Statement: U.S. can’t afford president’s budget drain on the tap

Statement by Kristin Urquiza, Think Outside the Bottle Campaign Director

For Immediate Release:
February 14, 2012

Contact:
Christine Chester, 617-695-2525

Public water systems are primary to economic growth, recovery and public health. Yet reinvestment in the tap continues to be neglected in the President’s proposed budgets. Yesterday, the President proposed to cut the Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Funds (SRFs) by 15 percent. These sources, are the lifeline to federal dollars that states and municipalities rely on to fund critical water infrastructure projects. The cuts in President Obama's 2013 budget are part of a 42 percent reduction since FY2010.

A dwindling federal commitment only puts more pressure on state and local governments already struggling to fund the expanding needs of their public water systems. It widens the current investment gap facing our nation’s public water infrastructure, a gap that has led to an accumulation of more than $600 billion in needed infrastructure improvements over the next twenty years.

Cuts put the future of our public water systems in jeopardy. For one, the private water industry is seizing on slimming budgets to aggressively advocate private control of public water and so-called “public-private partnerships” as the solution. This despite a history of these projects resulting in rate hikes, declines in service and quality, and more. Currently, more than 80 percent of the U.S. population is served reliably by a publicly-controlled water system, but a larger federal commitment is required to keep it that way.

This is not to mention that investment in public water is one of the most critical investments we can make to further economic recovery. These systems don’t only provide needed drinking water and sanitation services, they create green jobs and buoy the economy at large. In fact, industry experts have testified to Congress that every $1 billion invested in drinking water and wastewater systems could add close to 28,500 jobs to the economy. Overall, a dollar invested in public water generates more than six for the economy at large in the long term. When we invest public resources in our most essential public resource, public water works to create jobs and profoundly stimulate the economy. What’s more, according to Mark Zandi, Chief Economist of Moody’s Analytics, investment in water and other infrastructures creates nearly 40 percent more jobs than an across-the-board tax cut, and over five times as many jobs as temporary business tax cuts.

The time has come to deepen the commitment to water as an essential public service and prioritize reinvestment in this critical, yet unsung resource – one that has helped make America great and will continue to do so into the future if we make it so.

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