EPA Issues WIFIA Loans to Accelerate Water Infrastructure Improvement
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued 7 new WIFIA loans to help fund initiatives to implement some much-needed water infrastructure enhancements. The goal is to improve water quality and create tens of thousands of new jobs.
What is WIFIA?
Traditionally, SRFs (state revolving funds) have been used to fund such projects (to the tune of nearly $9 billion in 2018). The WIFIA loans represent an additional source of funding for water infrastructure projects.
WIFIA, or the Water Infrastructure Finance & Innovation Act, is being utilized by the EPA, under the direction of President Trump, to loan money to states and municipalities for water infrastructure improvements. The EPA issued about $2 billion in WIFIA loans in 2018, and an additional $5 billion is expected to be lent in 2019 to help fund over $10 billion in improvements.
Impact on Emergency Preparedness
It goes without saying that our nation’s water system is in a severe state of decline, and much of it needs to be repaired or replaced. Failure to do so will likely result in additional complications from an emergency preparedness perspective.
Obviously water system operators that own deteriorated infrastructure simply have more emergency situations to deal with, primarily in the form of burst water mains. But there are other, more subtle problems that could arise from aging water infrastructure.
For example, if a deteriorated water main bursts during a natural disaster, it would be near impossible to do certain things like fight fires in the area. In addition, first responders would have insufficient access to drinking water. The same goes for local residents, who might experience dehydration from a lack of drinking water, or worse, illness from drinking tainted water from other sources. This, in turn, would likely divert some attention away from the restoration at hand, and would complicate certain processes such as evacuation protocols.
The bottom line is that old, deteriorating water pipes are not good for anyone, and could hinder the restoration efforts of utilities in any sector – gas, electric and water. For this reason, I applaud the EPA’s aggressive issuance of WIFIA and SRA loans. Everyone knows about the infrastructure problem, and now thanks to the EPA and its WIFIA financing efforts, we now have some money available to actually start chipping away at the problem.
