Just four years after one of the nation’s most ambitious private water contracts collapsed in Atlanta, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is hosting a conference there to promote private sector involvement in water.

“Eighty-six percent of Americans get their water from a public utility because it works,” said Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter. “The Bush administration’s focus on the private sector flies in the face of a long-standing federal commitment to partnering with states and municipalities to provide safe and affordable water for Americans.”

Upon passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, Congress declared, “it is the national policy that Federal financial assistance be provided to construct publicly owned waste treatment works.” Today, EPA predicts an annual gap of $22 billion between the funds available and the funds needed to maintain the nations pipes and treatment plants to meet minimum federal standards for drinking water. In spite of important new water regulations, crumbling pipes around the country, and an established funding shortfall, President Bush requested only $688 million for the wastewater fund for this year and next, a 22 percent decrease from 2006 funding, and barely half of the $1.35 billion allocated in 2004.

“Instead of providing needed public funding for water, the Bush Administration will mark World Water Day by promoting privatization and bigger water and sewer bills for millions of Americans,” Hauter said. “The president’s non-solutions do not get us anywhere close to filling the funding gap.”

Quick Facts About America’s Water

 

• Many cities across the country are operating drinking water and sewage systems designed and built before World War I. As our nation’s pipes and treatment systems age, more and more sewage spills into our streams, rivers, lakes and oceans, creating serious public health hazards.
• According to EPA’s most recent assessment, 45 percent of America’s waters are “impaired” – unsafe for fishing, swimming, or drinking.
  
• Public health agencies issued more than 20,000 beach closings and swim advisories in 2005, many due to sewage overflows and malfunctioning sewage plants.
• The National Research Council recently warned that we should expect more water-borne disease outbreaks without “substantial investments” to improve America’s water pipes and systems.

 

According to the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, doubling, tripling, even quadrupling sewer fees would fall short of replacement needs for many cities. Additionally, not all communities can afford the same level of fees, which raises serious issues about fairness in providing comparable levels of clean water to all citizens.

 

Instead of protecting public ownership of a resource vital to everyone and everything, the president and EPA would encourage privatization of public utilities by exempting private water utilities from the cap on private activity bonds, tax-exempt bonds issued by a state or local government.

 

“There is no evidence that private investment in the water sector will result in needed infrastructure investment,” Hauter said. “Communities around the country have experimented with privatization and found that the private sector has not solved their infrastructure needs.”

 

While the U.S. House of Representatives has taken a first step to provide expanded funding by passing The Water Quality Financing Act of 2007, which authorized $14 billion over the next four years, this is not sufficient to close the funding gap. Even these and other proposed funds are not safe, because Congress has been known to cut water programs as water treatment and pipe repair competes with other priorities in Washington, DC.

 

Food & Water Watch advocates establishing national trust funds to provide dedicated funding streams for the nation’s clean water and drinking water needs.

 

“National priorities that transcend state and local boundaries should receive perpetual funding streams, immune from shifting political currents,” Hauter said. “There are trust funds for highways, airports and social security. Water is a public responsibility. In addition to increasing funding for existing programs, it’s time for a trust fund that protects our water and keeps it clean and safe.”