Big water infrastructure spending for the US

The Senate legislation includes the America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2020, which centers mostly on Army Corps of Engineers projects and policy, and would authorize roughly $17 billion in infrastructure projects.

A second bill, the Drinking Water Infrastructure Act of 2020, would reauthorize programs under the Safe Drinking Water Act, including infrastructure that supports and improves drinking water, and provides resources and technical assistance for communities struggling to provide clean water.

The Senate drinking water infrastructure measure proposes roughly $2.5 billion in authorizations, and $300 million in grants for cleaning drinking water from emerging contaminants, particularly toxic PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

This is from the Bloomberg summary of the two wajor water infrastructure bills.

What are the bills all about?

1. America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2020

This is to provide for improvements to the rivers and harbors of the United States, to provide for the conservation and development of water and related resources, to provide for water pollution control activities, and for other purposes.

There’s an extensive list of projects on the discussion draft. Here are a few that catch the eye:

• Sec. 1504. Forecast-informed reservoir operations
• Sec. 1505. Study on data for water allocation, supply, and demand.
• Sec. 2013. Water data sharing pilot program.

2. The Drinking Water Infrastructure Act of 2020

This is to amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to reauthorize certain provisions, and for other purposes.

According to The Hill:

Part of this is reauthorization of the Safe Drinking Water Act emergency fund, which provides resources to communities with dangerous water issues. It would also authorize $300 million in grants to help deal with contaminants, focusing on a class of cancer-linked chemicals called PFAS.