Tax
dollars appropriated, but unspent, in the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund
totaling about $1.1 billion could be deployed to repair and improve the
nation’s drinking water supply systems, but poor management, project delays and
administrative difficulties have prevented use of the money for its intended
purpose. Twenty percent of the cash set aside for repairing and replacing
leaking pipes and water mains, century old storage tanks, and decaying
treatment plants gets spent for paying the salaries of state water employees,
while lack of matching funds and inability to repay loans from the Revolving
Fund with inadequate water ratepayer revenue have slowed applications for funding
to a crawl.
Systems
around our nation suffer 700 water main failures every day. Political inertia
blocks water rate increases which could pay for system maintenance and
improvements, and more frequent and more disruptive failures will continue if the
locked up funds remain unspent, according to American Society of Civil
Engineers past president Greg DiLoreto: “Americans have to understand that if
they want this system, they are going to have to be willing to finance it.”
