a place you would least expect it these days: Congress. After a 99–1 vote in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), which would help protect drinking water and stop sewage overflows, now heads to the president’s desk.

That’s right — a 99–1 vote to invest in the environment and public health, following the House’s unanimous approval last month. That kind of consensus for the public good is all too rare.

Water infrastructure can seem like a dull subject, but here’s why it matters.

Drinking water is a huge issue right now across America. In the wake of the tragedy in Flint, Michigan, most of us are familiar with the toxic threat of lead in drinking water that extends to thousands of communities across the country. Even low levels of lead can impair how children learn, grow, and behave.

It’s not just lead — other toxic contaminants remain unregulated, imposing an unmonitored and unchecked risk on millions of Americans. These emerging threats include per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are manufactured for nonstick coatings — including everything from Teflon to Gore-Tex, pizza boxes to microwave popcorn bags. PFAS are potent, and even trace amounts can be hazardous to our health. These toxins and chemicals are in the water at our homes and schools, often without our knowledge and without a cleanup plan.

Beyond drinking water, sewage infrastructure has big implications for the health and wellbeing of communities, and for the surrounding environment. In many cases, raw, nasty sewage gets dumped into our neighborhood waterways without treatment. In communities where stormwater and sewer systems are combined, major rainstorms can sometimes overwhelm the capacity of the system. The excess wastewater is released through a “safety valve” to nearby surface waters. These “combined sewer overflows” dump harmful bacteria such as fecal coliform into the environment, endangering beaches and other coastal areas.

These issues exist in all parts of the country, and it’s a breath of fresh air when Congress comes together to address them.

Highlights from WRDA include:

• Authorizing the EPA to double funding for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) over three years, which states can use to replace lead service lines.
• Establishing a $5 million per year grant program to help schools replace aging drinking water fountains, which often contain lead.
• Requiring testing for unregulated toxic contaminants such as PFAS in water systems serving 3,300 people or more (previously 10,000 people).
• Helping curb sewage overflows by authorizing a $225 million grant program, with 20 percent going to green infrastructure projects such as buffer zones, rain barrels, and other techniques that prevent runoff pollution at the source.

Due for reauthorization this year, WRDA is the vehicle for a wide range of (mostly non-environmental) projects done by the Army Corps of Engineers like dredging harbors, building levees, and repairing dams. There were a lot of people on both sides of the aisle keen to see WRDA get to the finish line this year.

Of course, in a bill dealing with water infrastructure, there was no way we, along with our allies, were going to let safe drinking water fall by the wayside.

Working with longtime champions of clean water in both chambers, we built support for this effort by raising the issue of lead and PFAS drinking water contamination at congressional hearings; we delivered a letter from several organizations urging inclusion of safe drinking water measures in the final bill; and finally, we worked to highlight these issues through social media and with reporters.

Granted, there were closed-door negotiations. There was horse trading. But at the end of the day, we were able to get a lot of the measures we wanted. The resulting bill was a big win for the environment and public health. Equally noteworthy to the provisions above, there were no major budget cuts or harmful policy riders attached.

To be sure, the measures in this week’s bill are small steps in the grand scheme of ensuring safe drinking water for all Americans and halting the absurdity of dumping untreated sewage into our waterways after heavy rains. EPA has calculated that $472.6 billion will be needed for drinking water infrastructure over the next 20 years. Separately, in 2016, EPA estimated that $271 billion will be needed for wastewater infrastructure (i.e. dealing with sewage and stormwater runoff). These are investments that we will have to make, preferably sooner rather than later.

Nonetheless, this week’s progress is as real as it is rare. And given the strong bipartisan vote, we now have something to build on in the next Congress.