In the United States, the infrastructure that provides clean water to the public is an aging system that includes several million miles of pipes under our feet. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, these pipes leak 6 billion gallons of water a day – enough to fill over 9,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. In addition, these pipes experience 240,000 water main breaks a year, causing contamination and pollution, property damage, disruptions in the water supply, and massive traffic jams. We all remember early last year when a Portland Water Bureau truck responding to a water main break was swallowed by a sink hole created by water flooding beneath the street's surface.
These problems are not the result of local officials who fail to do their jobs. Local governments and ratepayers spend significant amounts on water and sewer infrastructure. Yet despite this investment of local resources, the American Society of Civil Engineers gives water and wastewater systems a D-, the lowest grade of any infrastructure category. Local governments clearly need assistance from the federal government if they are to meet these critical needs.
As Portland's former Commissioner of Public Works, I am well aware of the challenges that local officials face in maintaining and upgrading local water systems. As a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in the House for a decade, I have sat through many hearings highlighting the need to significantly increase federal investment in water.
While our nation's water infrastructure needs are estimated to be over $25 billion a year, funding from Congress for water and sewer infrastructure have averaged just over $2.3 billion a year since 2000. This puts pressure on local rates, which have gone up substantially in recent years. In Portland, drinking water rates have increased more than 20% in the past five years. Our sewer infrastructure is in a similar situation: at current funding levels, it would take Oregon more than 62 years to meet our wastewater needs.
Solving this problem means finding new, steady sources of funding to rebuild and renew America's outdated water and sewer infrastructure. That's why I introduced the Water Protection and Reinvestment Act. The Act will create a Water Trust Fund: a deficit-neutral, consistent and protected source of revenue to help states and local communities replace, repair, and rehabilitate critical drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities. The Trust Fund will be financed by very small user fees on water-based beverages, items disposed of in wastewater (such as shaving cream and shampoo), pharmaceuticals, and corporate income. These new revenue sources will raise approximately $10 billion a year. Most of the funding will be distributed as grants and loans through the existing EPA programs. Additional funding will be available through new programs to deal with research and development, green infrastructure, small water systems, combined sewer overflow, global warming, and other priorities.
The Water Protection and Reinvestment Act will:
• Protect public health by ensuring that communities can continue to provide safe drinking water and sewer service.
• Restore the environment by providing incentives for green infrastructure and helping water systems reduce their energy use and become more resilient to the impacts of global warming. The City of Portland has been a leader in pursuing green, non-structural solutions to water challenges, from green-roofs to wetlands restoration to protecting the Bull Run watershed.
• Create jobs by investing in projects to repair and replace aging systems. A $10 billion investment would create between 200,000 and 267,000 new jobs in engineering, construction and other industries.
• Reduce pollution by decreasing the amount of combined sewer overflows and reducing the presence of pharmaceuticals in surface waters
The Water Protection and Reinvestment Act is supported by a broad coalition of industry, environmental, and labor groups and has a growing list of bi-partisan co-sponsors in the House of Representatives. I will be working with my colleagues to raise the profile of this issue in Congress and push for action on the legislation before the 111th Congress is over.
For more information on the legislation, please visit my Web site at: www.blumenauer.house.gov/watertrustfund.