Excerpt from this story from Common Dreams/EcoWatch:
President Joe Biden is being called on to back newly reintroduced legislation that seeks to remedy the nation's drinking water injustices with boosts to infrastructure and the creation of a water trust fund.
"From the plague of water shutoffs due to unaffordable bills during a pandemic, to the recent heartbreaking scenes across the South of frozen pipes leaving millions without water, it has become desperately clear that our country is in a water crisis," said Food & Water Action executive director Wenonah Hauter in a statement Thursday.
"Grave crises require robust solutions, and this is just what the WATER Act provides," said Hauter.
The WATER Act — the acronym for the Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity, and Reliability Act of 2021 — was reintroduced Thursday by Democratic Reps. Brenda L. Lawrence (Mich.) and Ro Khanna (Calif.). Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced the companion legislation in the Senate.
Supporting the measure is a diverse collection of over 500 organizations including Corporate Accountability, the Communications Workers of America (CWA), Food & Water Watch, and the NAACP. Seventy-four lawmakers in the House and Senate are co-sponsors.
According to a summary from the Michigan Democrat's office, the WATER Act:
Provides $34.85 billion a year to drinking water and wastewater improvements;
Creates a water trust fund;
Creates up to nearly one million jobs across the economy and protect American workers;
Prioritizes disadvantaged communities with grants and additional support;
Expands funding for technical assistance to small, rural, and Indigenous communities;
Funds projects to address water contamination from PFAS;
Requires U.S. EPA to study water affordability, shutoffs, discrimination, and civil rights violations by water providers;
Upgrades household wells and septic systems;
Helps homeowners replace lead service lines; and
Provides more than $1 billion a year to update water infrastructure in public schools.
