Grassroots Rural and Small Community Water Systems Assistance Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Maryland for yielding.

I rise in support of this bill. S. 611, the Grassroots Rural and Small Community Water Systems Assistance Act, reauthorizes a small but important program that delivers technical assistance and training to our community water systems.

I want to thank Representative Harper for introducing H.R. 2853, the House companion bill to Senator Wicker's bill, and I am proud to be a cosponsor of that legislation.

I also want to thank Chairman Upton, our Ranking Member Pallone, Chairman Shimkus, and the Energy and Commerce staff for working with us on report language to clarify language in this bill so that we can indeed provide a wide range of technical assistance that would help small water systems, such as source water protection, system monitoring and efficiency, sustainability, and water security aspects.

Many small and rural communities, with populations of 10,000 or less, face challenges in maintaining and upgrading aging water infrastructure. The ratepayer base for these small systems simply does not provide a sufficient operating budget to support full-time technical positions.

Source water quality problems, resulting in system shutdowns and expensive treatment processes, are an increasing problem for far too many public water systems due to inadequate attention to nonpoint source pollution.

In other areas, drought has affected both water quality and quantity, challenging the ability of water utilities to meet their basic service obligations.

Technical assistance for small systems is essential to finding the most cost-effective solutions to these problems. I know that the Circuit Rider program in New York serves many small public water systems and provides essential technical support to small system operators.

S. 611 would authorize the appropriation of $15 million annually, from 2016 to 2020, for the Environmental Protection Agency's program that provides technical assistance to these given systems.

The previous authorization for this program expired back in 2003. It has been nearly 20 years since we last authorized this program, along with the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, the SRF, the primary source of Federal funding for water infrastructure.

The Drinking Water SRF's authorization also expired in 2003. It too needs to be reauthorized and at a higher level than was provided in 2003 to support all systems, small and large, to make the necessary repairs and the necessary upgrades.

Across our country, we experience over 700 water main breaks per day--700 per day--breaks that result in losses of treated water, not just water that is lost in those breaks, but consumer tax dollars and rate dollars, and with a growing backlog of drinking water infrastructure needs, estimated at $384.2 billion over the next 20 years in the EPA's fifth national assessment of public water system infrastructure needs. That indeed is staggering.

It is clear we should be doing much more to assist our States and water utilities to reduce this backlog. Recently we came together to pass a bipartisan, long-term surface transportation bill. It had the overwhelming bipartisan support of this House.

Mr. Speaker, there is no doubt that our roads and bridges are in desperate need of investment. But we cannot forget about the hidden infrastructure, the critical, unseen, out-of-sight and out-of-mind infrastructure that we rely upon to deliver safe, reliable, and affordable drinking water. We have neglected this essential infrastructure for far too long already. It, too, needs more Federal funding and a long-term reauthorization.

Infrastructure does not repair itself. It does not improve with age. Our inaction is only adding to the expenses of State and local governments and forcing increases in water utility rates for given consumers.

Mr. Speaker, S. 611 is a good bill and a good start. I urge my colleagues to support this bill, but I hope we use this opportunity as a challenge, as a challenge to recognize that this is just the beginning of the drinking water infrastructure issues that we face. We must come together to reauthorize the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.

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