Water is the most abundant resource on our planet. Three-fourths of the Earth is covered by water; our bodies can be as much as 75 percent water. Since the earliest days of human life, we have sought better ways to find it, collect it, contain it and distribute it. As cities developed and grew, we had to devise systems to send wastewater away. Only in the last hundred years or so have we focused on how to clean up the water we've polluted.

Our demand for clean water for drinking, recreation and agriculture continues to grow, straining our natural resources. More than 75 percent of the water in the U.S. is underground, but 50 percent of our drinking water resources are from surface waters. While industrial pollution of our waters has been better controlled in recent years, pollution from a variety of sources, from lawn fertilizer to construction waste, remains a significant threat to our water supply.

Drinking Water

The average American family turns on water faucets 70 times a day. Sometimes, even before the sun comes up, you've turned on the tap to brush your teeth, take a shower and make the morning coffee.

But do you ever stop to think where your water comes from? Does it come from a river, a lake or an underground well? Where is your reservoir? Do you know if there is any industry near your water source, or whether road runoff drains into the river that feeds your reservoir?

How old are your town's water pipes? What are they made of? And what about the local drinking water treatment plant? Is it new, or might it need renovation in the next few years? How much would that cost? Would the state have to approve the project? Are federal funds available?

Drinking water quality has improved since the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1986. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported in 1993 that almost 40,000 community systems -- 71 percent -- met federal requirements. But more work needs to be done. As with other infrastructure systems, deferred maintenance has led to a vast backlog of deteriorated facilities that now require immediate action.

Some studies estimate the number of people who fall ill each year from contaminated drinking water is between 900,000 and 2 million. The Natural Resources Defense Council places the number as high as 7 million. While estimates on the public health risk vary, it is clear that America does not invest sufficient funds to update water distribution and treatment systems. We also fall short in protecting surface and ground water sources from contamination.

One-fifth of our nation's population drinks tap water with more than the EPA-approved level of microorganisms. The results can be frightening and costly.

• The country's faith in its drinking water was shaken in 1993, when 100 people died and 400,000 were sickened in Milwaukee. The city's water supply had been contaminated by Cryptosporidium, a filtration and chlorine-resistant microorganism. This tragedy was a wake-up call: Milwaukee responded with a $89-million program to better protect its water.

• That same year, a four-day boil-water alert in Washington, DC, cost the community an estimated $24 million and caused fear and inconvenience for residents.

In the four years since, more than 10 million people nationwide have been ordered to boil drinking water to kill disease-causing microorganisms. Since 1994, more than 400 cases of Cryptosporidiosis have occurred in New York City alone.

Despite such high stakes, most state and local agencies still must overcome financial and political obstacles to supplying safe drinking water. The EPA says it will take an investment of $138.4 billion in our water infrastructure over the next 20 years to help ensure safe drinking water.

• Right now, $76.8 billion is required for improvements to protect public health. These current needs include projects for source protection, storage, treatment and water main improvements.

• The remaining $61.6 billion is for future needs, which are projects to replace existing infrastructure to provide safe drinking water through the year 2014. It will also help meet proposed regulations.

Water transmission and distribution systems, vital to protecting the public from illness-causing contaminants, require the largest capital investment -- $77.2 billion over 20 years for their installation and rehabilitation. Much of the estimated 800,000 miles of water delivery pipeline in the U.S. is old, well past its service life and prone to leaks and breaks. Some of it is wooden, more than 100 years old. Other pipe is lined with lead, which can leach into the water. The installation, upgrade or replacement of water treatment facilities and equipment requires $36.2 billion over the next 20 years.

• More than half of this ($20.2 billion) is needed to minimize the risk of contaminants.

• To maintain structural integrity of water storage facilities, $12.1-billion must be spent.

• Some $11 billion will rehabilitate and develop water sources, to ensure the quality and quantity of drinking water.

• The remaining $1.9 billion covers seismic protection, automation and laboratory improvement projects.

Small water systems, which serve an average of 3,300 people each, make up 90 percent of the nation's 55,000 community water systems. Their customers face the greatest burden because the per-household cost is much higher to meet minimum water quality standards. In some communities, individual water bills to pay for system improvements are rising from $100 to $300 per year. The total need for these systems is $37.2 billion or 27 percent of the nation's total needs.

The 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act provided $7.6 billion to help local water systems improve drinking water facilities. The bill also gave the EPA more flexibility in setting drinking water standards and required that water systems provide more information for consumers.

No legislative activity is expected until 2003 when the authorization for the federal grant program expires.

Still, funding, or the lack of it, continues to be a major problem for states struggling to meet the requirements of the SDWA. Congress has failed to authorize $1 billion annually for the drinking water state revolving fund (SRF) program as mandated by the SDWA. The SRF program provides low-interest loans to states and local communities to help them meet their drinking water requirements.

The White House has proposed funding the drinking water SRF at $775 million in fiscal year 1999 which is $225 million less than the authorized amount. Over 20 years, that would mean nearly $600 million less for cleaning and delivering drinking water to homes, schools and businesses.

Wastewater

It has been 25 years since Congress responded to public outrage over the condition of America's waterways and enacted the first comprehensive national Clean Water Act. Back then, many of the nation's rivers were little more than open sewers, choking from garbage, fecal matter, bacteria and chemicals. Dead fish were being washed ashore by the thousands. Wetlands were disappearing at a rapid rate, and rivers like the Cuyahoga in Cleveland were burning.

While the quality of our waterways has improved greatly, we still have a long way to go.

As of 1992, states reported the following:

• Approximately 30 to 40 percent of assessed waters still do not meet water quality goals.

• Much of the existing infrastructure now needs repair, replacement or expansion. Significant funding will soon be needed to rehabilitate and replace existing wastewater treatment facilities.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that we need to invest roughly $140 billion over the next 20 years in wastewater treatment systems: $44 billion for wastewater treatment; $10 billion to upgrade existing wastewater collection systems; $22 billion to build new sewers; $45 billion to control Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs), which handle both sanitary waste and storm water. And 2,000 additional plants could be necessary by the year 2016 to meet expanded treatment goals.

The needs of small communities are significant. Most lack the basic infrastructure to address water quality needs; others don't have the resources even to document their needs. About 7.1 million rural households either do not have clean and/or safe drinking water, or are served by community water facilities that don't meet safe drinking water standards, according to a recent Rural Utilities Service survey. The EPA estimates that the total documented needs for communities with populations under 10,000 are $13.8 billion -- 11 percent of total U.S. needs. Virginia alone needs to address nearly $5 billion worth of water and sewer needs by the year 2005.

Congress is due to reauthorize the Clean Water Act in 1999. Wastewater treatment funding is a key element of the reauthorization debate, particularly in light of the wastewater treatment infrastructure needs now estimated at $140 billion over the next two decades.

Congress must also implement stronger measures to control polluted runoff from farms and city streets. This includes fertilizers, pesticides, oils and grease. The Clean Water Act did not specifically address many of these "nonpoint" sources which cause more than half of our water quality problems today. However, the EPA and the states have identified nonpoint source pollution as the nation's largest remaining threat to water quality.

Despite these costs, the administration has recommended funding cuts. The fiscal year 1999 request for the Clean Water SRF program is $1.075 billion, which is $275 million below current funding. Clearly this request falls short of the funds needed to help improve our wastewater infrastructure programs.

Dams

America relies on more than 75,000 dams for water supply, power generation, flood control, irrigation and recreation. They are critical to our national infrastructure. However, along with these benefits, is the need to maintain safe and reliable structures. This responsibility is shared among federal, state and local governments, as well as the private sector. Safety officials estimate that hundreds of them are disasters waiting to happen. Despite state efforts to improve conditions, far too many dams remain at risk of failure, threatening life and property. Meanwhile, downstream community development continues to increase.

One-fourth of all U.S. dams are more than 50 years old; that is expected to increase to 85 percent by the year 2020. Most older dams were built without adequate spillways to release water in heavy rains, causing water to run over the top. Inadequate spillway capacity is the most common deficiency and a major cause of dam failures. A dam failure can affect thousands of lives and cost millions of dollars.

• In the past 10 years, more than 200 documented dam failures have caused millions of dollars in property damage and repair costs.

• Property damage from flooding in the U.S. now totals over $1-billion each year.

• Downstream damage and dam repairs caused by failures in only eight states have exceeded $60 million since 1990.

• In New Hampshire, an isolated dam failure caused $5.5 million in damage and killed one person in 1996.

Approximately 9,200 regulated dams nationwide are considered to be "high-hazard," meaning that their failure would likely cause death and significant property damage. Thirty-five percent of these haven't been inspected since 1990. Every state has at least one high-hazard dam. North Carolina has the most high-hazard dams with a total of 874. Pennsylvania and Texas each has more than 500 high-hazard dams.

Even more significant are the 2,100 regulated dams that are considered "unsafe," many of which also lie in high-hazard locations. An "unsafe" dam has deficiencies which leave it more susceptible to failure. The average cost to repair each unsafe dam is approximately $500,000, which means it would cost over $1 billion to fix them all. Funding for these repairs is sorely lacking. Furthermore, repair projects on thousands of other dams, which must be rehabilitated before they become unsafe, are on hold due to lack of funding.

The 1995-96 National Inventory of Dams revealed that a majority of high- or significant-hazard dams do not have Emergency Action Plans in place, which could mean the difference between timely downstream evacuation and disaster. Equally alarming is the fact that many dams built more than 50 to 100 years ago have been abandoned and the owners are unknown. These dams are not inventoried, inspected or regulated, and no one is volunteering to pay for their repair.

The National Dam Safety Program Act was created to help states improve their dam safety programs. Funding from this program allows states to set up training programs for state dam safety inspectors, to research and improve the techniques and equipment for monitoring dams, and to upgrade their dam safety programs through incentive grants.

The program is authorized to receive $3.9 million in fiscal year 1999. However, the administration has requested only $1.5 million. This is an alarming step backwards for public safety at a time when states -- struggling with minimal budgets and staff -- are just beginning to make their first real progress toward establishing meaningful safety programs.

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