America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018: United States Senate Passes S.3021

The United States Senate on October 19th passed the America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 (“S.3021”).

The comprehensive water infrastructure legislation now moves to President Trump for execution.

Key components of S.3021 include:

• Provisions for the U.S. House of Representatives Water Resource Development Act (H.R.8)
• U.S. House of Representatives Drinking Water System Improvement Act of 2017 (H.R.3387)
• SRF WIN Act (S.2800)(Developed by Senator John Boozman of Arkansas)

The SRF WIN Act is an acronym for the Securing Required Funding for Water Infrastructure Now Act, which had been previously introduced by Senator Boozman. As noted in a Boozman press release, this legislation was included as a component of the final version of S.3021. Senator Boozman’s press release states in part, in describing the SRF WIN provisions, that it:

. . . combines the best aspects of State Revolving Funds (SRFs) with the leveraging power of the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) to make the process easier and more affordable for states to meet their underserved or unmet water infrastructure needs. It increases access to previously unavailable funding sources for small or medium-size communities, while removing high application fees which often prevent access to funds for rural communities.

Additional issues addressed in S.3021 include:

• Clean, safe, reliable water infrastructure
• Study on intractable water systems
• Drinking water infrastructure resilience and sustainability
• Asset management
• Community water system risk of resilience
• Authorization for grants for state programs
• State revolving loan funds
• Report on federal cross-cutting requirements
• Stormwater Infrastructure Funding Task Force
• Sewer overflow control grants
• Reauthorization of the WIFIA program
• Water infrastructure in workforce investment
• Grant program to provide $1 million per year in fiscal years 2019 and 2020 to eligible organizations to provide water workforce job training
• Reauthorization of the Safe Drinking Water Act
• Language requiring application of Davis-Bacon prevailing wage provisions to construction loans using federal funds
• U.S. Corps of Engineers technology development demonstration program addressing harmful algal blooms
• Addressing the electronic distribution of Consumer Confidence Reports

Note that the reauthorization of the Safe Drinking Water Act was the first time this has happened since 1996.

A link to S.3021 can be found here and a copy of Senator Boozman’s press release can be found here.