5 Water Bills to Watch in 2008

Change is coming.

The rallies, the automated phone calls every ten minutes, a million yard signs along the highway and any vacant lot - the focused onslaught begins today as the national spotlight shifts from New Hampshire to South Carolina. In little more than two weeks, South Carolina holds its Presidential primaries and I love it.

As the climate changed last year and gave us a record drought, there is an immutable law of nature that politicians will respond with new water related legislation. A record number of water-related bills will make their rounds through the state legislatures in the coming months.

So, what are some of the bills in Congress right now? Here are the top five:

1. Twenty-First Century Water Commission (H.R. 135): Charged to assess current and future water supplies for the next 50 years, demand, and management practices and then develop recommendations for a comprehensive national water strategy. This bill passed by the House Natural Resources Committee and to be taken up next by the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment.
2. National Commission on Infrastructure ( S. 755 and H.R. 3398 ): Develop recommendations for addressing the nation’s infrastructure needs in transportation, drinking water, wastewater, waterways, ports and solid waste disposal. The bill passed in the Senate in S. 755.
3. Water Use Efficiency and Conservation Research Act (H.R. 3957) would create a new research and development program at USEPA to promote efficient water use and conservation. It is currently in the House Subcommittee on Science and Technology.
4. National Infrastructure Bank (S. 1926 and H.R. 3401): A bank for publicly owned drinking water systems, wastewater systems, mass transit systems, housing properties, roads and bridges; both bills referred to appropriate committees. The bill states $151,000,000,000 must be expended during the next 20 years to make necessary repairs, replacements, and upgrades to the approximately 55,000 community drinking water systems of the United States; and approximately $390,000,000,000 must be expended during the next 20 years to eliminate the deficiencies of the wastewater systems of the United States.
5. Water Quality Financing Act of 2007 (H.R. 720) would authorize $14 billion for fiscal years 2008–2011 for wastewater state revolving loan fund program. This bill passed full House last March (303 Ayes, 108 Nays,) and was referred to the Senate.