MANAGER’S CORNER
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will help shape the issues that AWWA’s
Water Utility Council (WUC) and gov-ernment
affairs staff will address and
actions that it will initiate. The WUC is
the AWWA volunteer body that develops
action programs on legislative and regu-latory
policy directly affecting water util-ities,
overseeing AWWA’s government
affairs staff and an expanded group of
active volunteers, primarily those who
serve in Technical Advisory Workgroups.
While Washington appears to be full
of uncertainty, we do have a reasonably
good sense of direction for a number of
issues and how the water sector’s voice
should be heard.
Water Infrastructure Finance
AWWA led efforts that culminated
in June 2014 with the enactment of the
Water Infrastructure Finance and Inno-vation
Act (WIFIA). WIFIA is designed
to provide low-cost loans to water utili-ties
for projects beyond the size or scope
of the State Revolving Loan Fund (SRF).
Throughout 2016, AWWA staff and vol-unteers
worked relentlessly to see that
legislators provide the funding need-ed
for WIFIA to be able to make loans.
In January 2017, USEPA announced
that funding is in place and it is invit-ing
Letters of Interest from prospective
utility borrowers.
The SRF program has been a vital tool
in providing financial assistance, pri-marily
to small to medium sized utilities
and primarily for compliance-related in-frastructure
or issues. The federal bud-get
deficit at times threatens the level of
funding Congress provides the SRF, and
AWWA will work to maintain robust
funding. Just as important, we have al-ready
begun conversations with congres-sional
staff interested in reauthorizing the
SRF program and potentially the entire
Safe Drinking Water Act. Discussions are
at a preliminary stage but could acceler-ate
in 2017.
Whenever the issue of comprehensive
tax reform comes up, congressional leaders
insist that everything is on the table, includ-ing
tax-exempt municipal bonds. Although
there have been some proposals to reduce
tax benefits for upper income holders, util-ity
managers point out that such high-in-come
folks hold most of the municipal
bonds. While there appears to be no im-mediate
threat to municipal bonds, AWWA
and other sector organizations are staying
vigilant for any efforts to reduce their value
to local infrastructure investment.
Fourth Unregulated Contaminant
Monitoring Rule
USEPA was to promulgate the final
While there appears to be no
immediate threat to municipal
bonds, AWWA and other sector
organizations are staying
vigilant for any efforts to
reduce their value to local
infrastructure investment.
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