IN THIS ISSUE

Aid for Cities and Towns Will be Critical This Year

I hope that our members enjoyed a safe holiday season and that the New Year will bring good health and happiness to all. As 2021 gets underway, we are looking forward to life as we knew it, to getting back to some semblance of “normalcy,” as the COVID-19 vaccine becomes more widely available. And while we move closer to the day when we will be able to gather again as an Association, we know our industry will be dealing with issues associated with the pandemic for years to come. The most immediate need is funding for our cities and towns so that critical, drinking water, wastewater, and underground utility infrastructure projects are not delayed.

As you may be aware, Congress passed, and the President signed, a new COVID stimulus bill at the end of December. While this legislation provides additional PPP and small business funding, it does not include any direct relief to cities and towns who are dealing with a tremendous amount of fiscal uncertainty. Because of the extended shutdown of many businesses, municipalities have seen large decreases in revenue for water and other municipallyowned utilities as commercial buildings remain dormant. Even in the best of times, the money received from ratepayers is utilized for operations, and it is not nearly enough to fund capital programs and deferred maintenance. So the loss of this revenue further jeopardizes long-awaited projects. It doesn’t have to be this way if the federal government acts in the coming weeks and provides direct relief to our cities and towns. Of course, the underfunding of water infrastructure is nothing new. Before the pandemic, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated that utilities will need to spend $655 billion over the next 20 years to maintain, upgrade, or replace our drinking water and wastewater infrastructure. We know in Massachusetts alone, the cost will be between $18 billion to $21 billion. This amount does not include the cost of replacing lead service lines, which has been estimated at an additional $30 billion. It also doesn’t include the cost of adapting our water, sewer, and stormwater infrastructure to the effects of a changing climate, which is estimated at an additional $448 billion to $944 billion from 2010 to 2050. Finally, the figure does not include PFAS remediation, where we are just beginning to assess the impact and costs.

While cooperation at all levels of government is needed to achieve a solution, the current situation makes it imperative that the federal government act now. Forty years ago, the federal government contributed 63 percent of total capital spending on water infrastructure. Today, the federal government funds nine percent of our water infrastructure spending. By comparison, federal spending on transportation infrastructure remained constant over the same period. Presently, the U.S. water industry is mainly supported by the SRF loan program. While this program is very successful and extremely well run in Massachusetts by the Clean Water Trust, the funding provided is not at the level needed for reinvestment in our aging and failing water and wastewater systems.

The best solution is direct relief to our cities and towns, along with comprehensive infrastructure legislation that provides funding and incentives to municipalities for drinking water, wastewater, and underground utility projects. If we fail to act, the price tag will only continue to grow. In our industry we support excavation, but this is one hole that we do not want to see get any deeper. n