The Nation’s Big Water Repair Bill
The New York Times
04/11/2010
A New York Times series, “Toxic Waters,” has chronicled the problems of the nation’s drinking water supply, from worsening chemical contamination to the crumbling networks of pipes that are costing local and state governments more and more to repair.
The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced that it would tighten regulations on chemicals used by industry, and allow government scientists to issue rules that would apply to dozens of chemicals at a time, reversing a policy that essentially required them to examine pollutants one by one.
Will the regulatory changes help ease the widespread problems? How can the nation begin to address the prevalent risks, given the overwhelming financial costs?
Alex Matthiessen, Riverkeeper Inc.
Carolyn Berndt, National League of Cities
Robert Morris, engineer and epidemiologist
Jeanne VanBriesen, civil and environmental engineering professor
Alex Matthiessen, who was a special assistant to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt from 1997 to 2000, is the president of Riverkeeper Inc., a clean water advocacy organization based in Tarrytown, N.Y.
Our regulatory system for protecting the nation’s water is not working. After decades of significant improvements, water quality is once again in a state of decline.
While the E.P.A. and state environmental agencies are failing to fully enforce our federal and state clean water laws, it’s also a funding problem. Since 1978, the U.S. share of water infrastructure spending has plunged from about 75 percent to less than 5 percent, leaving cash-strapped state and local governments to shoulder an expense most cannot afford.
As a result, our water delivery and sewage treatment systems are deteriorating, threatening public health and forcing many Americans to rely increasingly on expensive bottled water, which from an environmental and economic point of view is a disastrous trend.
So where do we get the money to reinvest in our water and sewage systems given Congress’s reluctance to use the annual budget process to make significant investments in clean water?
