Coalition Leaders Urge Congress to Act on Water Infrastructure

With America’s water infrastructure in a dire situation, several Healing Our Waters - Great Lakes Coalition Leaders submitted letters and testimony to the US House of Representatives’ Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment urging them to fully fund wastewater infrastructure programs.Click here to see the live testimony of Milwaukee Water Commons co-executive director Brenda Coley before the US House of Representatives’ Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment.Click here to read Brenda Coley’s testimony.Click here to read a letter submitted by Ohio Environmental CouncilClick here to read a letter submitted by Citizens’ Campaign for the EnvironmentClick here to read a letter submitted by the Minnesota Environmental Partnership and Fix the Pipes.Click here to read comments from the Healing Our Waters - Great Lakes Coalition.The Great Lakes region faces a water infrastructure crisis, and the Coalition supports ramping up federal investments in drinking water and sewage treatment infrastructure. Grappling with crumbling and unsafe drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, communities need a staggering $188 billion over the next 20 years to improve, upgrade, and repair drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater systems. This work is increasingly prohibitive with costs too often being passed on to our most vulnerable communities that are least able to afford it. Investing in water infrastructure protects public health and the environment, improves climate resiliency of our communities, reduces maintenance and operational costs, and creates good-paying local jobs. Charged with protecting the nation’s water resources, this subcommittee handles important decisions having to do with wastewater infrastructure. Together, these decisions account for billions of dollars in investments and improvements to the nuts-and-bolts infrastructure that millions of Americans rely upon for clean water.