Natural Resources Committee Home

May 28, 2008

Dear Chairman Byrd, Ranking Member Cochran, Chairman Obey and Ranking Member Lewis:

We the undersigned organizations representing the nations’ Governors, state legislators, Mayors, city and county officials are writing to express our strong support for the clean water and safe drinking water state revolving loan funds (SRF). The SRFs are an integral tool used for providing clean, drinkable, swimmable water to the public at large. Therefore, we ask that you restore funding for the Clean Water SRF to $1.35 billion and the Drinking Water SRF to $1 billion. We stand ready to assist you in whatever way we can to ensure our members are provided the help they need to protect the American public’s waters.

The federal government provides each state with two grants to capitalize both of its revolving loan funds. The states must match twenty percent of the federal capitalization grants. They then use the funds to provide loans to communities in need of assistance complying with the federal Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act as well as pipe replacement, stormwater mitigation and source water protection. Each program has been tremendously successful. The federal government has provided $25 billion to the CWSRF since its creation in 1987.  The states have leveraged that investment into $61 billion worth of infrastructure assistance. The Drinking Water SRF has provided $13 billion in its ten years of existence.

Despite these successes, the needs continue to grow. The Environmental Protection Agency’s most recent Clean Watersheds Needs Survey indicates that the nation must meet $202.5 billion worth of infrastructure needs over the next 20 years. Similarly, the most recent drinking water needs survey shows a need of $276.8 billion over the next 20 years.

Our members are committed to helping address these growing needs. However, we need the federal government to maintain its side of the partnership.  While we recognize that the Committee has many funding challenges to meet, we urge you to prioritize funding for the SRFs.  Federal investment is critical if the nation’s states, cities and towns are to improve aging infrastructure and meet federal regulatory requirements.

Sincerely,