President’s Message

After a very dry summer, fall is off to a wet and cool start. The leaves are changing, the Red Sox season is mercifully over, football season has begun, and UCANE members are all working to complete jobs towards the end of what I hope has been a busy season.

While contractors are working hard finishing this critical work, UCANE continues to look forward and is working to assure that jobs will be put out to bid next year and for many years to come. Letting our elected officials and leaders know about what we do and the importance of clean drinking water, wastewater, and our underground utility infrastructure is one of UCANE’s core missions. We continue to meet with lawmakers, state officials, and candidates all across the state on behalf of our industry to advocate for additional funding, and to make sure these vital projects are a top priority. This is particularly important as we deal with supply chain and inflation issues.

It is imperative that our elected officials know that the job is not done simply with the approval of additional funding through the Federal Infrastructure Bill, stimulus funds, and surplus tax revenue. We continue to work with all stakeholders to try to find ways to make it easier for cities, towns, and authorities to approve necessary projects.

UCANE’s September Dinner Meeting focused on this very topic, with UCANE members, engineers, and DPW Directors participating in a panel discussion. You can read about the event beginning on page 48. We must ensure that these additional funds are actually spent, and that proper incentives are offered so that municipalities and awarding authorities abandon the “kick the can” mentality, so that projects are funded and move forward without delay.

That is why at the federal level we work closely with the Clean Water Construction Coalition (CWCC), a group of 28 Associations from across the country representing over 11,000 firms. The states represented in the Coalition account for approximately 75 percent of the total annual funding for the Clean Water and Drinking Water SRF programs nationally. We have worked together to push for increased federal levels in infrastructure funding and for legislation effecting our industry, culminating in the $1.2 trillion bipartisan Infrastructure Law. We are now focused on measures to alleviate some of the bureaucratic hurdles in programs that have been a deterrent in the past to maximizing their use and effectiveness.

Public awareness is also an important element of our advocacy. During the pandemic we began the #InvestinWaterMA campaign to continue to highlight the importance of our infrastructure through social media, billboards, articles, op-eds, and videos. The campaign is ongoing and we continue to add partners to help us spread the word. We will once again be participating in the “Imagine a Day Without Water Campaign” on October 20 as a member of the Value of Water Coalition. This is a national awareness campaign highlighting the importance of clean water in our everyday life, This is the seventh consecutive year UCANE will be participating.

There is now a lot of focus and attention on the 2022 election, where there will be several new names on the ballot, including for Governor for Massachusetts. The barrage of the endless political commercials will be coming to an end in the next few weeks. But, in the end, regardless of who is elected, UCANE will focus on what’s important: making sure our industry is healthy, which in turn ensures the health and economic prosperity of all

of our citizens. n