The federal infrastructure bill will provide about $55 billion to fix America's drinking water infrastructure over the next 20 years. Much of it will be given to states, which in turn will lend it to local governments.
"Of course, if you are a local utility, you would prefer a grant over a loan," Gardner-Andrews said. "There will be some challenging conversations within the states."Every four years, the EPA surveys states about the water projects they would like to fund. The most recent snapshot inshowed that for drinking water alone, the states’ wish lists had a total price tag of $472.6 billion for work needed over the next 20 years.
Many local governments, but particularly those like Jackson with many low-income residents, are caught between a rising need to invest and a limited ability to pay.reported that the average U.S. water-network pipe is 45 years old, with some cast-iron pipes more than a century old. A local operator might need "to wait up to a year to apply if it misses a deadline," said Schmidt with the Environmental Policy Innovation Center.
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