U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE

31–136 PDF WASHINGTON : 2018

S. HRG. 115–304 

LEGISLATIVE HEARING ON S. 2800, AMERICA’S 

WATER INFRASTRUCTURE ACT OF 2018 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON 

ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

MAY 9, 2018 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Environment and Public Works 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov 

(II) 

COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS 

ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming, Chairman 

JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma 

SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia 

JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas 

ROGER WICKER, Mississippi 

DEB FISCHER, Nebraska 

JERRY MORAN, Kansas 

MIKE ROUNDS, South Dakota 

JONI ERNST, Iowa 

DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska 

RICHARD SHELBY, Alabama 

THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware, 

Ranking Member 

BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland 

BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont 

SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island 

JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon 

KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, New York 

CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey 

EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts 

TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois 

CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, Maryland 

RICHARD M. RUSSELL, Majority Staff Director 

GABRIELLE BATKIN, Minority Staff Director 

(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Page 

MAY 9, 2018 

OPENING STATEMENTS 

Barrasso, Hon. John, U.S. Senator from the State of Wyoming .......................... 1 

Carper, Hon. Thomas R., U.S. Senator from the State of Delaware ................... 2 

Inhofe, Hon. James M., U.S. Senator from the State of Oklahoma .................... 5 

Cardin, Hon. Benjamin L., U.S. Senator from the State of Maryland ................ 6 

WITNESSES 

Riley, Pat, Advisory Committee Member, Family Farm Alliance ....................... 8 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 11 

Response to an additional question from Senator Barrasso ......................... 26 

Sternberg, Dennis, Executive Director, Arkansas Rural Water Association ...... 28 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 30 

Response to an additional question from Senator Barrasso ......................... 38 

Swallow, Kristina, President, American Society of Civil Engineers ................... 41 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 43 

Bullock, Hon. Jeffrey, Secretary of State, State of Delaware .............................. 50 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 52 

Response to an additional question from Senator Barrasso ......................... 58 

Pratt, Tony, President, American Shore and Beach Preservation Association .. 59 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 61 

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL 

Letter to Senator Baldwin from Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, 

January 29, 2018 .................................................................................................. 105 

Letter to Senator Baldwin from NEW Water, January 30, 2018 ........................ 106 

(1) 

LEGISLATIVE HEARING ON S. 2800, AMERICA’S 

WATER INFRASTRUCTURE ACT OF 2018 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 2018 

U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS, Washington, DC. 

The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:03 a.m. in room 

406, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. John Barrasso (Chairman of the Committee) presiding. 

Present: Senators Barrasso, Carper, Inhofe, Capito, Boozman, 

Wicker, Fischer, Rounds, Ernst, Sullivan, Cardin, Whitehouse, 

Gillibrand, Booker, Markey, and Van Hollen. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN BARRASSO, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF WYOMING 

Senator BARRASSO. Good morning. I call this hearing to order. 

We are here to examine legislation titled America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018. This is bipartisan legislation. This legislation 

is introduced along with Committee Ranking Member Carper, 

Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee Chairman Inhofe, 

and Subcommittee Ranking Member Cardin. 

The Senate Committee of the Environment and Public Works has 

jurisdiction over much of our Nation’s water infrastructure, including locks and dams, inland waterways, irrigation and water systems, and ports. These infrastructure systems are critical to keeping America prosperous and safe from dangerous floods and contaminated water sources. 

This bipartisan legislation is a result of significant work in negotiations among the members of our Committee, and I want to 

thank each and every one of the members of the Committee for 

their efforts. 

The discussions are ongoing. We plan to add a bipartisan manager’s amendment to the bill, when we mark it up later this month, 

in order to address a number of other outstanding issues. 

Water infrastructure is important to every region, to every State, 

to every tribe, and to every community in America. America’s 

Water Infrastructure Act is going to support our Nation’s economic 

competitiveness by increasing water storage, by deepening nationally significant ports, by addressing aging irrigation systems, and 

by maintaining the navigability of inland waterways across the 

country. 

In my home State of Wyoming and across the West, water storage capacity and supply are vital to local economies. Sediment 

build up behind dams severely limits water storage. Our bill is 

2 

going to address this problem by directing the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers to develop sediment management plans for Federal reservoirs. 

America’s Water Infrastructure Act will also expand our Nation’s 

water storage capability by facilitating the permitting of additional 

reservoirs. For example, in Wyoming, the bill would approve the 

expansion of water storage at the Bureau of Reclamation’s 

Fontenelle Reservoir in Lincoln County. 

Expanding water storage will give our farmers, ranchers, and 

communities a reliable supply of water in order to keep their livestock and their crops healthy. More water storage also provides an 

economic incentive for new businesses to grow and to create jobs 

throughout the Nation. 

America’s Water Infrastructure Act will also fix deteriorating irrigation systems that are vital for growing crops and for raising 

livestock. 

The legislation isn’t just important for rural America. Dredging 

nationally significant ports and maintaining our inland waterways 

will enhance our growing economy. Goods and raw materials need 

to move from the heartland to the coast for export. The bill is designed to maintain these vital arteries of commerce. It is good for 

big cities and for rural communities alike. 

This legislation is also about health and safety. It includes provisions to repair old drinking water and wastewater systems, protecting communities from contaminated water sources. The bill will 

make it easier for the Army Corps to take steps to keep communities safe from flooding. It will address maintenance needs of older 

dams and levees that protect communities from dangerous floodwaters. 

Finally, this bill will create an addition to the benefit-cost ratio 

framework. The addition will give local stakeholders a greater role 

in prioritizing Army Corps projects. Under this new provision, more 

projects are likely to be built in small rural and inland States. 

America’s Water Infrastructure Act is going to authorize or reauthorize important water infrastructure programs and projects that 

benefit all 50 States, so I urge my colleagues to work with me in 

a bipartisan way to pass this important legislation so we can create 

American jobs and promote our Nation’s prosperity, health, and 

safety. 

With that, I would like to turn to the Ranking Member and cosponsor of the legislation, Senator Carper, for his statement. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. THOMAS R. CARPER, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF DELAWARE 

Senator CARPER. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. 

As my colleagues know, I take the train most days down to 

Washington from Delaware. Almost every day somebody on the 

platform, waiting to catch the train, will come up to me and say 

I wouldn’t have your job for all the tea in China; you must hate 

your job. I really don’t at all. I feel lucky to be here. I feel lucky 

to serve with the men and women around us on this Committee 

and in the Senate. 

I wouldn’t want to spike the football too early, but this is a day 

to celebrate. This is a victory, I think, in introducing this legislaVerDate Aug 31 2005 07:04 Aug 22, 2018 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\_EPW\DOCS\31136.TXT SONYA
3 

tion, for bipartisanship, for fiscal responsibility. This is a victory for 

environmental soundness. It is good for the economy and embraces 

the idea of using some common sense, so I think we can be proud 

of this. 

My colleagues hear me from time to time quote Lincoln. What is 

the role of government? The role of the government is to do for the 

people what they cannot do for themselves. Think about that. 

One of the major roles of government is to create a nurturing environment for job creation and job preservation, along with a lot of 

other stakeholders. We try to do that, and I think successfully with 

this legislation. 

So, my thanks to our colleagues on my left here, Senator Cardin, 

my thanks to Jim Inhofe and your staff, certainly to our Chairman 

for working with us and with our colleagues on this Committee and 

off the Committee to address America’s water infrastructure needs. 

Our bill, titled ‘‘America’s Water Infrastructure Act,’’ is an important piece of legislation, given that the authorization law under 

which the Corps of Engineers currently operates expires come December. I am proud of the bipartisan work we have done together 

on this legislation. We are stronger together, and I hope that it will 

serve as a model for work that we on this Committee, along with 

others, can do in the future, this year and beyond. 

Before I comment on the bill, I just want to thank all the witnesses for joining us today. I especially want to thank Jeff Bullock, 

who is our Secretary of State for the State of Delaware, who previously worked with me when I was a Congressman and with my 

chief of staff as Governor, and for a little bit as chief of staff for 

my first year in the U.S. Senate. 

Sitting right behind in the audience is Jonathan Jones, who 

worked as part of our team, who was my chief of staff. Two of my 

chiefs of staff here, former chiefs of staff here. 

People ask me why I have had some success. I always surround 

myself with people smarter than me, and these are a couple of 

them, and we are delighted that they are here. 

I want to welcome back Tony Pratt, who is the President of the 

American Shore and Beach Preservation Association. He has been 

here before. He is a senior member of our Department of Environmental Protection in Delaware Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, and we thank Tony for joining us, and all of our 

other witnesses, too. 

Coastal issues are extremely important to everybody in the room, 

but especially to the lowest lying State in our country, that would 

be Delaware, and the water resources bill is critical to our State’s 

economy as it is to many other States. 

Delaware’s economic reliance on the Corps’ work is not unique. 

I was astounded by this fact, but over 90 percent of U.S. overseas 

trade volume—over 90 percent of U.S. overseas trade volume— 

moves through coastal channels that the Corps maintains. Think 

about that. Over 90 percent of U.S. overseas trade volume moves 

through coastal channels that the Corps maintains. They have an 

incredible job, incredible responsibility for all of us. 

The Corps inland waterways and locks form a freight network. 

Think of it almost as a water highway that provides access to interVerDate Aug 31 2005 07:04 Aug 22, 2018 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\_EPW\DOCS\31136.TXT SONYA
4 

national markets through our ports. They also serve as critical infrastructure for the U.S. military. 

Our bill authorizes investments in this system in multiple ways, 

multiple ways. Most notably, it positions the Corps to be an active 

partner with ports, with communities, with States, with tribes, and 

other stakeholders in growing and expanding our Nation’s economy. 

A reinvestment in this partnership is much needed. For the better part of a decade now, the executive branch has calculated water 

project costs and benefits in a way that has led to a backlog of unfunded and uncompleted—but needed—projects. Our bill works to 

address this problem by authorizing new funding and project planning requirements at the Corps’ most local level, including individual Corps districts. 

This legislation requires local participation in the development of 

new district plans, too, and hopefully this participation will allow 

for a more transparent and long-term look at the Corps’ activities 

and serve to build a better and bigger groundswell of support for 

increased appropriations for the agency’s initiatives down the line. 

Our legislation also invests nationally in both coasts and inland 

waterways. I am particularly proud of a provision that will support 

the selection of natural infrastructure alternatives as a practical 

solution in situations where and when the development of gray or 

more traditional infrastructure alone may not work. 

The Corps of Engineers also works to reduce risk to human safety and property damage from flooding. Flooding alone currently 

costs the United States billions of dollars annually. 

As the 2017 hurricane season illustrated, our Nation needs to be 

ready for the next extreme storm or flood event, because it is coming. Earlier this year, NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, announced that the total cost for extreme 

weather and climate events in 2017—get this—exceeded $300 billion, a new annual record in the U.S. It is clearly not a matter of 

if the next extreme weather event is coming; it is a matter of when. 

Our bill allows the Secretary of the Army to waive the cost share 

for hazard mitigation related feasibility studies so that we can be 

shovel ready before the next storm hits. Additionally, the bill modifies the Corps’ existing emergency authorities to allow the agency 

to participate in storm damage recovery for a longer period of time, 

make more resilient infrastructure decisions, and where appropriate, cost share infrastructure replacements so resources can go 

further. 

The American Society of Civil Engineers Infrastructure Report 

Card gives our country’s dams, our levees, our inland waterways a 

D, as in dog, as in decrepit. It gives our country’s dams, levees, and 

inland waterways a D, representing an overall cumulative investment backlog of nearly $140 billion in an authorized but 

unconstructed portfolio of $60 billion. 

The bill reauthorizes the Corps’ dam safety programs and makes 

needed changes as proposed by civil engineers. 

Clearly, we have a lot of important work to do to move this bill 

across the goal line. However, if we continue to work, as we have, 

in a bipartisan fashion, I think we will get the bill done, and our 

country will be better for it. 

5 

Mr. Chairman, thank you again for your leadership on this bill 

and for your staff’s hard work. 

I also want to thank our partners. I want to thank Senator 

Inhofe, who has worked in these vineyards before; Senator Cardin, 

as well, and your staffs for being a part of this process. 

I just want to briefly recognize the staff members who are among 

those who worked very hard on this bill. They include Brian, Andy, 

Pauline, Lizzy, Craig, May, Jennie. In addition, I want to thank 

Christina Baysinger, Skylar Bayer, and John Kane of our own staff 

on the minority side. All of our staff has spent countless hours 

working together through provisions that matter not just for Wyoming, not just for Delaware, but for our Nation as a whole. 

Again, we welcome our witnesses. We look forward to hearing 

from each of you this morning to make this very good piece of legislation even better in the weeks to come. 

Thank you so much. 

Senator BARRASSO. Well, thank you very much, Senator Carper. 

I would like to now recognize the Chairman of the Subcommittee 

on Transportation and Infrastructure, Senator Inhofe, if you have 

some comments you would like to share with us. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES M. INHOFE, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA 

Senator INHOFE. Well, I do. I do. I would introduce the staff people like Senator Carper did, except they are all over at the EPA, 

so they are not here today. 

Anyway, I thank you and the Ranking Member, Senator Cardin, 

for having this thing. I can remember the years that I chaired this 

Committee. We had gone through a number of years where we 

were supposed to do this, and everyone knows this, we were supposed to do it every 2 years. We had some periods of 4 or 6, and 

one 8-year period where we didn’t do it. We got back on schedule, 

and I applaud the leadership of this Committee for continuing that. 

Now, in all the people who are here today, it is important that 

we keep it up, we keep it going, and we do it in the proper way. 

It is one of the few things that really works well in Government, 

is the way we do the WRDA bills. 

In Oklahoma, our State DOT has an 8-year plan which is updated yearly and is publicly available. Now, everybody knows, 

there are no secrets in this thing. They know what we are planning 

to do, they know well in advance. They participate in it. 

The budget reforms in this bill will provide an ongoing 5-year 

window of certainty and transparency, and allow for more input 

from stakeholders when creating priorities within the Corps’ districts and headquarters. 

The bill will also help our communities in building out their 

water and wastewater systems and assist them in complying with 

the many Federal mandates that are creating so many problems for 

so many people. 

The growing communities in my State of Oklahoma, like 

Bartlesville, will be able to contract for additional water storage 

without breaking the bank. We have clarified language so that the 

stakeholders along the McClelland-Kerr Arkansas navigation system. 

6 

Everyone in this room knows because you are all experts, but out 

in the real world, how many people know that we are navigable in 

the State of Oklahoma or in Arkansas? As we go through, I remember 100 years ago, when I was in the State Senate, someone came 

to me from the World War II Submarine Veterans Association, and 

they said, we’d like to demonstrate what we can do in Oklahoma. 

We are going to take a World War II submarine all the way from 

the Gulf of Mexico up through Arkansas to Oklahoma to the Port 

of Muskogee. 

They said it couldn’t be done. All my adversaries were saying we 

are going to sink Inhofe with his submarine. All these things were 

going. But we actually did get all the way up there, and it was a 

great experience, so we are on the map. 

With entrepreneurs in Oklahoma like Grant Humphries—I was 

down at his operation not too long ago. I can remember when the 

Corps didn’t provide any kind of help in recreational activity. They 

are doing it now, and we are doing it successfully. 

I know that no bill is perfect, and I know there are some concerns related to the Hopper dredge, and we are working on language, working closely with those who have a personal interest in 

that. We want to be sure that, if the private sector has areas where 

availability is not there, a compromise can be reached to try to accommodate those needs. 

So, I look forward to continue to work with my colleagues to improve this bill. This will be one of the major pieces of legislation 

that we can all be proud of. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Senator BARRASSO. Thank you, Senator Inhofe. 

I would now like to recognize the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Senator Cardin, if 

you have comments you would like to share with us. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MARYLAND 

Senator CARDIN. Well, Senator Barrasso, I want to join with Senator Carper and Senator Inhofe in congratulating you for bringing 

this bill to the Committee’s attention in the best traditions of our 

Committee. I agree we should be doing these reauthorizations 

every 2 years in order to make sure that the authorizations are 

contemporary with need. It is our Committee’s responsibility to do 

it, and you are carrying that out in the best traditions. It is certainly bipartisan, and it is focused on clean, safe water for our Nation, advancing water infrastructure for both public health and our 

economy, and doing it in a fiscally responsible way, so I am proud 

to be part of this effort. 

For our Nation, let me just mention three bills that I worked on 

with other members of this Committee in the U.S. Senate that 

parts are incorporated into this America’s Water Infrastructure 

Act. I am pleased that a good part of S. 1137, the Clean, Safe, Reliable Water Infrastructure Act, is included. Senator Boozman has 

been one of the leaders on that, Senator Inhofe and Senator 

Duckworth, an important bill that deals with drinking water and 

wastewater infrastructure in our country. 

7 

Parts of S. 692, the Water Infrastructure Flexibility Act, Senator 

Fischer was very much engaged in that Act, along with Senator 

Brown, that deals with the affordability, which is important to all 

parts of our country, but particularly to my State, in Baltimore, it 

is a major issue and deals with integrated planning of our water 

infrastructure. 

And then S. 451, the Water Resources Research Amendments, 

again by Senator Boozman, that we worked on for additional research into the effectiveness and efficiency of new and existing 

water treatment works. 

So, there is a lot of important work that is being done for national strategies dealing with modernizing our water infrastructure. 

I am proud of the impact this will have on the State of Maryland. 

I know that members of this Committee may be getting a little bit 

tired of my mentioning the Chesapeake Bay. I know that Senator 

Carper is not, and Senator Van Hollen is not, but others may. But 

the Chesapeake Bay, obviously, is a matter of major concern. Maryland is a coastal State, and this bill will help us deal with our 

coastal issues of the Chesapeake Bay and certainly the needs of the 

Port of Baltimore. We have other ports; we have a port in Salisbury, making sure that our channels are kept dredged at the right 

levels. 

I say that because this bill will deal with Poplar Island and MidBay Island ecosystem restoration projects, and I really want to underscore this, because, when I first came to the U.S. Congress, the 

location of sites where we could put dredge material was extremely 

controversial, extremely controversial. Hart-Miller Island is famous 

for congressional races based around the future whether we could 

find sites to put dredge materials. 

That is no longer the case in our region thanks to Poplar Island, 

which not only serves as a location for dredge material, but is an 

ecosystem restoration project. Just recently I had the opportunity 

to take the leadership of the Army Corps to the site to take a look 

at it, and it is a model site for what we should be doing in reclaiming lands that were once there. This was once a habitable island 

that had gotten down to about five acres. It is now being restored 

to thousands of acres, and it is thriving as an environmental site. 

The next location will be Mid-Bay, and this legislation provides 

for the continuity of the locations for dredge sites in Maryland in 

the Chesapeake Bay for keeping our channels to the depths that 

are needed, because that is critically important to our economy and 

the ports. 

There is a provision in this bill that deals with the Anacostia 

River to complete the feasibility study. That is important. 

Last, Mr. Chairman, I want to mention the point you mentioned, 

and that is the cost-benefit analysis dealing with smaller facilities. 

We have, in Maryland, numerous sites that are critically important 

to get Army Corps work to deal with recreational and tourism 

issues, and your leadership here will make it more likely we can 

get those projects on schedule to get the work that they need. 

I am proud to be part of this effort. 

Senator BARRASSO. Thank you, Senator Cardin. 

8 

I would like to now ask Senator Boozman if he would like to introduce one of our guests. 

Senator BOOZMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

I just want to take a second to give a special thanks to Dennis 

Sternberg being here today. Mr. Sternberg has spent almost 40 

years in water and wastewater industry in Arkansas, hailing from 

Greenbrier, Arkansas. Twenty-nine of those years were spent working in almost all field positions, as a field rep, EPA program manager, USDA circuit rider, and wastewater technician trainer. 

He and his Arkansas Rural Water Association staff are truly 

committed to the future of rural communities by assisting utilities 

throughout the State with the many challenges rural and small 

utilities continue to face. 

He holds the highest water and wastewater licenses in Arkansas: 

Class 4 water distribution and Class 4 water treatment and Class 

4 wastewater license in Arkansas. 

In 2006 Mr. Sternberg received the Executive Director of the 

Year Award from National Rural Association, and in 2009 the 

United States Department of Agriculture and National Rural 

Water Association recognized Dennis for leadership in emergency 

response preparation. 

Mr. Sternberg, we truly do appreciate you being here and appreciate you bringing your knowledge of so many years, so much experience to the Committee today. 

Senator BARRASSO. Thank you very much, Senator Boozman. 

Well, we have a wonderful panel here to join us today. 

Pat Riley is here, the Advisory Committee Member from the 

Family Farm Alliance; Mr. Sternberg, who has just been recognized, is the Executive Director of the Arkansas Rural Water Association; Kristina Swallow, thank you for joining us, the President 

of the American Society of Civil Engineers; and then, of course, Jeff 

Bullock, Secretary of State from Delaware. 

I understand when you started working for him you had hair. 

That’s what I hear. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator BARRASSO. And Tony Pratt, President of the American 

Shore and Beach Preservation Association. 

I want to remind our witnesses your full written testimony will 

be made part of the official record today. If you could please keep 

your statements to 5 minutes so we may have additional time for 

questions. 

I look forward to hearing your testimony, beginning with Mr. 

Riley. 

Please proceed. Welcome. 

STATEMENT OF PAT RILEY, 

ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBER, FAMILY FARM ALLIANCE 

Mr. RILEY. Thank you, Senator Barrasso, Senator Carper, and 

members of the Committee. I am new to this, so bear with me. 

My name is Pat Riley. I live near Roundup, Montana, which is 

in central Montana, the Missouri Breaks country. I am a farmerrancher and also a consultant throughout the State that works 

with farmers and ranchers to deal with water rights and water resource issues. 

9 

I previously served as a manager of the Rivers Adjudication in 

northeast and southeast Montana, which entailed working on the 

Upper Missouri and the Yellowstone River Basin for a number of 

issues. 

Prior to that I managed Montana’s Irrigation Development 

Sustainment Program and worked with a lot of Indian tribes, up 

‘til 2014, where I moved back into the private area. 

I am here to represent the Family Farm Alliance and bring perspective for the Upper Missouri and Yellowstone River Basins, 

where I live and I work. The Alliance has provided extensive testimony, written testimony, and I am only going to address a couple 

of different issues. Although I do have an interest in many other 

issues; it is just, with 5 minutes, I picked three of those. 

The first section that I wanted to talk about was Section 1024. 

This deals with the watercraft inspections on the Upper Missouri 

and the Columbia Basin in regard to the aquatic invasive species 

issue. Just in the last 2 years in Montana we have had two Bureau 

of Rec projects where, in fact, the zebra mussels, some sign of the 

zebra mussels has hit our State, and we are in panic mode, and 

inspections are taking place in Montana, and we are actually formulating that. This will definitely help us to try to preserve our 

waters, even though the Eurasian milfoil has been in our State for 

a number of years, and we are trying to deal with that. 

Section 3306 and 3403, these are the sections about the reservoir 

sediment problems that we see day to day in our State and 

throughout the United States. Siltation is a chronic problem 

throughout the West. I have looked at reservoirs from BIA, any 

Federal projects to State projects to local projects, and many of the 

reservoirs are 70 to 100 years old. 

There are some of the reservoirs that I work with that are 50 

percent full of silt right now. Well, if you think of that from my 

perspective as a farmer and rancher, this means that when I had 

20 inches of water to use on my crop, now I have 10. I can’t raise 

the crops I need to raise with 10 inches of water. So, this is a huge 

issue, siltation, from the farming side. Flood control is also a huge 

issue. 

The biggest reservoir area is an Army Corps project, the Fort 

Peck Reservoir project. It is 19,200,000 acres feet of water. It is the 

upper of the three big reservoirs on the Missouri River. Well, if you 

assume that say it was 25 percent full of silt, which is 1930s vintage, that would be a likely scenario. We are talking about 5 million acre-foot that is used for flood control and irrigation and those 

sorts of things. That is a huge chunk, and it is only growing each 

and every day. I run into it all the time; we see it out on smaller 

projects where that has dramatically increased. And when you 

have silts of that level, your evaporation goes up because water becomes shallower. 

The final section that I want to talk about is the tribal, one that 

is very near and dear to me, Sections 3807 and 3808. These are the 

tribal water right projects. I work solely on Indian water right 

projects in our State. We have seven reservations and thousands 

of acres of irrigation in BIA projects. Most of the BIA projects, I 

have to admit, are in woeful state. If I was to compare the Bureau 

of Rec projects in our State, they are probably 30 percent worse 

10 

than the Bureau of Rec projects, who we all know have 100 years 

of infrastructure that has been sitting there and falling apart. We 

need to deal with this. On the tribal projects, there are some that 

I would call almost non-functional. 

I know that was just a brief of the things that I reviewed, but 

I felt like I needed to take as little time as possible, and I would 

like any questions that you would like to provide me later on. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Riley follows:] 

11 


31136.001

Pat Riley 

Advisory Committee Member 

Family Farm Alliance 

Pat Riley owns and manages Riley Water 

Consulting, in Roundup, Montana. He has over 25 

years of experience addressing water resources and 

energy challenges in the Missouri River watershed. 

Raised on an irrigated farm in Northeast Montana in 

the Bureau of Reclamation's Glasgow Irrigation 

District, Mr. Riley's grandfather was the first 

Postmaster for the Army Corps of Engineers at Fort 

Peck Reservoir Project, located on the upper Missouri River. 

After attending Northern Montana College and serving in the military, Mr. Riley oversaw 

the river adjudication review and examination process in Northeast Montana (for the 

Missouri River) and later, Southeast Montana (Yellowstone River). He spent a year 

working with Montana's Water Right Compact Commission, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 

and the Crow Tribe as they developed technical work relative to the Crow Tribal 

Compact. In 2000, Mr. Riley was hired to set up and run Montana's new Irrigation 

Development and Sustainment Program. During this time, he also served as the 

Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation representative to the 

Upper Missouri Water Association. Further, Mr. Riley worked on energy issues and 

legislation in Montana and Washington, D.C., and worked closely with the Montana 

Legislature on numerous issues 

In 2013, Mr. Riley left state government and has managed his own water right 

consulting business, as well as serving on the Musselshell Watershed Group and the 

Lower Musselshell Conservation District. He also operates a small cow-calf operation in 

the Bull Mountains and on the Musselshell River. 
12 


31136.002

~LLIANCESM P.O. Box 216 Klamath Falls, Oregon 97601 

Testimony for the Hearing Record of Pat Riley 

On behalf of 

Family Farm Alliance 

Submitted to the United States Senate 

Committee on Environment and Public Works 

Legislative Hearing on "America's Water Infrastructure Act of2018" 

May9,2018 

Good morning, Chairman Barrasso, Ranking Member Carper and Members of the Committee: 

On behalf of the Family Farm Alliance (Alliance), thank you for the opportunity to present this 

testimony on the "America's Water Infrastructure Act of2018" (AWIA). My name is Pat Riley, 

and I live along the Upper Musselshell River, a tributary to the Upper Missouri River, in Montana. 

As you know, the A WIA, also known as the Water Resource Development Act (WRDA), is a 

biennial piece of legislation that is the main vehicle for authorizing water projects to be studied, 

planned and developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps). It is also the legislative 

vehicle for implementing policy changes with respect to the Corps' water resource projects and 

programs. As such, this legislation is very important to the rural communities of the Western 

United States. 

ABOUT THE FAMILY FARM ALLIANCE 

I have served on the Advisory Committee of the Family Farm Alliance for the past decade. This 

Committee consists of water professionals like district managers, engineers, consultants and 

attorneys. The Alliance is a grassroots organization offamily farmers, ranchers, irrigation districts, 

and allied industries in 16 Western states. The Alliance is focused on one mission: To ensure the 

availability of reliable, atTordable irrigation water supplies to Western farmers and ranchers. We 

are also committed to the fundamental proposition that Westem irrigated agriculture must be 

preserved and protected for a host of economic, sociological, environmental, and national security 

reasons- many of which are often overlooked in the context of other national policy decisions. 

Page 1 
13 


31136.003

PERSONAL BACKGROUND 

I was raised on an irrigated farm in Northeast Montana under the Bureau of Reclamation's 

Glasgow Irrigation DistricL My grandfather was the first Postmaster for the Army Corps of 

Engineers at Fort Peck Reservoir Project, located on the upper Missouri River, After attending 

college and serving in the military, I oversaw the river adjudication review and examination 

process in Northeast Montana (for the Missouri River) and later, Southeast Montana (Yellowstone 

River). I also spent a year working with Montana's Water Right Compact Commission, the Bureau 

of Indian Affairs, and the Crow Tribe as they developed technical work relative to the Crow Tribal 

Compact. In 2000, I was hired to set up and run Montana's new Irrigation Development and 

Sustainment Program. During this time, l also served as the Montana Department of Natural 

Resources and Conservation representative to the Upper Missouri Water Association. Five years 

ago, !left state government and have managed my own water right consulting business, as well as 

serving on the Musselshell Watershed Group and the Lower Musselshell Conservation DistricL I 

also operate a small cow-calf operation in the Bull Mountains and on the Musselshell River. 

Given my background, I hope you will appreciate that my testimony will focus on how those 

provisions of the 2018 AWIA will benetlt the Upper Missouri River watershed, as well as rural 

communities and agricultural water users in those areas of the country located west of the l 00'11 

meridian. I believe I can provide a unique perspective on the challenges rural producers face in 

the West, and how many of these provisions will help us and the towns we live in. The federal 

government has an enduring role in water supply and flood control infrastructure development and 

management that, consistent with state water laws, includes working with local water managers 

and communities on both a policy and operational level and, in partnership with them, providing 

support for their ef1orts to protect lives and property, as well as securing a stable and sustainable 

water supply. 

Some of the key provisions of A WIA 20 J 8 that apply to the Upper Missouri River system and the 

West include modifications to Fontenelle Reservoir in Wyoming, flood protection on the Snake 

River, reauthorization of the national levee safety program, adjustment of flood control rule curves 

on non-Federal reservoirs, control of invasive species, and evaluation of federal agency 

capabilities and capacity, among others. 

WESTERN- SPECIFIC PROVISIONS 

A WIA 2018 addresses numerous projects and challenges in the Western U.S.; I would like to 

address three specific areas of A WIA. 

Upper Missouri River provisions 

I would like to personally thank the Committee tor the high priority it has placed on addressing 

flooding issues we face in the Upper Missouri River system, where reservoirs are tilling with 

Page 2 
14 


31136.004

sediment, ice jams contribute to flooding damages, and where we could use some additional tools 

to better understand the hydrology and predict extreme streamflow events. 

Many of the irrigation projects I have been involved in the Upper Missouri Basin are mostly 

served by storage reservoirs that are between 40 and 90 years old. State of Montana reservoirs are 

experiencing the same challenges as Corps and Reclamation reservoirs. Montana has many 

reservoirs that now store only 1/3 of their designed capacity, which means that one of two things 

will happen under current conditions: operators must either reduce the number of acres that they 

irrigate, or they must tum full-service irrigation projects into partial-service projects and continue 

to irrigate acres, with the understanding that, in many years, middle and late season irrigation will 

not take place. This also reduces the ability of those lands to support any crop that requires late 

season water, such as corn, soybeans, and other high value crops. 

Section 1179 of WIIN 2016 authorized an Upper Missouri River pilot program for the 

development and implementation of sediment management plans for reservoirs owned and 

operated by the Corps, on request of project beneficiaries. Sediment management plans are 

intended to prevent sediment from reducing water storage capacity at reservoirs and increasing 

water storage capacity through sediment removal at those reservoirs. We suppott Section 3401 of 

A WIA 2018, which amends section ll79(a) of WIIN 2016 by requiring that the Corps and the 

Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) prioritize funds to multi-state sediment management plans 

developed thereunder and makes clear that Reclamation shall participate in this sediment 

management pilot program. 

Section 350 I makes permanent an existing pilot program for preventing and mitigating flood 

damages associated with ice jams. Not only does it increase the minimum number of pilot projects 

to be carried out from 10 to 20, it also places priority on projects in the Upper Mississippi River 

Basin. Section 3502 prioritizes funds for t1ood and drought monitoring in the Upper Missouri 

Basin. The Corps, in coordination with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 

USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, and Reclamation, 

would be authorized to carry out activities to improve and support management of Corps projects, 

including soil moisture and snowpack monitoring, restoring and maintaining existing snowpack 

monitoring sites, and operating streamflow gages. We concur with and support these provisions 

in AWIA 2018. 

Authority to make entire active capacity of Fontenelle Reservoir available for use 

The Fontenelle Dam, located in southwest Wyoming on the Green River, is a principal feature of 

the federal Seedskadee Project. The project provides water storage and t1ow regulation on the 

Green River and generates power for municipal and industrial use, as well as wildlife and 

recreational benefits. The current active storage capacity of the reservoir is 260,000 acrefeet. Since 2011, the State of Wyoming has proposed expanding the active storage capacity of the 

reservoir. The House of Representatives recently passed 1-l.R. 648, a bill that allows the Fontenelle 

Dam to be modi fled to increase the active storage capacity to 345,000 acre-teet. The expansion of 

Page 3 
15 


31136.005

this water storage and management project will increase storage without noticeable change to the 

environmental footprint of the project. 

Section 3301 of AWIA 2018 provides for the study, design, planning and construction activities 

that will enable the use of all active storage capacity ofFontenelle Dam and Reservoir, including 

the placement of sufficient rip rap to allow the increase in active storage capacity of the reservoir 

to be used for the authorized purposes of the Seedskadee Project The Secretary of the Interior 

may enter into agreements necessary to carry out these activities and the State of Wyoming must 

provide the Secretary with funds for any such activities providing additional storage at Fontenelle 

Dam and Reservoir. The Alliance and the National Water Resources Association expressed 

support for this project at a March 2017 hearing conducted by the Senate Energy and Natural 

Resources Committee. 

Snake River basin flood prevention action plan 

Section 3609 requires that the Secretary develop within 90 days of enactment of A WIA 2018 a 

flood prevention action plan for each state or portion of a state within the Snake River basin in 

consultation with the Commissioner of Reclamation. lt further requires that following coordination 

with local stakeholders, a report be submitted within 180 days of WRDA 2018's enactment to 

Congressional committees on these flood prevention plans that were developed. We support the 

coordinated approach advocated in this section and strongly urge that these programs examine 

aquifer recharge and other new water storage opportunities that could be developed as part of these 

plans, particularly in Idaho. 

ADDRESSING THE UNIQUE CHALLENGES OF RURAL COMMUNITIES 

The AW!A 2018 includes several sections I believe would give local interests a stronger role in 

t1ood management and provide a balanced fair means of addressing the challenges faced by rural 

communities with limited funds and human resources. 

A WIA provisions that improve the role of local management entities 

The Family Farm Alliance has long believed that state laws and institutions must be given 

deference in issues relating to water resource management. The best decisions on water issues 

happen at the state and local level. 

The A WIA 2018 includes several provisions we suppott that could allow local interests to play a 

stronger role in Corp of Engineers Programs: 

Page4 
16 


31136.006

• Section l 00 l ("Corps budgeting") requires that the Corps provide Congress on an annual basis 

with a 5-year budget and work plan that includes public input. This section could allow an 

additional opportunity for projects or initiatives of regional or local significance to move 

forward in the Corps' budget process. 

• Section I 009 ("Project partnership agreements") is intended to help non-Federal sponsors 

understand their obligations by better defining and describing operation and maintenance, 

repair, replacement and rehabilitation (OMRR&R) costs in future project partnership 

agreements. 

• Section 1020 (''Non-Federal study and construction of projects'') is intended to clarify that if 

the Federal portion of the cost-share is paid by a non-Federal interest, then the Corps is 

required to provide the requested technical assistance on any aspect of a feasibility study. 

• Section I 025 ("Reauthorization of non-Federal implementation pilot program") extends the 

authorizations and authorizations of appropriations for the non-Federal implementation pilot 

programs at $50 million for each of fiscal years 2020 through 2021. These pilot programs 

evaluate the cost-effectiveness and project delivery efficiency of non-Federal interests 

carrying out feasibility studies and the construction of projects for flood risk management, 

storm damage reduction, and other actions. 

A WIA 2018 provisions that assist flood control efforts in rural communities 

The ·'one size fits all"' approach applied by the Corps in its benefit-to-cost (B/C) ratio analysis does 

not always work for Western rural communities. The Corps' B/C analysis is structured such that 

it favors projects in urban areas, but projects in rural unincorporated areas are more difficult to 

qualify for Federal funding under the Corps process. The analysis is not effective in agricultural 

areas because land values are sometimes much lower than urban values, and therefore difficult to 

qualify. For levees, the incremental analysis is too regionalized and does not account for the whole 

watershed; instead, it looks only at part of the system. The criteria need to recognize the 

interconnectedness of a system; if levees in a single tlood control district fail, the entire watershed 

may fail, too. 

Rural water management and flood control agencies are also sometimes left behind in the process 

because they are unable to meet all application requirements (especially the B/C analysis 

component) because they are so expensive to perform. It is extremely difficult for a rural water 

district or county to pursue grants with the current stringent cost-benefit analysis requirements. 

As such, many local agencies would like to see adjustments to the Corps B/C ratio analysis for 

Western rural and disadvantaged areas to include other benefits not currently captured. We are 

pleased to see that Section I 003 requires that the Comptroller General of the United States conduct 

and submit it to Congress a study on the benefit-cost procedures of the Corps and the Director of 

Page 5 
17 


31136.007

the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Among other things, the study would include an 

examination of the benefits that the Corps do and do not include in the benefit-cost calculation. 

Section 360 l will help rural t1ood control management activities in rural areas of the Upper 

Missouri River Basin, Snake River Basin, and Red River Basin. This provision addresses PL 84-

99 (Flood Control and Coastal Emergency Act) emergency management activities. It provides 

extended emergency assistance (beyond 30 days) to communities with non-Federal levees that are 

threatened or damaged by t1oods or storms. Specifically, it requires the Secretary to provide 

assistance for the operations and maintenance of any constructed project that becomes pem1anent 

under PL 84-99 due to the extended presence of assistance from the Secretary. 

Indian Irrigation Fond Reauthorization 

Indian Irrigation projects on Montana's seven reservations are in disrepair. When compared to 

Bureau of Reclamation projects, they appear to be in far worse shape. Most of the projects were 

built at the same time as Reclamation projects but have always been underfunded when it comes 

to operations and maintenance. Section 3807 reauthorizes the Indian Irrigation Fund through 

September 30, 2028, and continues key provisions related to the funding and expenditure from the 

Indian Irrigation Fund through fiscal year 2028. We support this important program, which 

provides resources for maintenance, repair, and replacement activities for aging Indian irrigation 

projects used by tribal and non-tribal ranchers to grow crops and raise livestock in Wyoming, 

Montana, and many other western states. 

IMPROVING WATER INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT 

With water infrastructure in the spotlight in this Congress, the Family Farm Alliance has testified 

several times before Senate and House legislative and oversight committee hearings over this 

past year. We believe any new federal water infrastructure investments or financing tools should 

be made available for improvements in water conveyance, surface water storage, aquifer storage 

and recovery, groundwater recharge, wastewater and storm water management, water reuse, 

desalination, and water use efficiency projects. 

Aging water infrastructure 

Water infrastructure legislation must also apply to the remediation of existing aging water 

infrastructure as well as to the development of new infrastructure. Water infrastructure that was 

built early in the last century is aging, and once-available federal grant and loan programs used in 

the past to rebuild this important infrastructure have been greatly diminished. Meanwhile, some 

progress, including provisions in the 2016 Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation 

(WIIN) Act, has been made at the federal level towards supporting the development of new and 

improved water supply infrastructure to keep up with the growing water demands of expanding 

cities, energy production, and environmental needs. 

Page 6 
18 


31136.008

Existing economically critical water infrastructure owned by federal agencies like the Corps of 

Engineers and Reclamation is aging and is in need of rehabilitation and improvement. In the West, 

for example, most Reclamation facilities are between 50 and 100 years old. Such aging 

infrastructure presents a further challenge because it requires ever increasing maintenance and 

replacement investment. Investing in this infrastructure on the front end will save ratepayers' 

money in the long run and allow us to preserve and protect these facilities, and the many benefits 

they provide, for future generations. 

A WIA 2018 addresses some of these concerns. Section 3302 raises the per project cost limit from 

$10 million to $40 million for rehabilitation of pre-1940 Corps constructed dams to address aging 

flood control reservoirs constructed or contributed to by the Corps. Section 3204 extends the 

authorization of appropriations for the National Dam Safety Program Act at $9.2 million for each 

of fiscal years 2020 through 2021, which promotes the development of a dam safety education and 

awareness initiative to assist the public in preparing for, mitigating for, responding to, and 

recovering from dam inc.idents. 

We are also pleased to see what appears to be a renewed appreciation for traditional water 

infrastructure in A WIA 2018. In the past decade or so, policy makers have placed increased 

emphasis on ·'non-structural" management methods and ecological concerns in analyzing a water 

resource project. Non-structural alternatives include but are not limited to modification of public 

policy, regulatory policy, and pricing policy, including utilization of ·'natural" infrastructure is 

placed on "full consideration" of nonstructural alternative actions or plans that meet planning 

objectives. Increasingly, we see that these actions are considered to be an "integral" part in the 

evaluation of federal investments in water resources. In recent years, we believe that a bias for 

selecting "natural" approaches is limiting, in practice, a full consideration of all alternatives. We 

are pleased that Section 1023 will require that the Corps consider any natural infrastructure 

alternative that is determined for a flood risk management project to be at least as suitable and 

equally as cost effective as traditional infrastructure over the life of the project. 

Clean Water State Revolving Fund Loan Program Green Project Reserve 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Clean Water State Revolving Fund Loan 

Program (CWSRF), an effective loan program that addresses critical water infrastructure needs 

while benefitting the environment, local communities, and the economy. Currently, the CWSRF 

and its Green Project Reserve (GPR) is included every year by appropriation committees. 

Congress' intent in enacting the GPR was to direct State investment practices in the water sector 

to guide funding toward projects that utilize green or soft-path practices to complement and 

augment hard or gray infrastructure. Among other goals, the GPR is intended to enhance water 

and energy conservation and promote innovative approaches to water management problems. 

Some of our members, particularly in Oregon, would like to see the CWSRF program included in 

the WRDA bill and make the 10% GPR permanent. Oregon rural communities, like many other 

Western states, continue to face high levels of unemployment. CWSRF-funded projects provide 

Page 7 
19 


31136.009

much needed construction and professional services jobs. Moreover, as a loan program, it is a wise 

investment that allows local communities to leverage their limited resources and address critical 

infrastructure needs that would otherwise be unmet. However, continually reducing the amount of 

funds available for these types of worthwhile projects has created increased uncertainty for 

potential botTowers about whether adequate funding will be available in future years. CWSRF is 

often an integral part of an overall package of state, federal and local funding that necessitates a 

stronger level of assurance that loan funds will be available for planned water infrastructure 

projects. Reductions in the CWSRF could lead to loss of grant funding and delay or derail 

beneficial projects that irrigation districts have been developing for years. 

Improved transparency and accountability in water project development 

Repairing and modernizing the West's aging water infrastructure is a challenge critical to federal 

agencies like the Corps and Reclamation, as well as to the water users served and protected by 

aging facilities. The Alliance has always believed that transparency and accountability are crucial 

to any federal/non-federal partnership for infrastructure development and investment - for both 

existing and new facilities. Section I 004 amends the current Corps cost-sharing requirements for 

feasibility studies and project construction to require that whenever a local cost share is required 

for a water resources development project, each Corps district is required to maintain a balance 

sheet of the funding for the project. If a project comes in under-budget, the relevant share of the 

funds must be credited back to the non-Federal sponsor in the appropriate cost-share ratio. Section 

I 022 requires that the Secretary carry out any disposition study for a Corps project in a 

"transparent" manner. This includes offering opportunities for public input during the study, and 

publishing and making publicly available final disposition studies. The Alliance certainly suppotis 

the transparency and reporting requirements intended with this section. 

Streamlined processes and improved management flexibility 

The Alliance has worked closely with the Administration. Congress and Members of this 

Committee. including Chai!TI1an BatTasso. to find ways to streamline regulatory hurdles in order 

to assist in developing new, environmentally-sensitive water storage projects and other necessary 

infrastructure improvements. Future economic growth is heavily impacted when proposed water 

supply storage projects are blocked. If a reliable water source cannot be secured, then private 

investment and development cannot take place. A WlA 2018 contains important provisions 

intended to accelerate the efficient development of important water infrastructure projects. 

As many of you are aware, developing new storage projects is much easier said than done. Often, 

efforts to advance new storage projects can be colossal. requiring millions of dollars and manhours of investment, even in the most optimistic scenarios. CutTently, I am involved in an ot1~ 

stream storage reservoir on the Musselshell River that would only store about 5,000 acre-feet but 

would serve the entire lower end of the river basin with water in drought periods. Even though this 

project is essential to the survival of many ranches in the lower basin, this project has languished 

for over ten years, in large part due to having to deal with bureaucratic red tape. Other options and 

Page 8 
20 


31136.010

alternatives to develop reliable water supplies are difficult to implement in the Upper Missouri 

River Basin. This might explain why a young farmer is a rare person in our neck of the woods. 

Alliance President Patrick O'Toole has also testified before several Congressional committees in 

the past decade about the permitting challenges he encountered in building the Little Snake 

Supplemental Irrigation Supply Project (High Savery Project) in Wyoming. That project was built 

in less than two years but took more than 14 years to permit. Mr. O'Toole's experience with the 

High Savery Project clearly demonstrated that cooperative efforts are important for moving 

projects through the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other permitting processes. 

On the High Savery Project, the lead federal agency wasted a great deal of time making decisions 

on the project and at times seemed unable to make decisions. These delays not only postponed the 

project, they resulted in wasted time and money. We believe that state agencies (in Mr. O'Toole's 

case, the Wyoming Water Development Commission, or WWDC) and local project sponsors 

should become cooperating agencies in the NEPA process if possible and if not, should be allowed 

to serve on the project NEPA interdisciplinary team. 

Section I 031 of A WIA creates a Board of Appeals for water storage projects undergoing 

consideration of a permit decision. The Board is made up of two representatives of state water 

development commissions and agencies with water storage needs, two representatives of the Corps 

and one representative jointly selected by the Secretary and entities. The provision requires the 

District Engineer to develop and provide to the applicant a purpose and needs statement that 

describes whether it concurs with the purpose and need statement of the applicant. The applicant 

then has the opportunity to appeal the purpose and need statement. The provision also requires 

that all permit conditions be provided to the applicant in advance of a permit decision. The 

applicant also has the opportunity to appeal the conditions prior to petmit issuance. 

We believe the effect of this provision would be to provide equal footing tor state agencies with 

all federal agencies, including contributions to and evaluation of related environmental 

documentation. Establishing working relationships with the agencies involved in the NEPA 

process and permitting is important to keep projects on schedule and to avoid costly delays and 

disagreements. It is impossible to eliminate all problems associated with permitting dam and 

reservoir projects, but good cooperation and communications between agencies and groups, with 

an understanding of each participant's expectations. will help in problem resolution. 

Another area of A WIA- Section 1019- intends to ensure that section 1002 ofWRRDA 2014 does 

not limit the Corps· available options to fund work related to feasibility scoping, project 

management planning, and review plan development. The 2014 provisions repealed requirements 

that the Corps conduct a reconnaissance study prior to initiating a feasibility study. It also created 

an accelerated process that allows non-federal project sponsors and the Corps to proceed directly 

to the feasibility study. Section 1034 of A WIA 2018 states the sense of Congress that the Secretary 

should simplify and expedite the process for including in-kind work in project partnership 

agreements to allow for more flexibility for potential changes to such work. 

Page 9 
21 


31136.011

Innovative financing- WIFIA 

Western water providers have invested millions of dollars in local and regional projects and 

strategies in recent years to improve water supply reliability. Those investments have been a major 

factor in the We sf s ability to manage through years of severe drought and flood. The Alliance 

believes that new innovative federally-backed financing tools will be needed in the coming years 

to assist in constructing new and improved water infrastructure. One such example is the 

congressionally authorized and funded Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 2014 

(WIFIA) program at the EPA and the Corps. Water infrastructure is a long-term investment, and 

longer repayment and lower interest terms will be crucial to attracting investment in these water 

supply facilities. Such financing tools, which are currently not available in the financial markets, 

could help fund investments in constructing new water storage reservoirs (both on- and off-stream 

as well as groundwater storage), regulating reservoirs, canal lining and piping open channels, 

computerized water management and delivery systems, real-time monitoring of ecosystem 

functions and river flows to manage limited water supplies to benefit both fish and people, and 

watershed-based integrated regional water management project planning and implementation. 

The WIFIA program was recently updated by the 114111 Congress in the passage of the WIIN Act 

and WIFIA loans were funded for the first time in the FY 2017 omnibus appropriations bill. 

Section 4002 of AWIA 2018 extends the authorization ofWIFIA at $50 million for fiscal years 

2020 through 2021, for a total of $100 million. It further extends the authority of the EPA 

Administrator or the Secretary of the Army to use not more than $2.2 million of the appropriated 

amounts for administrative costs. Additionally, Section 1028 of A WIA 2018 requires the 

Secretary to conduct a study on WIFIA implementation impediments for Corps projects. The 

study should investigate the obstacles that need to be removed so that the Secretary can implement 

WIFIA and identify all projects that the Secretary deterrnines are potentially viable to receive 

assistance thereunder. We support these provisions, and we would ask that Congress consider a 

"W!FIA-like" alternative, or access to W!FIA loans for non-federal water supply and management 

projects that support Reclamation's mission and projects. 

FAMILY FARM ALLIANCE ISSUES OF CONCERN 

The Alliance has been engaged in several of the programs and issues addressed in AWJA 2018. 

The following section summarizes the Alliance's position and involvement with the National 

Levee Safety Program, adjustment of flood control rule curves, control of invasive species, and 

evaluation of federal agency capabilities and capacity. 

Reauthorization of National Levee Safety Program 

Section 3205 extends the National Levee Safety Program's authorization of appropriations for 

fiscal years 2020 through 2021. Since late 20 I 0. Western water managers have become aware oC 

and have become increasingly concerned with actions undertaken by the National Committee on 

Page 10 
22 


31136.012

Levee Safety (NCLS). This group, authorized in WRDA 2007, includes the Corps and FEMA as 

the only federal agencies represented on the NCLS. The NCLS was established to deal with postKatrina flood risk issues, with an emphasis on Corps levees. However, the NCLS developed a plan 

that essentially could apply Corps-developed national engineering specifications and standards to 

levees and canal embankments throughout the country, with little to no initial coordination with 

Reclamation and Western water managers. 

Currently, it does not appear that Reclamation's canals and water supply infrastructure are subject 

to the Corps' inventory and inspection program, since these facilities remain subject to 

Reclamation's own inspection regime. However, it is still not clear how non-federal canals that 

carry water for water delivery and power purposes would fall under the levee safety program. 

Congress should ensure that National Levee Safety Program implementation does not duplicate 

existing levee and canal embankment standards adhered to by water and power users through 

Reclamation's jurisdiction and the Western states. 

Flood control rnle curve adjustments 

In developing water supply projects for the future, the Alliance believes that we must also consider 

how we manage and optimize the operations of existing water infrastructure, including optimizing 

flood control rule curves at existing federal and non/federal dams and reservoirs to meet both 

t1ood control and water supply demands. We believe these opportunities could produce some of 

the most cost-etlective water supply sources we can invest in today. 

Earlier this year, we supported provisions in Senator Flake's S. 2563 "Water Supply 

Infrastructure and Drought Resilience Act of 20 18" that would establish a pilot project to adjust 

flood control rule curves for Reclamation dams that meet the criteria of eligible projects and allow 

for certain non-federal entities to fund adjustments to these operational documents. Some of our 

members report that reviewing and adjusting Corps flood control curves can be a steep challenge. 

Water users who have been working with the Corps in some cases have found it a difficult process, 

with the Corps very cautious about making such changes. We fully support the intent of Section 

3202 of WRDA, which authorizes the Secretary to accept non-federal funds from the owners of 

non-federal dams for the review and revision of water operations manuals and flood control curves 

where the Corps regulates the non-Federal facilities for flood control. It remains to be seen how 

these provisions will help in getting the Corps to be more open to modifications of flood curves 

to enhance water storage at af1ected facilities while continuing to protect downstream 

communities from flooding. 

Invasive species 

The Alliance for nearly a decade has supported administrative and legislative actions and funding 

for biological controls, mitigation management, and elimination of invasive species, including but 

not limited to quagga mussels and striped bass. A key priority in recent years has been to fund 

activities to fight the spread of quagga mussels in Western water bodies. We support the intent 

Page 11 
23 


31136.013

of Section l 024, which increases to $30 million the Corps' authorization for watercraft inspection 

stations intended to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species in the Columbia River Basin. It 

also provides $30 million in authorized appropriations for inspection stations in the Upper 

Missouri River Basin. 

Evaluation of Corps of Engineers capabilities and capacity 

Section l 002 of the new WRDA bill requires the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to conduct 

studies to examine how the Corps can increase transparency in cooperating and working with 

Congress, State and local units of government, and local stakeholders, as well as other cost-share 

partners, government agencies, and stakeholders. This section also calls for studies to be 

conducted to determine whether the Congress should use a system-wide authorization process for 

water resources development projects (as opposed to project-based process), and whether the 

present structure and organization of the Corps is the most effective for its continued operation or 

whether the Corps structure and organization should be modified. Section l 017 proposes to study 

and evaluate the measures necessary to increase the capabilities of the Corps to undertake the 

planning and construction of water resources projects on an expedited basis and to comply with 

all requirements of law applicable to the Corps' water resources program. 

We support this philosophy. The Alliance in 2005 asked its members to comment on the 

perforn1ance of Reclamation, with an eye towards developing specific recommendations for a 

similar study undertaken by the National Research Council (NRC) of the NAS to advise 

Reclamation on the organizationaL management, and resource configurations to provide 

Reclamation with the capability to fulfill its core mission. The final NRC report, along with efforts 

driven by the Alliance and other national water and power organizations, led to Reclamation's 

Managing for Excellence (M4E) initiative, Reclamation embarked on a months-long analysis of 

the agency's operations and policies, thoroughly examining core capabilities in several key areas 

and their ability to respond in an innovative and timely manner to future needs. The Managing 

for Excellence Action Plan, published in February 2006, outlined a process and timefrarne for 

identifying and addressing the specific 21st Century challenges to fulfill Reclamation's mission. 

The Plan's findings are still relevant today. We would hope that similar, useful guidance could 

ultimately be generated by Sections 1002 and l 007 of the 2018 WRDA bill. 

MISCELLANEOUS ISSUES 

Report on debris removal 

The Secretary of the Army in 1945 was authorized to remove accumulated snags, obstructions, 

and other debris located in or adjacent to Federal channels, when in the opinion of the Chief of 

Engineers such work is advisable in the interest of navigation, flood control, or recreation. Section 

3!21 requires that Secretary report to Congress to what extent the Corps has used its authority to 

Page 12 
24 


31136.014

remove debris from federal channels and adjacent waters. In recent decades, Western water and 

flood control managers have faced increased challenges associated with removing debris that can 

impact flood control capacity of channels and interfere with water diversion intakes. The repott 

proposed in Section 3121 will describe how the Secretary has evaluated potential debris removal 

projects and detail recommendations for a pilot program to implement the limits of this authority. 

We support these provisions. 

Regional sediment management 

Section 3403 addresses sediment obtained through the construction, operation, or maintenance of 

an authorized Federal water resources project or a Reclamation project, including Federal 

reservoirs authorized for flood control. It requires that the Corps and Reclamation develop in 

consultation with one another regional sediment management plans at full federal expense (subject 

to the availability of appropriations). Additionally, the Secretary and the Commissioner must carry 

out projects at locations for the sediment's use in the construction, repair, modification, or 

rehabilitation of projects associated with Federal water resources projects and Reclamation 

projects. This section appears to be well-intended, and we hope that local water users and t1ood 

control managers will be included in the development of these proposed plans, since it is likely 

all or part of the cost of implementing these plans will rest on these non-federal water users and 

flood managers. 

Importance of port and waterway navigation projects to Western agriculture 

Western producers rely on the movement of goods through West Coast potts and major waterways. 

Projects like port deepening are critical f(Jr agriculture so that Pacific coast ports can remain 

competitive by accommodating today' s larger ships. It is critically important to include funding 

to maintain the federal waterways leading to these ports. This funding helps ensure that navigation 

channels are dredged and jetties are maintained, allowing safe and efficient movement of goods in 

and out of the West coast's deep draft harbors. For example, Army Corps navigation projects on 

the Columbia River are important for agriculture. since inputs like fertilizer and fuel will travel 

upriver and grains and crops grown by producers go do~11 river. Reliable and well-funded 

maintenance and repairs of lock systems are also important to agriculture in the Columbia River 

Basin. 

It is water and the movement of goods that tie parts of our great region together. WRDA is 

legislation where these funding and policy challenges can be addressed 

CONCLUSION 

Extreme hydrologic events marked by drought on one end, and floods on the other- will require 

everyone in the West to adopt a new paradigm, one that truly promotes wise management of this 

limited and valuable resource. This new paradigm will also mean additional investment in 

technology, conservation and new water storage and management infrastructure in order to deal 

Page 13 
25 


31136.015

with the uncertainties that lay before us. We believe the America's Water Infrastructure Act of 

20!8 prepared by your Committee shows a strong commitment to existing and future water 

infrastructure, recognizes the unique challenges faced by rural communities, and takes strong 

strides to address those challenges. 

The public infrastructure challenges our Nation is currently facing are daunting, and they will 

require innovative solutions. The infrastructure investments made by prior generations have 

benefited this country for over a hundred of years. Now it is this generation's responsibility to 

invest in our water infrastructure for future generations. 

Thank you again for the opportunity to testify on this important legislation. The Family Farm 

Alliance and our members stand ready to assist you in your efforts and I will answer any questions 

you may have. 

Page 14 
26 


31136.017

r4.ttiANCE SM 

Protecting Water for Western Irrigated Agriculture 

P.O. Box216 

Klamath Falls, Oregon 97601 

June 7, 2018 

The Honorable John Barrasso, M.D., Chairman 

The Honorable Thomas Carper, Ranking Member 

United States Senate 

Committee on the Environment and Public Works 

410 Dirksen Senate Office Building 

Washington. D.C. 20510. 

Re: Questions for the Record 

Dear Chairman Barrasso and Ranking Member Carper: 

On behalfofthe Family Farm Alliance, I thank you for the opportunity to testify before your 

May 9, 2018 Committee legislative hearing on S.2800, ''America's Water Infrastructure Act of 

20 18''. It was an honor to represent the family farmers and ranchers our organization represents 

in the 17 Western states. 

Following the hearing, Chairman Barrasso submitted the following question for the record: 

Mr. Riley, this legislation would reawhorize the Indian Irrigationfimd through the end offiscal 

year 2028. This important program provides resourcesfiJr maintenance, repair, and replacement 

activities for aging Indian irrigation projects used by tribal and non-tribal ranchers to grow 

crops and raise livestock in Wvoming, !Montana, and many other western stales. Can you 

elaborate as to why it is so important to the livelihoodv of' ranchers who use these irrigation 

svstems to repair these svstems? 

This is a very good question. Indian Irrigation Projects on Montana's seven reservations are in 

disrepair, especially when compared to Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) projects. Most of 

the projects were built at the same time as Reclamation projects, but operations and maintenance 

activities tor the Indian Projects have generally heen underfunded. Often times, much of the land 

owned within and under Indian projects is held in fee by non-Indian interests. while the project is 

operated by the Bureau oflndian Affairs (BIA). 
27 


31136.018

Over the course of my 35-year career, I would rate over half of the B !A Irrigation projects I have 

reviewed as barely operational. I would rate perhaps another 15% as only able to operate at highor flood-water conditions, which considerably reduces the value and return on these projects. As 

grave as the infrastructure condition is on some of the I 00-year old Reclamation projects. I 

believe BIA projects are far worse, with some exceptions. 

These irrigation projects are closely tied economically to the reservations and local communities. 

When they can only function at a very limited level, the ability to produce high input and value 

crops- such as sugar beets, dairy quality alfalfa hay, corn, and malt barley- is significantly 

impaired. Repairing and maintaining these projects to increase agricultural production imparts 

benefits that go well beyond the reservation boundaries and generates regional economic benefits 

for both tribal and non-tribal residents. 

Because of these issues, some tribal lands within these projects return no money and others can 

only produce minimal crops such as grass hay because of operational and drainage issues. 

Reauthorizing the Indian Irrigation fund through the end of FY 2028 would ce1tainly provide 

much needed resources for maintenance, repair and replacement activities used by tribal and 

non-tribal ranchers alike. These activities in turn will contribute to improved returns and feed 

production for the ranchers served by Indian Irrigation projects. 

Thank you again for this opportunity to work with your Committee. 

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. 

Sincerely, 

Pat Riley 

Roundup. Montana 

2 
28 

Senator BARRASSO. Thank you very much, Mr. Riley. 

Mr. Sternberg. 

STATEMENT OF DENNIS STERNBERG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 

ARKANSAS RURAL WATER ASSOCIATION 

Mr. STERNBERG. Thank you. 

Good morning, Chairman Barrasso, Senator Boozman, and members of the Committee. It is an honor to be here, and we are grateful that you have included the voice of rural America in this hearing. 

Thank you, Senator Boozman, for consistently listening to and 

helping rural Arkansas, including holding the first hearing on Senator Wicker and Senator Heitkamp’s technical assistance bill, 

which is contained in today’s legislation. And thank you, as well, 

for sponsoring the SRF WIN with Senator Booker. 

Rural and small town USA depends on this Committee to ensure 

that the interests of rural communities are contained in Federal 

legislation. The Great Compromise of 1787 that allows for proportional representation of States, including very rural States, in Federal policy is alive and well in this Committee and in your legislation. Thank you for that, Senators Barrasso, Carper, Inhofe, and 

Cardin. Rural America is very appreciative for the very helpful and 

beneficial provisions in your water legislation, America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018, and we urge its passage and enactment. 

My name is Dennis Sternberg, and I am the Executive Director 

of Arkansas Rural Water Association, a non-profit association of 

small and rural community water and wastewater utilities in Arkansas. But I also am here representing the National Rural Water 

Association, which has over 31,000 member community utilities. 

We are very appreciative that your legislation includes numerous 

drinking water and clean water provisions that make the America’s 

Water Infrastructure Act a comprehensive water legislative package. I would like to focus my comments on the important and beneficial provisions under Title 5. 

Section 5004, Technical Assistance. Approximately 80 percent of 

the country’s 14,500 wastewater utilities serve populations fewer 

than 10,000. As you know, small and rural communities have a 

much more challenging time complying with Federal Clean Water 

Act permits and operating complex wastewater systems due to the 

lack of technical resources in small communities. This legislation 

provides a solution to the lack of technical resources in small communities by providing technical experts, as we call them, Circuit 

Riders, in each State to be shared by small and rural communities. 

For these Circuit Riders to be effective and helpful, they must be 

able to directly travel to any given community to work specifically 

to solve any of the specific problems. 

Section 5010, the Water Workforce Investment. We welcome this 

new Federal attention and emphasized mission for water work 

force development. Like me, when I first started working, not every 

young person entering the work force necessarily has the option to 

go to college. A college degree is of value, but it is not required. A 

true apprenticeship model would be a welcome enterprise for the 

water worker universe. In any given day, water workers may be 

operating heavy equipment to repair broken lines, working with 

29 

toxic chemicals, welding, conducting tests, operating process controls, complying with Federal rules, managing construction, and 

the list goes on. 

Section 5011, Sense of Congress Relating to the State Revolving 

Funds. Thank you for supporting the funding for the SRFs. They 

are essential in funding water infrastructure and projects to comply with the Federal rules, especially the small and rural communities in our State and the country that have more difficulty affording service due to lack of population density. 

Section 5012, the GAO Study on WIFIA Projects. We hope the 

GAO will review the WIFIA program considering it does not require any economic needs based targeting, credit elsewhere means 

testing, or focus on compliance. Small and rural communities support Senator Boozman and Senator Booker’s SRF WIN Act, which 

improves WIFIA by authorizing an opportunity for States to direct 

some portion of the WIFIA funding to be used by each State’s 

SRFs. 

Section 5006, Water Infrastructure Flexibility. We support the 

legislation for improving the current affordability analysis used by 

EPA to make compliance reasonable on ratepayers, especially in 

economically disadvantaged populations. Under the Safe Drinking 

Water Act, EPA adopted a policy that families can afford annual 

water rates of 2.5 percent of the median household income, which 

adversely impacts rural communities that have higher percentages 

of people living in poverty and the lower MHI. 

This Committee is very important to rural and small town America, and we are grateful for the opportunity to testify today for the 

attention and consideration you have provided in crafting this most 

recent legislation. 

Thank you very much. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Sternberg follows:] 

30 


31136.016

Dennis Sternberg, CEO 

Arkansas Rural Water Association 

Lonoke, Arkansas 

Dennis Sternberg is CEO of Arkansas Rural Water 

Association (ARWA) and is starting his 4Q1

h year in the 

water and wastewater business. Dennis started in 

January 1979 attending the Neosho Missouri Water & 

Wastewater Technical School and graduated with 

"Highest Honors" Dennis then was hired by the City of 

Bull Shoals, AR. and for the first 9 years was employed 

by the City of Bull Shoals. He then accepted a position 

with National Rural Water Association for 15 months. 

Arkansas Rural Water Association offered him a position in March of 1989 and 

Dennis worked as a Field Representative until March of 1993 when Dennis 

became CEO of ARWA, where he continues to serve in that position today. 

In 2006 Dennis received the Executive Director of the Year Award from National 

Rural Association and in 2009 the United States Department of Agriculture and 

National Rural Water Association recognized Dennis for his "Leadership In 

Emergency Response Preparation". 

Dennis holds the highest water and wastewater licenses in Arkansas, a Class IV 

Water Distribution and Class IV Water Treatment and Class IV Wastewater 

License. 

Dennis is married to Mary Grady Sternberg and they live in Greenbrier, AR. and 

have three children, Amber Grady Jones, Stephen Grady and Denise Sternberg 

French and two precious grandchildren Scout French and Grady French. 

For more information on ARWA go 
31 


31136.019

TESTIMONY OF 

DENNIS 

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE 

ARKANSAS RURAL WATER ASSOCIATION 

ON BEHALF OF THE 

NATIONAL RURAL WATER ASSOCIATION 

BEFORE THE 

UNITED STATES 

MAY9, 2018 

S. _, America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 

Good afternoon, Chairman Barrasso, Senator Boozman and Members of the Committee. It is 

an honor to be here and we are grateful that you have included a voice for rural America at this hearing. 

Thank you, Senator Boozman for consistently listening to and helping rural Arkansas including holding 

the first hearing on Senators Wicker and Heitkamp's technical assistance bill which is contained in 

today's legislation and thank you as well for sponsoring the "Securing Required Funding for Water 

Infrastructure Now Act" with Senator Booker. 

Rural and small town USA depends on this committee to ensure that the interests of rural 

communities are contained in federal legislation. The "Great Compromise" of 1787 that allows for 

proportional representation of states, including very rural states, in federal policy is alive and well in this 

committee and in your legislation. Thank you for that, Senator Barrasso; this has been very apparent 

since your first legislative hearing in February of 2017 that featured the interests of rural communities in 

federal infrastructure policy. Rural America is very appreciative for the very helpful and beneficial 

provisions in your water legislation, "American's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018," and we urge its 

passage and enactment. 

My name is Dennis Sternberg, and I am the Executive Director of the Arkansas Rural Water 

Association a non-profit association of 563 small and rural community water utilities in Arkansas. I 

am also representing the National Rural Water Association which has over 31,000 community 

members. Our mission is to enhance drinking water and wastewater service, safety, compliance and 

quality in small and rural communities. 

My main message to the committee today is that the small and rural communities in all states 

support your water legislation, "American's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018." We appreciate the 

balance crafted into the legislation that has allowed for the broad bipartisan and stakeholder support 

that is necessary for passage in Congress. We applaud the committee for striking the delicate balance 

and compromise in crafting such a comprehensive legislative water package- a great accomplishment. 

We urge the committee and the Senate to pass it as soon as possible to help small communities with 

the operation of their wastewater utilities and compliance with all the federal regulations under the 

Clean Water Act. 
32 


31136.020

We are very appreciative that your legislation includes numerous substantive and necessary 

Title 5 drinking water and clean water provisions beyond the traditional Corps of Engineers provisions 

that make the "American's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018" a comprehensive water legislative 

package. I would like focus my comments on the important and beneficial water provisions under Title 

5. 

Section 5004. Technical Assistance for Treatment Works 

We are very appreciative of Senator Wicker and Heitkamp's sponsorship of S. 518, "The Small 

and Rural Community Clean Water Technical Assistance Act" and support its inclusion in the 

"American's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018," 

Most all of our country's sewer systems or wastewater utilities are small. Approximately 80 

percent of the county's approximately 14,500 wastewater utilities serve a population of fewer than 

i 0,000 persons. In Arkansas, for example, approximately 340 of the 370 community wastewater 

utilities serve small communities (i.e. less than 3 million gallons per day of flow). In Illinois, it is 

approximately 700 of 800; in Maryland, it is 130 of 170; and in Mississippi, it is approximately 270 of 

300. 

Small and rural communities have more difficulty affording public wastewater service due to lack 

of population density and lack of economies of scale. This challenge is compounded by the fact that 

rural communities have lower average median household incomes and often have higher rates of 

poverty. Likewise, we have a much more challenging time complying with our federal Clean Water Act 

permits and operating complex wastewater treatment systems due to the lack of technical resources in 

small communities. While we have fewer resources, we are regulated in the exact same manner as a 

large community- and often operating similarly complex treatment systems that are smaller in scale but 

no less sophisticated to operate and trouble-shoot Many small communities may only have one 

operator with multiple duties, not just wastewater treatment- while a large community may have a team 

of technical experts including engineers, chemists, and highly trained operators -all as part of their fulltime staff. S. 518 provides a solution to the lack of technical resources in small communities by 

providing technical experts, we call them Circuit Riders, in each state to be shared by all small and rural 

communities who are in need of assistance. A Circuit Rider is a person with expertise in wastewater 

treatment operation, maintenance, governance and compliance who constantly travels the state to be 

available on-site to any community in need of assistance. For these Circuit Riders to be effective and 

helpful, they must be available to travel directly to any given community to work specifically with a 

community's unique treatment and personally educate that operator, mayor, or other local official on 

how to solve their particular problem. They have to be available when the community needs the help 

which can be nights, winters, after natural disasters, weekends, etc. Also, they must be non-regulatory 

to gain the trust of the local communities. Every small community wants to provide quality wastewater 

to protect their citizens and the environment, but they need to know, often with hands-on 

demonstration, just how to operate their wastewater systems. Circuit Riders operate free of charge to 

small communities which often saves the community many thousands of dollars from having to hire 

consultants or open themselves to civil penalties under the Clean Water Act- they only work in the 

interest of the small community they are assisting. 

I started working for Arkansas Rural Water Association as a Circuit Rider. In this position, I 

traveled to every, yes every, small town with a sewer system to help them at some point. I often visited 

communities just to check in on them, develop a peer-to-peer relationship and keep educating them on 

how to best operate their utilities. 

The small town of Kensett, Arkansas provides a good recent example of technical assistance. 

Last year, the Kensett Waterworks called for help with the'1r sewer systems concerning a problem with 

their activated sludge plant. The plant had suddenly become upset, the clarifier was not settling and 
33 


31136.021

they were experiencing pass-through to the chlorine contact chamber resulting in cloudy, dirty looking 

effluent and noncompliance. A rural water Circuit Rider traveled to the community and inspected the 

plant and their records and noticed a decline in the sample results over a four month period. After 

discussing several ideas, it was found that the return sludge pump didn't appear to be working properly. 

This finding led the Circuit Rider to disassemble the pump and line to clean them. At this point, they 

found the cause of the problem - the line had been blocked by biological growth. After clearing the 

lines and pumps, the Circuit Rider recommended they feed some artificial enzymes and food 

supplements to try to jump-start the recovery of the plant. A follow-up visit after four days found that 

conditions had greatly improved. In addition to providing the technical solution to their problem, this 

assistance saved the community approximately $1,000 per day in potential fines. If enacted and 

appropriated, S. 518 would allow for thousands of similar assistance events each year; every Circuit 

Rider can visit over 20 communities in a month. 

The Small and Rural Community Clean Water Technical Assistance Act would authorize two 

new technical assistance provisions under CWA that are similar to provisions currently authorized 

under the Safe Drinking Water Act. First, S. 518 would establish a federal Clean Water Act (CWA) 

technical assistance program, administered by the EPA, to assist small public wastewater treatment 

systems (those serving not more than 10,000 people) in complying with CWA regulations. The bill 

would authorize $15 million a year over five years for technical assistance. Second, the bill would 

authorize states administering Clean Water SRFs to use up to two percent of their state grant to fund 

technical assistance initiatives to small wastewater treatment works in their respective states. A similar 

program currently is authorized and operating within the states' Safe Drinking Water SRF. 

Section 5008. Study on Intractable Water Systems 

Small communities remain very interested in discussing policies to encourage compliance; we 

believe there are many unutilized initiatives to expeditiously improve compliance that would be 

supported by small and rural local governments. We understand that EPA has set a target to halve the 

rate of noncompliance in 3 years. Most small community noncompliance with the Safe Drinking Water 

Act and Clean Water Act can be quickly remedied by on-site technical assistance and education. The 

current federal regulatory structure is often misapplied to small and rural communities because every 

community wants to provide safe water and meet all drinking water standards. Much of the 

noncompliance with EPA water rules (including those for what EPA calls "health" violations) is not 

necessarily a public health risk. In addition to a greater emphasis on technical assistance, 

strengthening the state revolving fund targeting to communities in noncompliance would provide 

additional funding for compliance solutions including partnerships if locally decided. Additional 

technical assistance and state revolving fund targeting are the most effective ways to achieve 

reductions in noncompliance. If a community is out of compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act, 

civil enforcement can drive a community to a compliance solution. However, they should be able to 

choose their preferred compliance solution whether it be new treatment, regionalization, technical 

assistance, exemptions, variances, governmental changes, etc. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, 

state regulators (or states) have broad discretion in applying civil penalties, binding administrative 

orders, or even condemnation for noncompliance and are able to use that discretion to incentivize 

compliance solutions including very detailed administrative compliance orders. States have very 

helpful guidance on the use of their enforcement authorities to influence compliance. Any new Safe 

Drinking Water Act (SDWA) federal authorities that could assist, result in, or give preference to the 

ability of a for-profit water corporation to assume the water infrastructure of a local government over 

local objections would be very controversial and not in the best interests of the local citizens. Please 

consider a general SDWA provision prohibiting this outcome. 

Section 5010. Water Infrastructure and Workforce Investment 
34 


31136.022

We welcome this new federal attention and emphasized mission for water workforce 

development. It takes more than 380,000 highly skilled water and wastewater personnel to ensure the 

public supply of safe drinking water and to protect our lakes, streams and groundwater. Advancements 

in water treatment and supply technology have increased the skills and training required of this 

workforce. Water professionals are ultimately responsible for meeting stringent regulatory standards, 

replacing aging infrastructure, recruiting and training new operations specialists, and responding to and 

recovering from disasters. 

In addition to increasing professional demands, utilities will soon be forced to replace many of 

their most experienced employees. Over the next decade, the water sector is expected to lose 

between 30 and 50 percent of the workforce to retirement. Many of these employees have worked at 

the same utility for the majority of their careers, and they will depart with decades of valuable 

institutional knowledge. 

NRWA and state rural water associations currently provide training on operator certification, 

financial sustainability, environmental compliance, utility management and governance to 80,000 water 

professionals annually in all 50 states. In July, 2017, NRWA announced the certification of our 

"National Guideline Standards of Apprenticeship" with the U.S. Department of Labor. This standard will 

ensure a well-trained and capable water sector workforce to meet the increasing demands of the water 

industry. Our apprenticeship program is tailored to water system operations specialists and wastewater 

system operations specialists. Additional apprenticeships programs are in the works for water utility 

system customer service personnel and technical assistance specialists. 

Section 5011. Sense of Congress Relating to State Revolving Funds 

When thinking about national water infrastructure proposals, please remember that most water 

utilities are small and have more difficulty affording public water service due to lack of population 

density and corresponding lack of economies of scale. While small communities have fewer resources, 

we are regulated in the exact same manner as a large community; we outnumber large communities by 

a magnitude of 10-fold, and federal compliance and water service is often a much higher cost per 

household. Small community water infrastructure projects are more difficult to fund because they are 

smaller in scale- meaning numerous, very complicated applications have to be completed and 

approved compared to one large project. This is compounded by the reality that small communities 

lack the administrative expertise to complete the necessary application process. Because water 

infrastructure is often less affordable (i.e. a much greater cost per household) in rural America, a water 

infrastructure project poses a greater financial risk compared to a metropolitan project and, very 

importantly, requires some portion of a grant, not just a loan, to make the project feasible. The higher 

the percentage of grants required to make a project work results in less money repaid to the 

infrastructure funding agency and a correlating diminution of the corpus fund. The state revolving loan 

funds (SRFs) address these principled federal policy objectives by requiring that federal subsidies be 

targeted to the communities most in need based on their economic challenges combined with the public 

health necessity of the project. Also, the SRFs for additional subsidization include forgiveness of 

principal that can be used in disadvantaged communities. Commonly, low income or disadvantaged 

communities do not have the ability to pay back a loan, even with very low interest rates, and require 

some portion of grant or principal forgiveness funding to make a project affordable to the ratepayers. 

There is a current misconception among some stakeholders that the SRFs have a limitation on 

size or scope of a water project and don't leverage federal dollars. States can currently leverage a 

smaller amount of water funding to create a much larger available loan portfolio. Similarly, states can 

use their federal SRF grants to leverage larger loan portfolios. According to the EPA, State SRF 

programs can increase funds through different types of leveraging such as: 

Using fund assets as collateral to issue tax-exempt revenue bonds; 
35 


31136.023

Using funds from one SRF program to secure the other SRF program against default 

through cross-collateralization; 

Using funds from one SRF program to help cure a default in the other SRF program through 

a short-term cross-investment; and 

Increasing disbursements to incrementally fund multiple projects within a capital 

improvement plan. 

A 2015 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the state revolving funds found: "EPA 

tracks the amount of additional loans that are made because of leveraged bonds. States' Clean Water 

SRF programs have issued approximately $31.8 billion in loans with leveraged bonds, and states' 

Drinking Water SRF programs have made approximately $5.3 billion in additional loans with leveraged 

bonds ... " [Source: State Revolving Funds, August 2015 GAO- 15-567] 

Regarding the misconception some stakeholders are advancing that the SRFs have a limitation 

on size or scope of a water project, there is no size or scope limitation for water projects under the state 

revolving funds. According to EPA, most SRF funding is allocated to large communities: 

• Approximately 72 percent of clean water SRF funding is awarded to large communities 

(Clean Water State Revolving Fund Annual Review). 

• Approximately 71 percent of drinking water SRF funding is awarded to large communities 

(Drinking Water State Revolving Fund National Information Management System). 

A simple review of projects funded by the SRFs show numerous projects that cost over 50 

million dollars. It appears that the SRFs are used in every large water project in the country. This 

assertion should be verified by the EPA. The state of New York lists multiple projects funded by the 

drinking water SRF that cost over one billion dollars 

Section 5012. GAO Study on WIFIA Projects in Small communities, Rural Communities, 

Disadvantaged Communities, and Tribal Communities 

One of our concerns with the new Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) is 

that it lacks any needs-based targeting, credit elsewhere means-testing, or focuses on improving public 

health or compliance. In fact, WIFIA subsidies are limited to communities that have good credit (33 

USC§ 3907), thus precluding WIFIA subsidies from addressing the country's most needy water 

problems including Flint, Border Colonias, and other more rural low-income communities with 

contaminated drinking water. Small and rural communities support Senators Boozman and Booker's 

"Securing Required Funding (SRF) for Water Infrastructure Now (WIN) Act" which improves the Water 

Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) that was authorized by the Water Resources Reform 

and Development Act of 2014. As currently authorized, WIFIA allows federal water infrastructure 

funding to circumvent states' determined prioritization (that is determined annually by states in their 

intended use plans) by allowing the U.S. EPA to direct funding to water projects without regard to 

states' priorities. The legislation improves the status quo by authorizing an opportunity for states to 

direct some portion of WIFIA funding to be used by each of the stales for their predetermined priority 

projects based on need, merit, and state interests. 

In general, states should be provided a right of first refusal to direct the proportional amount of 

any WIFIA funding to their state SRF. We believe your Governor would also agree with our 

suggestions. 

Section 5006. Water Infrastructure Flexibility 
36 


31136.024

Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the EPA must make a finding that their rules are 

"affordable" [(42 U.S.C. 300g-1 (b)(15)(A)]. To determine affordability, EPA adopted a policy that 

families can afford annual water rates of 2.5% of median household income (MHI). The use of MHI 

computed as a national aggregate as the sole metric for determining affordability has many problems 

and should be revised to be reasonable for small communities and allow access to affordable 

compliance treatment options. 

The Congressional Research Service (Tiemann- October, 2007) published a report on the Safe 

Drinking Water Act for Congress, including a section on variances and affordability for small 

communities containing the following: 

"Prompted by intense debate over the revised arsenic standard and its potential cost to small 

communities, the [Congressional] conference report for EPA's FY2002 appropriations (H.Rept. 

1 07-272) directed EPA to review its afford ability criteria and how smal! system variance 

programs should be implemented for the arsenic rule. EPA began the review and sought the 

advice of the EPA's National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC) and Science Advisory 

Board (SAB). After considering recommendations from its affordability work group, the 

NDWAC reported to EPA in 2003. The council acknowledged the statutory basis for small 

system variances and recommended changes, but cautioned that "significant practical, 

logistical, and ethical issues mitigate against the use of variances." The National Rural Water 

Association, a member of the NDWAC work group, dissented and issued a separate report 

urging EPA to adopt a safe and affordable variance approach that would make variances 

available to small communities, as authorized by Congress." 

It appears EPA agrees that their affordability policy is not appropriate for small communities. After 

reviewing the competing recommendations cited in the CRS report, EPA concluded the following in 

March, 2006: "Some stakeholders have argued that the current criteria are too stringent and fail to 

recognize situations in which a significant minority of systems within a size category may find a 

regulation unaffordable. After seven years of experience with the current criteria, EPA agrees it is time 

to consider refinements to address the situations of communities with below average incomes or above 

average drinking water and treatment costs (FR p.1 0671 March, 2007)." EPA has not finalized a new 

policy after making this declaration in 2006. 

Problems with the Current EPA Policy 

EPA has stated that the purpose of their affordability determination is to "look across all the 

households in a given size category of systems and determine what is affordable to the typical, 

or middle of the road household" [Federal Register (Jan. 22, 2001) 6975-7066]. EPA's MHI 

standard does not consider the quantity, concentration, rural demographics, and financial 

abilities of low-income families or disadvantaged populations to afford the rule as required by 

the Agency's Environmental Justice Policy [Executive Order 12898]. 

EPA's current policy does not consider the important differences between median-income 

households and low-income households that are unable to finance and pay costs of this 

magnitude. MHI masks the financial hardship that low-income communities and low-income 

households have in meeting many of the existing regulations. The purpose of a national 

affordability determination should be to identify the likelihood that small water systems will be 

able to afford to comply with a regulation without creating a serious risk of adverse health 

consequences. The fact that a certain level of expenditure is affordable to the median income 

household in a community tells us very little about the ability of the low-income households in 

the community to afford the same level of expenditure. EPA concluded that it does not accept 

the contention that "an increase in water bills would force a low-income household to trade off 

health care or some other 'essential' expenditure to pay the water bill [Federal Register (Jan. 

22, 2001) 6975-7066]." 
37 


31136.025

There is a weak correlation between MHI and the level of poverty in a community; at the median 

income, the level of poverty can have a wide range (i.e. zero to more than 20 percent in U.S. 

counties). Communities with the same median income can have poverty rates and the 

presence of low-income households that vary drastically from one another. 

In 1996, with the passage of the Safe Drinking Water Act, small town America welcomed a new 

law with provisions to assist small communities as described by Senator Baucus on the Senate 

Floor, "The bill provides special help to small systems that cannot afford to comply with the 

drinking water regulations and can benefit from technologies geared specifically to the needs of 

small systems. Here is how it would work. Any system serving 10,000 people or fewer may 

request a variance to install special small system technology identified by EPA. What this 

means is that if a small system cannot afford to comply with current regulations through 

conventional treatment, the system can comply with the act by installing affordable small system 

technology." To date, EPA has determined all regulations are affordable for small communities 

and therefore has not allowed any use of small system variance technologies. 

EPA's policy of assuming all families and communities can afford the same rate increases 

appears to adversely impact rural communities that have higher percentages of people living in 

poverty. We believe that EPA's affordability determinations need to be modified to adequately reflect 

the ability of low-income families and communities to afford the rule without harming their communities. 

This committee is very important to rural and small town America; every federal dollar that has 

been granted to the many thousands of small towns to build, expand, and maintain their drinking water 

and wastewater infrastructure through the state revolving funds was authorized by this committee. 

Also, every federal regulation under the Safe Drinking Water and the Clean Water Act was likewise 

authorized by this committee. We are grateful for the opportunity to testify today and grateful for the 

numerous opportunities this committee has provided rural America to be included in the crafting of 

federal water and environmental legislation and policy. 
38 


31136.026

Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works 

Hearing entitled, "Legislative Hearing on S.2800, America's Water Infrastructure Act of 

2018" 

May 9, 2018 

Questions for the Record for Mr. Sternberg 

Chairman Barrasso: 

I. Mr. Sternberg, this bill provides for technical assistance for treatment works in small and 

rural communities. Specifically, it authorizes EPA to provide technical assistance grants 

to small and medium wastewater systems so they can comply with the Clean Water Act. 

Can you provide details as to why the technical assistance is so important to small and 

rural communities? Can you also explain why specifically on site technical assistance is 

so important to these communities? 

(June 28, 2018) 

Most U.S. water utilities are small; over 91 percent of the country's 50,259 drinking water 

systems serve communities with fewer than 10,000 persons. These communities, many of 

which are small and rural communities, often have difficulty providing safe and affordable 

drinking and water and sanitation due to limited economies of scale and lack of technical 

expertise. This challenge is compounded by the fact that rural communities have lower average 

median household incomes and often have higher rates of poverty. Likewise, these 

communities have a much more challenging time complying with federal Clean Water Act 

permits and operating complex wastewater treatment systems due to the lack of technical 

resources. While small and rural communities have fewer resources, we are regulated in the 

exact same manner as a large community - and often operate similarly complex treatment 

systems that are smaller in scale but no less sophisticated to operate and trouble-shoot. Many 

small communities may only have one operator with multiple duties, not just wastewater 

treatment- while a large community may have a team of technical experts including engineers, 

chemists, and highly trained operators- all as part of their full-time staff. On-site, circuit ridertype technical assistance provides a solution to the lack of technical resources in small 

communities by providing technical experts to be shared by all small and rural communities in 

need of assistance. 

In fact, the type of assistance most helpful to small communities is this "on-site" and infield technical service provided by circuit rider-type technicians that is shared within a state. 

If Congress authorizes additional technical assistance for medium-sized water systems, 

we would be eager to expand our circuit rider-type technical assistance to medium-sized water 

utilities. We respect the findings of the Congressional authorizing committees as the need for 

federal technical assistance to medium-sized water utilities increases. 

The circuit rider concept was designed by Congress in 1976 in response to the passage of the 

Safe Drinking Water Act in 197 4 to allow small communities access to technical expertise that is 

available to larger communities and to allow the new law to be implemented effectively in the 

over 54,000 small and rural water systems throughout the country (at that time). 

Page 1 of3 
39 


31136.027

Each community's water infrastructure is unique, which means technical assistance 

must be available to address a community's particular problem. These small public water 

systems and the communities they serve rely on on-site technical assistance for meeting federal 

training regulations, complying with EPA regulations, navigating EPA fines, and operating their 

drinking water utilities. Of the billions of dollars provided to EPA by Congress each year, smaller 

communities who lack access or resources to obtain this kind of technical expertise will tell you 

the most benefit comes from the dollars provided to on-site technical assistance provided by 

circuit riders. In addition, the value of this funding is amplified as these staff members often 

educate and train others to maintain these water systems. 

All communities want to ensure quality water and stay in compliance, and this is more 

easily achieved with the necessary technical resources that this funding would provide 

communities with small public water systems. Some communities have just one person 

available to provide this technical assistance, so this funding is critical to ensuring access to 

safe and affordable drinking water and sanitation. 

All circuit riders have expertise in wastewater treatment operation, maintenance, 

governance and compliance and they constantly travel their state to be available on-site to any 

community in need of assistance. For these circuit riders to be effective and helpful, they must 

be available to travel directly to any given community to work specifically with a community's 

unique treatment system and personally educate that operator, mayor, or other local official on 

how to solve their particular problem. They have to be available when the community needs the 

help which can be nights, winters, after natural disasters, weekends, etc. Also, they must be 

non-regulatory in practice to gain the trust of the local communities. Circuit riders operate free of 

charge to small communities which often saves the community many thousands of dollars from 

having to hire consultants or open themselves to civil penalties under the Clean Water Act 

they only work in the interest of the small community they are assisting. 

A typical on-site contact could include ensuring the water service is protected and 

secure, discovering and repairing a faulty gas chlorination system, assisting a community to 

remove and replace the filtration media, training a new operator to run that particular treatment 

system, finding engineering and construction errors in a new sewer system, implementing a 

non-point pollution prevention plan, solving lead and copper rule problems, or completing all the 

paperwork for funding programs including the state revolving funds. It is often more difficult for 

small communities to access SRF funds than large communities due to the administrative 

burden. Often the assistance saves thousands of dollars for the community and keeps the 

system in long-term compliance with EPA rules- and it is the only assistance available to the 

community. Drinking water safety is not a good fit for a regulatory model because everyone 

wants to provide safe water. Local water supplies are operated by people who are locally 

elected and whose families drink the water every day. Enforcement may not be the best way to 

help a small disadvantaged community provide better drinking water. 

What small community local operators and government officials want and need is 

someone they trust to teach them how to comply in a simple and affordable manner- and 

similarly, how to operate and maintain their treatment system. Again, this often means being 

available to travel to the community on nights and weekends -when the problem occurs. Each 

community's water infrastructure is unique which means technical assistance must be available 

to address that community's particular problem. This is why circuit riders must be available to 

travel directly to local communities on their time schedule and have hands-on operational 

experience in many different water systems. Additionally, it is essential that the assistance 

Page 2 of 3 
40 


31136.028

provider only represents the community's interest in order to identify the most economical 

solution and provide the best advice for local decision-makers. 

In 2012, the Agency was provided discretion over the allocation of annually appropriated 

Safe Drinking Water Act technical assistance funding. The Agency used the discretion to 

eliminate the two full-time circuit rider-type positions that were operating in all states. In 

response to concerns raised by our rural and small communities, Congress enacted legislation 

to mandate that the Agency direct the technical assistance funding to where it is most helpful. 

In 2015, Congress enacted the "Grassroots Rural and Small Community Water Systems 

Assistance Act" which requires that the Agency provide a "preference" in determining the 

awarding of the funding. This operative "preference" provision ensures Congressional intent is 

followed by requiring the Agency to direct funding to organizations that small and rural 

communities find are most beneficial: 'To ensure that technical assistance funding is used in a 

manner that is most beneficial to the small and rural communities of a State, the Administrator 

shall give preference under this paragraph to nonprofit organizations that, as determined by the 

Administrator, are the most qualified and experienced and that the small community water 

systems in that State find to be the most beneficial and effective." 

The Agency essentially disregarded the law when it neither used, considered, or 

implemented the "preference" authorization in the competition for the funding (October 20, 

2017, Request for Applications) nor in the awarding of the funding (April11, 2018, 

Announcement). The Agency actually programmed the funding before the fiscal year 2018 

Consolidated Appropriations Act had been enacted and the provisions had significantly changed 

from the previous year's provisions. 

Implementation of the provisions in the "Grassroots Rural and Small Community Water 

Systems Assistance Act" will simplify the Agency's competitive bidding process and remove 

subjectivity As stated in the bill's House Committee Report, 'The Committee does not intendS. 

611 to require EPA to conduct national surveys to determine which non-profits are most 

qualified and experienced and that small public water systems find most beneficial and effective. 

Instead, the Committee prefers that the Agency minimize the Administrative burden on itself, the 

non-profits, and the eligible small and rural water public water systems in meeting the 

requirements of the law." This allows the Agency to simply give preference to small community 

water system applications (or assistance) and match them to the most beneficial and effective 

organizations. 

On seven U.S. Senators (including the Chairman) urged the new EPA 

Administrator to use executive discretion to award fiscal year 2017 funding under the 

authorities in the WickeriHeitkamp bilL On July 25, 2017, EPA replied to the Senators and 

stated it would comply. EPA's October 20, 2017 Request for Applications (RFA) contains no 

mention of PL i 14-98 or its provisions for governing the awarding of technical assistance funds. 

And EPA did not use the PL 114-98 authorities in the awarding of the funding (April 11 ,2018). 

Please contact Mike Keegan <keegan@ruralwater.org> with the National Rural Water 

Association with any questions. 

Dennis Sternberg 

Executive Director 

Arkansas Rural Water Association 

Page 3 of 3 
41 

Senator BARRASSO. Thank you, Mr. Sternberg. 

Ms. Swallow, thanks so much for being with us today. Welcome. 

STATEMENT OF KRISTINA SWALLOW, 

PRESIDENT, AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS 

Ms. SWALLOW. Thank you. Chairman Barrasso, Ranking Member 

Carper, and members of the Committee; thank you for inviting me 

here today to testify on the importance on a long-term, strategic investment in our Nation’s water resources. 

I am Kristina Swallow. I am a licensed professional engineer, 

and I am the President of the American Society of Civil Engineers, 

a professional engineering society representing over 150,000 members. 

It is wonderful to be back here in Washington, DC, where I previously served for 3 years as an AAAS fellow and legislative aide 

to Senator Tom Udall. 

Many of you are familiar with ASCE’s Infrastructure Report 

Card that we release every 4 years. ASCE’s 2017 Report Card gave 

our Nation’s infrastructure a grade of D∂ and determined that 

there is an investment gap of $2 trillion over the next 10 years. 

Our Failure to Act Economic Study found that our Nation’s deteriorating infrastructure and growing investment deficit hurts our Nation’s economy. Failing to invest by 2025 carries enormous economic costs, to the tune of nearly $4 trillion in lost GDP and 2.5 

million jobs lost in 2025 alone. It also costs every single family in 

our Nation $3,400 a year in disposable income. 

WRDA bills are critically important to the health of our Nation’s 

water resources, which in turn play a crucial role in the Nation’s 

economy, public safety, and the preservation of our environmental 

resources. Our levees, dams, inland waterways, and ports protect 

hundreds of communities, support millions of American jobs, and 

generate trillions of dollars of economic activity. 

As you are well aware, many of these infrastructure assets have 

reached or exceeded the end of their design life and need to be repaired and modernized. Two programs that ASCE has long championed are the National Dam Safety Program and the National 

Levee Safety Program. Both are crucial components of risk reduction and protect communities, critical infrastructure, and trillions 

of dollars of property. 

The National Dam Safety Program was reauthorized in WRRDA 

2014 and has helped inventory nearly 90,000 dams across the country, assessing their condition and providing training and tools to 

dam safety programs. 

The National Levee Safety Program, enacted in WRRDA 2014, 

has helped to create an inventory of our Nation’s levees. We now 

know the location and condition of nearly 30,000 miles of levees. 

However, there is much work to be done to further inventory the 

thousands of miles of levees not yet in the data base. 

We are pleased that America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018, 

or WRDA 2018, includes a reauthorization of both programs. 

ASCE is also supportive of alternative financing mechanisms for 

water resources projects, including the WIFIA program, which can 

be utilized by the Corps for a variety of water resources projects. 

We are pleased that this bill includes reauthorization of WIFIA and 

42 

we encourage the Corps to continue their implementation of the 

program. 

ASCE championed Section 5014 of WRRDA 2014, authorizing the 

Corps to enter agreements with non-Federal interests to finance 

construction of at least 15 water resources development projects. 

We were pleased that President Trump’s infrastructure proposal 

included provisions to remove barriers to implementation of this 

program. We urge the Committee to follow in the Administration’s 

lead by authorizing a user fee collection and retention under this 

Corps pilot program. 

Finally, we ask the Committee to include the SRF WIN Act in 

WRDA 2018. This legislation offers an innovative new tool to leverage limited Federal resources and stimulate additional investment 

in our Nation’s infrastructure, while safeguarding against any cuts 

to the existing State revolving funds and WIFIA programs. 

In conclusion, ASCE believes our Nation must prioritize investment in our water resources infrastructure systems. Strategic, robust, and sustained investments through long-term, reliable Federal funding, as well as through the utilization of alternative financing mechanisms must be made quickly if we hope to close the 

growing gap and restore America’s world class infrastructure. 

I thank you for holding this hearing. ASCE looks forward to 

working with you and the members of the Committee to find solutions to our Nation’s water resources investment needs, and I look 

forward to taking your questions later. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Swallow follows:] 

43 


31136.029

Kristina Swallow, P.E., ENV SP, F.ASCE 

President 

American Society of Civil Engineers 

Kristina Swallow is the current president of the American Society 

of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Kristina is a civil engineering leader 

with more than 20 years of professional practice in water 

resources, transportation, and land development. Among her 

many past roles, she served as Region 8 Director, Region 8 

Governor, Chair of the Education Activities and the Diversity and 

Women in Civil Engineering committees, and ASCE's 150th 

Anniversary Steering Committee. 

Kristina has a diverse professional background that includes serving as a program 

manager in the capital improvements division for the City of Las Vegas, as a 

transportation policy advisor for a U.S. Senator in Washington, DC, and working as a 

land development consultant in the fastest growing city in the United States, including 

five years as a small business owner. 

She is passionate about civil engineering and the benefits of infrastructure for 

communities, especially transportation systems. 

She is married to a civil engineer, Dave, and has three dogs and a cat. In her spare 

time, she enjoys running, aerial acrobatics, exploring new cities, and just trying new 

things. 
44 


31136.030

AMERICAN SOCIETY Of CIVIL ENGINEERS 

Introduction 

Washington Otlke 

101 Constitution Ave. N.W. 

Suite 375 East 

America's Water Infrastructure Act of20 18 Hearing 

Wednesday, May 9, 2018 

Committee on Environment and Public Works 

U.S. Senate 

Ms. Kristina Swallow, P.E., ENV SP, F.ASCE 

2018 President of the American Society of Civil Engineers 

*On behalf of the American Society of Civil Engineers 

Ms. Kristina Swallow, P.E. is the current president of the American Society of Civil 

Engineers (ASCE). She is a civil engineering leader with more than 20 years of 

professional practice in water resources, transportation, and land development as a 

consultant, small business owner, and with city government. In addition to many other 

roles \Vi thin ASCE, she also served as ASCE's AAAS (American Association for the 

Advancement of Science) Congressional Fellow and as a Legislative Aide, working on 

transportation policy issues[()!· three years for U.S. Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico. 

Ms. Swallow holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of 

Arizona, as well as a Master of Science in Engineering from the University of Nevada, 

Las Vegas. 

ASCE appreciates the opportunity to discuss the importance of long-term. strategic 

investment in our nation's water resources systems. We also want to thank the U.S. 

Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works for your etTorts to keep the Water 

Resources and Development Act on a biennial authorization cycle. ASCE is eager to 

vvork with the Committee in 2018 to find ways to further improw our nation's vital water 

resources systems. 
45 


31136.031

ASCE's 2017 ln(htstructure Report Card and 2016 Economic Study, Failure to Act: 

Closing the Infrastructure Investment Gap (or America's Economic Future 

Infrastructure is the foundation that connects the nation's businesses, communities, and 

people, serves as the backbone to the U.S. economy. and is critical to the nation's public 

health and welfare. Every four years, ASCE prepares a comprehensive assessment of the 

nation's I 6 major infrastructure categories in its Jnji·astructure Report Card. Using a 

simple, familiar A to F school report card format. the Report Card examines current 

infrastructure conditions and needs, assigning grades and making policy 

recommendations to raise the grades. 

2 

ASCE's 2017 Jnfi·astructure Report Card1 gave our nation's cumulative infrastructure 

grade a grade of"D+" and determined that there is an investment gap of$2 trillion over 

the next I 0 years. Additionally, ASCE's 2016 economic study, Failure to Act: Closing 

the lnfi·astructure Investment Gapjr>r America's Economic Future1, found that our 

nation's deteriorating infrastructure and growing investment deficit has a cascading effect 

on our nation's economy, impacting business productivity, gross domestic product 

(GDP). employment, personal income, and international competitiveness: in fact, our 

failure to act by 2025 carries an enormous economic cost to the tune of nearly $4 trillion 

in lost GDP, which will result in a loss of2.5 million jobs in 2025. 

The economic consequences of our nation's infrastructure ddicicncics also extend to 

families' disposable incomes, with each household in the U.S. losing $3,400 each year 

through 2025; if left unaddressed, the loss wi II grow to an average of $5,1 00 annually 

(rom 2026 to 2040. lt is possible to close the infrastructure investment gap and avoid the 

economic consequences caused by this deficit, but it will require sustained and robust 

investment. 

Our nation's water resources systems arc crucial to our nation's economy, public safety, 

and the preservation and enhancement of our environmental resources. Our levees, dams, 

inland waterways, and ports protect hundreds of communities, suppotimillions of 

American jobs, and generate trillions of dollars of economic activity. However. many of 

these infrastructure assets have reached the end of their design life, and the investment 

gap must be closed if we hope to both repair and modernize our water resources systems 

to be competitive in the 21'' century. 

\Vater Resources Systems 

Dams & Levees 

Our nation's 90,580 dams and over 30,000 miles of levees arc critical components of risk 

reduction and protect communities, critical infrastructure, and trillions of dollars in 

property. However, it is estimated that $80 billion is needed in the next l 0 years to 

1 https://\v\vw.infrastructurereportcard.org/ 

2 https://www.infrastructurcreportcard.org/wp-content/uploads/20 16/ I 0/ ASCE-Failurc-to-Act-20 16-

FINAL.pdf 
46 


31136.032

maintain and improve the nation's levees, while the Association of State Dam Safety 

Officials estimates the cost of rehabilitating our nation's federal and non-federal clams to 

exceed $64 billion, Included in this is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' (USACE) 

estimate that more than $25 billion will be required to address clam deficiencies for 

Corps-owned dams; at the current rate of investment, these repairs would take over 50 

years to complete. 

3 

Investment is needed to rehabilitate deficient dams and to complete the national inventory 

of levees outside of the USACE·s authority. ASCE supported the Water Resources 

Reform and Development Act (WRRDA) of 2014's reauthorization ofthc National Dam 

Safety Program and the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act's 

authorization of the High Hazard Potential Dam Rehabilitation Program. We are, 

however, concerned that the National Dam Safety Program consistently receives only a 

portion of its annual $13.9 million appropriations, while the High Hazard Potential Dam 

Rehabilitation Program has yet to receive any appropriations. Likewise, WRRDA 2014 

created a new National Levee Safety Program to promote consistent safety standards, 

create levee safety guidelines, and provide funding assistance to states for establishing 

participating levee safety programs, yet it has received no funding other than funding for 

the levee inventory. 

The nation's 926 potis support over 23.1 million jobs and are responsible for $4.6 trillion 

in economic activity. In fact, our ports serve as the gateway through which 99 percent of 

America's overseas trade passes. To remain competitive in the global market and to 

accommodate larger vessels, ports have been investing in their t~1cilities and plan to spend 

over $154 billion from 2016 to 2020 on expansion, modernization, and repair. However, 

ports are contending with larger container ships and do not always have adequate access 

to the user-fee funded Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTf), which would help these 

facilities prepare for larger vessels. Underinvestment in our nation's ports has resulted in, 

by some accounts, a 25 percent decrease in port productivity in the past ten years. 

ASCE supported the provision in WRRDA 2014 designed to encourage the use ofthe 

HMTF revenues for its designated purpose. The HMTF·s balance currently sits at over $9 

billion, but full appropriations ofthcse funds have not yet occurred. Once fully funded, it 

will take five years of complete HMTF funding to dredge and restore channel depths and 

widths. ASCE urges the Committee to continue implementing the WRRDA 2014 

agreement and increasing expenditures accordingly. 

Inland Waterways 

The USACF-: operates and maintains a vast network of25,000 miles of inland waterways 

and 239 locks that support half a million jobs, deliver more than 600 million tons of 

cargo annually, and are the nation's connection to inland and ocean pmis and 

international markets. Barge transport is the most fuel-efficient mode of the 

transportation of goods, but with a majority of locks and dams reaching well beyond their 
47 


31136.033

50-year design lite and thus requiring frequent shutdowns for maintenance and repairs, 

nearly half of all vessels traveling through our inland waterways experience delays. 

4 

ASCE supported the 2015 increase of the Inland Waterways Trust Fund user tax, and 

although recent increases in investment have resulted in some improvement in the 

projected completion date of many inland waterway lock and dam rehabilitation projects, 

funding must continue at a higher and more consistent level to meet the large backlog of 

needs. 

ASCE also championed Section 50!4 ofWRRDA 2014, which authorizes the USACE to 

enter agreements with non-federal interests. including private entities, to finance 

construction of at least 15 authorized water resources development projects. \Ve were 

pleased that President Trump's infl·astructure proposal included several provisions to 

remove baniers to implementation of this program. Alternative financing and delivery 

mechanisms are an important new resourcing tool that can help the USACE meet the 

growing needs of our nation's inland waterways infrastructure. 

ASCE was pleased that WRRDA 2014 authorized a new water infrastructure financing 

mechanism. the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA), to be 

administered by the USACE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The 

WIFIA concept is modeled after a similar transportation project assistance program, the 

wildly successful Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (UFlA). 

Under this program, the USACE is authorized to provide WIFlA support for an array of 

projects, including environmental damage reduction projects, hurricane and storm 

damage reduction projects, flood damage reduction projects, coastal or inland harbor 

navigation improvement projects, and/or inland and intracoastal waterways navigation 

projects. 

ASCE's 2016 economic study found that from 2026 through 2040, the average annual 

investment gap for waterside improvements, including dredging and lock and dam repair, 

is expected to be $1.9 billion, which will result in an economic loss of $2.8 trillion of 

GDP and 1.2 million fewer jobs in 2040 than would otherwise be expected with 

modernized water resources systems in place. 

Amedca's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018- WRDA 2018- Solutions 

We are pleased with many of the provisions that have been included in America's Water 

Infrastructure Act of 2018, or WRDA 2018, including reauthorization oft he National 

Dam Safety Program and the National Levee Safety Program. 

We arc also pleased with the bill's important alternative financing and delivery 

mechanisms. including a reauthorization of the WIFJA program, and we urge the USACE 

to continue its implementation of the WIFIA program. 

Additionally. we support the provision that allows the USACE to retain user fees at 

recreation facilities for the use of operation, maintenance, and management at the site 
48 


31136.034

where the fee is collected, and we urge the Committee to follow in the Administration's 

lead by authorizing new user fcc collection and retention under the Section 5014 pilot 

program ofWRRDA 2014. 

We arc disappointed that the bill docs not includeS. 2364, the Securing Required Funds 

for Water Infrastructure Now (SRF WIN) Act, a bill designed to help tackle our nation's 

water resources inli·astructurc investment deilcit. Despite increased efficiency methods 

and sustainable practices, there is a growing gap between the capital needed to maintain 

drinking water and wastewater infrastructure and the actual investments made. By 2025, 

the disparity between needed and antit:ipated funding for drinking water and wastc\Nater 

systems will be $105 billion. 

The SRF WIN Act is an innovative new tinancing mechanism that blends the most 

successful parts of the State Revolving Funds and WIFIA to create a program that gives 

State Infrastructure Financing Authorities access to WIFlA loans for drinking water and 

wastewater infrastructure. This program would offer a new and efficient tool to leverage 

limited federal resources and stimulate additional investment in our nation· s 

infrastructure while safeguarding against any cuts to the existing State Revolving Funds 

and WIFIA program. We encourage the Committee to include this new program in 

WRDA 2018 and look forward to working with you on this important new water 

resources ilnancing mechanism. 

Finally, ASCE urges Congress to act quickly to address the ·widening investment gap for 

water resources systems. We ask Congress to: 

• Pass a Water Resources Development Act this year, to continue the two-year 

cycle; 

• In line with the President's inJi·astructurc proposaL give the USACE contract 

authority for projects to avoid the stop-and-start of construction currently 

occurring because of the annual appropriations process; 

• Fully utilize altemative financing and delivery methods, such as public-private 

partnerships, when appropriate, including implementation of both the USACE's 

WlFIA program and Section 5014 ofWRRDA 2014, and; 

5 

• Fully appropriate funds for existing federal infrastructure programs that have been 

authorized. including: 

the WIFIA program at $175 million over five years; 

o the High Hazard Potential Dam Rehabilitation Program at $445 million 

over ten years; 

o the National Dam Safety Program at $l3.9million annually; 

o the National Levee Safety Program at $79 million annually, and; 

o the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund at the full amount of fees collected to 

be allocated for its intended purpose. 

The projects funded by these programs have already proven to be successful; providing 

more funding to existing programs rather than creating new programs will reduce 

overhead costs and startup time while still allowing for significant and noticeable 

improvements across our nation ·s water resources systems. 
49 


31136.035

6 

In conclusion. ASCE believes our nation must prioritize the investment needs of our 

water resources systems to ensure public safety, a strong economy, and the protection of 

our environmental resources. Strategic, robust, and sustained investments, through longterm. reliable federal funding, as well as through the utilization offinancing mechanisms, 

must be made quickly if we hope to close the growing ftmding gap and restore America's 

world-class infrastructure. We thank you for holding this hearing and look forward to 

working with the Committee to find solutions to our nation's water resources investment 

needs. 
50 

Senator BARRASSO. Thank you so much for your testimony. 

Mr. Bullock, welcome back to the Committee. Look forward to 

hearing from you. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. 

STATEMENT OF HON. JEFFREY BULLOCK, 

SECRETARY OF STATE, STATE OF DELAWARE 

Mr. BULLOCK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, to my Governor, Tom 

Carper, to members of the Committee, for the privilege of appearing before you today and offering some brief remarks about the 

America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 and the importance of 

this legislation not just to my State and the Mid-Atlantic region, 

but to our Nation as a whole. 

I am Jeff Bullock. I am the Secretary of State of the State of 

Delaware, but today I am here as the Chairman of the Diamond 

State Port Corporation. The Diamond State Corporation is a corporate entity of the State of Delaware. It was established in 1923, 

and it owns and operates the Port of Wilmington. 

Our port, like many ports in America, touches the lives of millions of Americans every day. The banana you had for breakfast 

this morning came through the Port of Wilmington probably Monday or Tuesday of last week, and 3 weeks ago was growing on a 

tree somewhere in Central America. The grapes you enjoyed this 

winter were from Chile; also came through the Port of Wilmington. 

Those little clementines that we love to eat around the holidays, 

came from Morocco, also through our port. 

Now, Senator Carper knows we are in the process of a planned 

expansion at the Port of Wilmington to provide more capacity for 

our existing customers and for future businesses, and that is one 

of the reasons that this bill is so important to us as we move forward. 

Just let me say that over the last couple of years I have had the 

opportunity to visit a number of ports both in the United States 

and around the world, and perhaps more importantly, to talk to 

any number of port experts internationally, and I can tell you for 

certain that many of our ports, including my own in Wilmington, 

are falling behind and not able to keep pace with our competition. 

Maintaining marine infrastructure such as public ports is essential to our Nation’s economic future. Delaware and the Corps of Engineers have long enjoyed a great relationship for as long as I can 

remember and as long as I have been involved in the port, which 

goes back to the Carper administration, almost 25 years now, but 

the importance of the Corps as we move forward with this expansion is even more essential. 

The reasons for that are pretty clear: we are in the midst of a 

rapidly changing global marketplace, and ensuring the Corps is 

running efficiently is more critical now than perhaps ever before. 

Ports are strong partners with the Corps of Engineers to ensure 

that we can meet the trading needs of our country and the needs 

of the flow of commerce and keep that moving forward. 

But ports are also under an increasing amount of competitive 

pressure. Shippers are demanding greater efficiency and lower 

costs. Increased velocity, the rate at which our goods move through 

ports and arrive at their final destination, is now the measure of 

our success. 

51 

WRDA is an opportunity to look at process improvements, as 

well as make transformational changes in how our Nation provides 

resources to our seaports. Our regional ports also work closely with 

the American Association of Port Authorities and support the recommended changes and core processes that will make navigational 

projects move more efficiently and support stronger partnerships. 

The amount of freight that is going to move through U.S. ports 

is going to continue to increase significantly. Our own Port of Wilmington has seen growth of 150 percent just in the last 8 years. 

I want to applaud the work of the Chairman and the Ranking 

Member on the provision included in this legislation which highlights transparency and accountability in cost sharing for water resource projects. 

The foundation to building a project or conducting a feasibility 

study should always be done in good faith, and with the provisions 

set forth in Section 1004, local communities and States are now 

able to see the balance sheets of their respective projects. Furthermore, any unused moneys from a project that comes in under budget will be credited back to the non-Federal sponsor. For States and 

local communities like mine, who continue to work under tight 

budgets year after year, this is a big win. 

Another provision in the bill that we strongly support is Section 

1012, Extended Community Assistance to Disadvantaged Communities. Properly identifying and understanding the disadvantaged 

community greatly improves efforts to engage with those community members. 

In closing, let me say the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is a valued partner in managing States’ waters and beaches through navigation, environmental restoration, flood control, and other projects. 

Without this legislation, the partnership that so many of us count 

on around the country as vital to our economic growth will be stymied. 

And as for ports, I would remind us all of these things: 23 million American jobs are supported by U.S. seaports; $6 billion of goods 

are handled through seaports each and every workday; $312 billion 

a year in tax revenue is generated by port activity; and $4.6 trillion 

of economic activity is related to our seaports annually. Very clearly, our ports are a central part of our country’s economic future. 

Thank you again for having me today. I look forward to any 

questions you might have. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Bullock follows:] 

52 


31136.036

The Honorable Jeffrey W. Bullock 

Secretary of State 

Delaware Department of State 

Jeffrey W. Bullock was sworn in as Delaware's 80th Secretary of 

State on January 21, 2009 and re-confirmed by the Delaware 

Senate on January 18, 2017. As Secretary of the most diverse 

department in state government, he oversees nearly twenty 

different agencies including Corporations, Historical and Cultural 

Affairs, Arts, Libraries, Veterans Affairs, Professional 

Regulation, and Human Relations. In addition, Secretary Bullock 

has a number of constitutional responsibilities, including serving 

on the Board of Pardons. 

Secretary Bullock has dedicated most of his professional career to public service. He 

shares Governor John Carney's strong commitment to providing outstanding customer 

service and making state government work better for the people it serves. In more than 

eight years as Secretary of State, he has been a transformational leader in 

advancing priorities in the areas of education, job creation and more efficient and 

effective government. 

Under Secretary Bullock's direction, the Department of State continues to raise 

significant revenue for the State of Delaware. Through agencies such as the Division of 

Corporations and the State Bank Commissioner, the Department contributed more than 

$1.26 billion to the state's General Fund in Fiscal Year 2016. 

Secretary Bullock has focused on maintaining Delaware's preeminence as the 

"Corporate Capital of the World" by seeking to protect the state's General Corporation 

Law. For over a century, Delaware's General Corporation Law has served as a model 

for other states. With a hands-on approach, Secretary Bullock has led a coordinated 

effort to prevent passage of federal legislation that would jeopardize Delaware's unique 

position in corporate governance. 

During his tenure, Secretary Bullock also brought the International Trade and 

Development Group (lTG) under the umbrella of the Department of State, leveraging 

Delaware's corporate law reputation to pursue economic development opportunities 

around the world. 

Secretary Bullock has a wide range of executive public sector experience, including 

prominent roles in leading Delaware's two largest governments. From 1994-2001, he 

served as the chief of staff to Governor Thomas R. Carper. More recently, Bullock was 

the Chief Administrative Officer for New Castle County, Delaware's largest county. 

Secretary Bullock is a native Delawarean who grew up in Claymont and holds a degree 

from the University of Delaware in Economics and Political Science. He lives in 

Wilmington with his wife, Susan Frank, and their two daughters, Kate and Caroline. 
53 


31136.037

Testimony 

The Honorable Jeff Bullock 

Secretary of State of Delaware 

Chairman of the Diamond State Port Corporation 

Before the 

U.S. Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee 

Wednesday, May 9, 2018 

Chairman Barrasso, Ranking Member Carper, and Members of the Committee, thank you 

for the opportunity to testify before you and provide remarks on "America's Water 

Infrastructure Act of 2018" and the importance this bill has on the nation, the northeast 

region and Delaware. 

I am Jeff Bullock, Secretary of State of Delaware and the Chairman of the Diamond State 

Port Corporation (DSPC). Diamond State Port Corporation, a corporate entity of the State 

of Delaware, was established in 1923 and owns and operates the Port of Wilmington. 

The existing Port is an aging Port that has experienced significant changes over the last 

90 years. Delaware's legislature established the DSPC with the power to conduct its 

own business affairs. In 1995, the DSPC purchased the Port from the City of 

Wilmington, partly to help provide funding streams to keep the Port operating in an 

increasingly competitive environment. 

The Port, situated on 308 acres of land at the confluence of the Christina and Delaware 

Rivers, is the first major port cargo vessels encounter on the Delaware River. The Port 

is situated within a Foreign Trade Zone and includes seven ship berths for general 

cargo, one petroleum berth, one floating berth for bulk juice and one multipurpose 

Autoberth; 800,000 sf. cold storage in 6 warehouses, one of the largest in US; and 

250,000 sf. dry warehouse with covered rail service. 

1 
54 


31136.038

The Port of Wilmington is a full-service deep-water port and marine terminal handling 

about 400 vessels annually with an annual import/export cargo tonnage of more than 6 

million tons. Today, Delaware's port is the busiest terminal on the Delaware River. 

Cargo handling equipment includes: a 100-ton mobile harbor crane and four multipurpose gantry cranes. All cranes are capable of high speed container operations and 

the handling of breakbulk, bulk and heavy lift cargoes. 

Dry storage facilities include: nearly 33 acres of open space used for RoRo, containers, 

steel, wind energy components, and lumber as well as 250,000 sf of dry warehouse 

space. 

Temperature controlled facilities include: 6 separate warehouses aggregating 

approximately 800,000 sf of chilled and freezer storage space. This makes Wilmington 

one of the nation's largest dock side cold storage facilities. 

Currently, we are in the process of a planned expansion at the Port of Wilmington to 

provide more storage capacity for existing and future commercial businesses, which is 

why the America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 is such an important piece of 

legislation for Delaware, but I would expand that by saying it is important for the nation 

as a whole. 

Maintaining maritime infrastructure - such as public ports is essential to the nation's 

economic future. Delaware and the Corp of Engineers have a good working relationship 

and recently hosted Assistant Secretary of the Army RD James to show him first hand 

the plans for the Port expansion. The relationship between the Port of Wilmington and 

the US Army Corps of Engineers is vital to the success of the expansion. I would be 

remiss, however, if I did not say that they have always been a terrific partner prior to the 

expansion. 

2 
55 


31136.039

The Corps of Engineers is critical to our region supporting ports in New York, New 

Jersey, Philadelphia, and Baltimore in addition to Delaware. These ports are economic 

drivers for our regions and ensuring these ports are modernized and well maintained 

are critical to our ability to deliver the goods that our region and the nation need, as well 

as helping U.S. companies export to world markets. The Corps' work also supports the 

many private terminals including the chemical and oil terminals on the Delaware River 

that both import and export this vital cargo. These ports also provide important jobs for 

the region. 

The cargo at these ports are diversified, some handling fruits and vegetables, vehicles, 

wind energy components and steel like Wilmington, with others focusing on general 

cargo, bulk and break-bulk cargo. This diversity is important to serve the variety of 

cargo needed for both imports and exports. Water transportation continues to be the 

most cost effective and environmentally clean mode of transportation. By having a 

diversity of ports, we can have cargo closer to distribution centers and make sure our 

roads are not jammed with cargo coming from only one port and then transported to and 

from our region. As a top agricultural and farming state, Delaware farmers also rely on 

ports to help them be successful. 

We are in the midst of a rapidly changing global marketplace and ensuring the Corps is 

running efficiently is critical. Ports are strong partners with the Corps of Engineers to 

ensure we can meet the trading needs of our country and keep the flow of commerce 

going. 

WRDA is an opportunity to look at process improvements as well as make 

transformational changes in how our nation provides resources to our seaports. Our 

regional ports also work closely with the American Association of Port Authorities 

(AAPA) and support the recommended changes in Corps processes that will make 

navigational projects move more efficiently and support a stronger partnership. We 

hope you will give these recommendations due consideration in this bill. 

3 
56 


31136.040

This includes the recent industry agreement to support guaranteed use of annual 

Harbor Maintenance Tax (HMT) revenues to establish a sustainable funding sources for 

harbor maintenance. As you know, the federal government imposes the HMT to 

maintain our system of ports and this year's WRDA is an opportunity to fix a broken 

system by guaranteeing full use of annual HMT revenues, ensuring tax fairness and 

resulting in the long-term sustainability of our nation's harbor maintenance 

needs. Enacting this solution will help not only the ports in our region, but ports 

throughout the U.S. Enacting a long-term funding solution for port maintenance is good 

for ports, and good for the nation. Having just completed an historic deepening project 

for the Delaware River, it is critical that we have adequate resources to maintain it in the 

future. 

The amount of freight moved in the United States is projected to grow beyond 

expectations by the year 2045. It has been estimated that by the year 2037, the U.S. will 

export more than 52 million shipping containers through U.S. seaports each year. If the 

infrastructure of our ports and the Army Corps of Engineers is not prepared and 

adequately funded we will fail to be prepared for the growing demand of the safe and 

efficient movement of freight. 

Before closing, I would like to applaud the Chairman and Ranking Member on the 

provision included in this legislation which highlights transparency and accountability in 

cost sharing for water resource projects. The foundation to building a project or 

conducting a feasibility study should always be done in good faith, with the provisions 

set forth in Sec 1004, local communities and states are now able to see the balance 

sheets of their respective projects. Furthermore, any unused monies from a project that 

comes in under budget will be credited back to the non-Federal sponsor. For states and 

local communities who continue to work under tight budgets year after year, this is a 

win. 

Another provision in the bill we would like to compliment the committee on is Sec 1012, 

extended community assistance to disadvantaged communities. Properly identifying 

4 
57 


31136.041

and understanding a disadvantaged community greatly improves efforts to engage with 

community members. Engagement requires the investment of both time and money. 

This provision will lessen the burden of matching the cost sharing by allowing the 

Secretary the ability to reduce the minimum non-Federal cost sharing requirement of 45 

percent as well as not imposing a requirement on a project serving in a disadvantaged 

community, should that be warranted. 

The Army Corps of Engineers is a valued partner in managing states waters and 

beaches through navigation, environmental restoration, flood control and other projects. 

Without this legislation the partnership that so many across the country sees as vital to 

their respected economic growth is stymied. 

Lastly, I would like to quote some statistics from the American Association of Port 

Authorities about what's at stake if we don't have a supported & funded US Army Corps 

of Engineers 

• 23M American jobs supported by US seaports 

• $68 value of goods handled by seaports each weekday 

• $3128 a year in tax revenue generated by port activity 

• $4.6T value of economic activity related to seaports annually 

Thank you, again, for inviting me to testify before you today. I am happy to answer any 

questions you may have. 

5 
58 


31136.042

Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works 

Hearing entitled, "Legislative Hearinf: on S.2800, America's Water h!frastructure Act(~{ 

2018" 

May 9, 2018 

Questions for the Record for Secretary Bullock 

Chairman Barrasso: 

l. Secretary Bullock, coastal polis are important to rural communities in Wyoming because 

many products from our farms and ranches are transported to coastal ports for both 

national and global distribution. Can you describe some of the impacts to rural and other 

economies if coastal ports are not maintained at adequate widths and depths? 

Answer: 

Thank you, Chairman Barrasso. 

Each port across the country has characteristics specifically unique to that state or port. For 

example, the type of cargo delivered or type of containers and products that are handled. 

Therefore, each port is essential to the overall flow of commerce across the entire country. 

To maximize the needs of the country- on an economic level- regions depend on easy 

access to specific ports and efficient operations at those ports. If the ports are not 

maintained at adequate widths and depths. then the ports role in maintaining the flow of 

commerce is hindered. The national economy is a shared responsibility between state and 

federal governments, the ports play a critical role in that responsibility. 

Page 1 of 1 
59 

Senator BARRASSO. Thanks so much, Mr. Bullock. 

Mr. Pratt, welcome to the Committee. We look forward to hearing from you. 

STATEMENT OF TONY PRATT, PRESIDENT, 

AMERICAN SHORE AND BEACH PRESERVATION ASSOCIATION 

Mr. PRATT. Good morning. I want to, first of all, start by thanking the Chairman and Ranking Member for the leadership in 

bringing this bill forward, as well as the Subcommittee leadership 

in bringing this bill forward. It is very important we keep on a biennial track. 

I am the President of the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association, an organization founded in 1926 that is intended 

to help care for the Nation’s coastlines and beaches through science 

and technology. 

We want to start today by saying how happy we are looking at 

the 5-year budget plan that has been proposed. It is, to me, very 

reflective of the fact that when earmarks, members’ requests, were 

eliminated a number of years ago from a user standpoint, non-Federal partner user standpoint, many of the transparencies that we 

enjoyed in that process of having open discussions was lost. We 

find ourselves in a world of a mystery kind of black box, where the 

Congress is appropriating funds for Corp of Engineers work, we 

wait by the sidelines in years of continuing resolution into the midspring to find out what work we are going to be seeing coming forward, and we are then, at that time, able to come up with our 

matching funds and the Corps has to conduct contractual work in 

a short period of time. The 5-year budget plan opens this process 

up to a better dialogue and a better vision for the future, and we 

look forward to working with the Corps and you all with that. 

I like the fact of the bill’s incorporation of the Integrated Water 

Resources Management, which is a modernization step that will 

help improve services delivery to the Nation. Looking to align authorities, improve opportunities for information sharing, and supporting complementary and integrated solutions to water resources 

challenges among partners and stakeholders is a valuable step forward for the Corps and its partners and project beneficiaries. 

The required guidance to ensure that the 5-year budget and work 

plans take into consideration a full array of Corp business lines to 

maximize the return on the Federal investment is supported. This 

helps put natural infrastructure investments on par with gray infrastructure investments. 

As I have stated in testimony to this Committee previously, 

water and coastal infrastructure, just like manmade infrastructure, 

is about assets that society depends on, and most particularly, it 

is about U.S. jobs. Creating jobs and protecting jobs that are blue 

collar jobs, as well as white collar jobs, these are American jobs 

that cannot be outsourced. Service industry at the coast is alive 

and well and abundantly serves the Nation’s economy. Investment 

in natural infrastructure through multi-business line investment 

secures that economic return for generations to come. 

Another issue that has been a challenge in the past is how well 

informed the conversation on Federal water resource investment 

has been. Our observation has been that the benefit-cost analysis 

60 

has not well served that purpose; it does not consider the return 

of Federal investment very well at all. Whereas, the total cost of 

projects are accounted for, there are many national benefits that 

are not included. This is a disservice to the Nation, we believe. 

We strongly advocate for a more informed BC process that informs appropriators on the full return of national benefits on the 

investment made. The 5-year budget plan and the integrated water 

resources approach are a major step forward in realizing this goal. 

We again thank you for your inclusion of these and look forward 

to future discussions with you on approving the benefits calculations. We are also very happy to see the call for the GAO study 

that will examine the possible BC calculation reforms. This is a 

wise course of action and very much needed. 

By the fact that the EPW Committee remains committed to a biennial Water Resources Development Act, the Corps’ Civil Works 

budget remains on a forward looking track, and each subsequent 

WRDA provides opportunity to continue to build improvements and 

modernization of the Corps’ Civil Works mission. 

ASBPA is also appreciative of the inclusion of the Great Lakes 

Coastal Resiliency Study. Combined with the North Atlantic Study, 

the South Atlantic Study, and Gulf Coast studies that have gone 

on, we are perching our Nation very much in a better position to 

have a resilient coastline when future storms occur. This is an objective we strongly support. 

Finally, the National Academy’s study is endorsed. This study 

will take a broad view of the way in which the Nation’s water resources development projects are delivered. The NAS study should 

take into consideration how the Administration views the Corps’ 

mission and supports it through budget and policy. 

We strongly support an overview of how the Corps currently operates and if there are improvements that could be made to get 

projects completed as quickly and efficiently as possible, should 

they be identified and pursued. ASBPA offers our assistance in any 

way you may find our expertise and experience with coastal water 

resources protection projects helpful in accomplishing your stated 

goals. 

I want to thank you for the opportunity to talk with you today 

and look forward to any questions you may have. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Pratt follows:] 

61 


31136.043

Anthony P. Pratt 

President 

American Shore and Beach Preservation Association 

Tony is the current President of the American Shore and 

Beach Preservation Association. He currently serves on 

the Advisory Board to the Department of Homeland 

Security Coastal Resilience Center of Excellence based at 

UNC, Chapel Hill. Pratt was a member of the National Research Council Committee on 

Beach Nourishment and Protection, and the Heinz Center Panel on Risk Vulnerability 

and the True Costs of Coastal Hazards. He served elected office in Lewes, a coastal 

town in DE, four years of which were as Deputy Mayor. He worked for the Shoreline and 

Waterway Management section of Delaware's Department of Natural Resources and 

Environmental Control for the last 37 years. 

Despite the demands of his day job, you're likely to find Pratt crouched along the 

waterline or in a mucky marsh near one Delaware's beaches working as a nature 

photographer during his off hours. He is an accomplished professional photographer, 

and in 2014 Pratt captured a rarely seen phenomenon called the green flash, which 

comes off the top of a rising or setting sun and is visible only for a fraction of a second 

under the perfect atmospheric conditions. 
62 


31136.044

Testimony of Anthony Pratt 

American Shore and Beach Preservation Association (ASBPA) 

To the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works 

On America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 

May9, 2018 

I am Anthony Pratt representing the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association (ASBPA) for 

which I serve as President. ASBPA, founded in 1926, is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that advocates 

for healthy coastlines by promoting the integration of science, policies and actions that maintain, 

protect and enhance the coasts of America. From its formation, ASBPA has worked with Congress to 

help pass significant legislation that helps define and refine the strong, necessary role the federal 

government plays in the management and preservation or our nation's shorelines. 

I want to thank Chairman Barrasso and Ranking Member Carper for their strong leadership in bringing 

this bill forward. It is encouraging to see Congress working so well across the aisle to address the 

Nation's water resources infrastructure challenges. 

ASBPA is very pleased with the 5 year budget plan. When Member's Requests (earmarks) were 

eliminated transparency in the budget for water resources was lost. As a non-federal sponsor of Corps 

projects for many years it was a great benefit for me to know what was proposed in the Corps annual 

appropriation as the budget discussions went through Congress. The current process is a 'black box' in 

that Congress appropriates Corps funding and the Administration determines where projects will be 

done through the work plan without specific discussions on specific projects between Members and the 

Administration. As a local sponsor, in the world of Continuing Resolution budgets, it was extremely 

difficult to wait until mid-federal fiscal year to learn what projects are included in the work plan and to 

supply the required cost share funding on very short notice. It is likewise difficult for the Corps to follow 

a rigorous bidding process in such a short time frame. With a 5 year outlook for planned work greater 

efficiency and better partnering will occur. Projects can be better prepared for and non-federal 

sponsors will be better perched to have match funds available. 

The Bill's incorporation of Integrated Water Resources Management is a modernization step that will 

improve service delivery to the Nation. looking to align authorities, improve opportunities for 

information sharing, and supporting complementary and integrated solutions to water resources 

challenges among partners and stakeholders is a valuable step forward for both the Corps, its partners 

and project beneficiaries. 

The required guidance to ensure that the 5 year budget and work plans take into consideration a full 

array of Corps' business lines to maximize the return on the federal investment is supported. This helps 

put natural infrastructure investments on par with gray infrastructure investments. As discussions 

continue this year on how to best address the Nation's infrastructure needs, the benefits to the nation 
63 


31136.045

of maintaining natural infrastructure, particularly on the coast, are vital to include. Well managed and 

maintained beaches, dunes and wetlands are the first line of defense against storm waves and tidal 

surge. As I have stated in testimony to this committee previously, infrastructure refers to the structures, 

systems, and facilities serving the economy of an industry, country, or area, including the services and 

facilities necessary for its economy to function. Water and coastal infrastructure, just like man-made 

infrastructure, is about assets that society depends on- and, most particularly, it is about U.S. jobs. 

Creating jobs and protecting jobs, blue collar jobs and white collar jobs, American jobs that cannot be 

outsourced. Service industry at the coast is alive and well and abundantly serves the nation's economy. 

Investment in natural infrastructure through multi-business line investment secures that economic 

return for generations to come. 

Another issue that has been a challenge in the past is how well informed the conversation on federal 

water resources investment has been. Our observation is that the benefit/cost analysis has not served 

the consideration of the return of federal investment at all well. Where the total costs of projects are 

accounted for there are many National benefits that are not included. This is a disservice to the Nation. 

We strongly advocate for a more informed b/c process that informs appropriators on the full return of 

National benefits on the investment made. The 5 year budget plan and the integrated water resources 

approach are a major step forward in the realization of this goal. We again thank you for the inclusion 

of these and look forward to future discussions with you on improving the benefits calculations. We are 

also very happy to see the call for the GAO study to examine possible BC calculation reforms. This is a 

wise course of action and very much needed. 

By the fact that the EPW Committee remains committed to a biennial Water Resources Development 

Act the Corps' Civil Works budget remains on a forward looking tack and each subsequent WRDA 

provides opportunity to continue to build improvements and modernization of the Corps' Civil Works 

mission. The Corps strives to deliver service and projects to the Nation and depends on biennial WRDA's 

to address policy and procedures to improve delivery services and authorizations for needed work. 

ASBPA is also appreciative of the inclusion of the Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency Study. Combined with 

the North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study, the South Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study, and 

coastal Louisiana and Texas studies much of the continental U.S coast will have comprehensive 

resiliency plans in place. This is an objective we strongly support. 

The National Academy's study is endorsed. This study will take a broad view of the way in which the 

Nation's water resources development projects are delivered. ASBPA supports a fresh look at how the 

Corps functions and an examination of its structure with regard to how it can optimize efficiency, 

coordination, transparency and cost savings. We look forward in helping in any way possible in 

promoting and carrying out this National Academy study. 

We add the thought that the NAS study take into consideration how the Administration views the Corps' 

mission and supports it through budget and policy. We strongly support an overview of how the Corps 

currently operates and if there are improvements that can be made to get projects completed as quickly 

and efficiently as possible they should be identified and pursued. ASBPA offers our assistance in any 

way you may find our expertise and experience with coastal water resources protection projects helpful 

in accomplishing your stated goals. 
64 

Senator BARRASSO. Well, thank you so much, Mr. Pratt. Thanks 

to all of you for your testimony. 

We have a diverse group of stakeholders who have already provided letters and statements of support for America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018. They include the Family Farm Alliance, the 

U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the National Rural Water Association, the American Water 

Works Association, the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, 

the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, and the Portland Cement Association. 

I ask unanimous consent to submit all of these letters and statements in support of the bipartisan legislation for the record. 

Without objection, it is done. 

[The referenced information was not received at time of print.] 

Senator BARRASSO. Let me start with a question. 

Mr. Riley, if I could ask you, please. Developing adequate water 

supply for future uses in States like Wyoming, Montana, can be difficult because of the regulatory permitting process. We have talked 

about this. It can also be challenging when the Corps disagrees 

with a State about the purpose and the need of proposed water 

storage or to adhere to unexpected permit conditions that come 

with the permit. These roadblocks often happen later in the permitting process, upending projects after significant time and resources 

have already been spent by the State. 

Can you explain how future economic growth is impacted in 

States like Wyoming and Montana when adequate water supply 

storage is blocked by cumbersome Federal red tape, and can you 

explain how this bill will help address this important issue? 

Mr. RILEY. Senator Barrasso, members of the Committee, usually, when these red tape and these processes are blocked, we have 

already spent millions of dollars of State and private money to get 

to that stage. It is kind of like running into a roadblock when the 

Army Corps puts their foot down, because the only option for us 

at that point is to come back to you gentlemen, and that becomes 

very difficult when you live a 2-days’ flight from Washington, DC. 

In the proposal—sorry about the section, I don’t remember— 

about having the Committee or the group set up, it gives us a second chance to lay out our facts, because oftentimes the perspective 

of the man making the initial decision, this allows us to have people in the room that understand what we are talking about. It 

gives us a second chance. Not that we will always get there, but 

if you kill that momentum—I have been in many projects—when 

you kill it, you kill it, and it is hard to get back. I know of some 

storage projects we have done in our State that got killed, and they 

are done. 

Senator BARRASSO. Following up, we know that adequate and affordable water supply is critical to farmers and ranchers in Wyoming, Montana. Our reservoirs across the West to Midwest have 

lost significant water storage capacity due to sediment build up. 

This legislation we are discussing today increases water supply in 

existing reservoirs by developing sediment management plans for 

these reservoirs through the use of partnerships between the Corps 

and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. 

65 

If we restore these reservoirs’ capacity by removing this excess 

sediment, what will be the impact for family farmers across the 

West and Midwest? 

Mr. RILEY. Senator Barrasso, members of the Committee, I can 

address that from a personal note. I actually farmed in the Milk 

River Valley, which is a Bureau of Rec project, and our upper reservoir is about 65 percent full of silt. That stores half of our water 

supply. So, if I can put that in real terms, that $200 hay, which 

is kind of where we talk, that costs me about $300, $350 an acre. 

As a young farmer early in my career, it almost took me out of 

the business. You can’t manage on that; you can’t bank on that. 

That is what that storage really means, in a nutshell, to the farmer. It could be his malt barley crop or his beet crop, also. 

Senator BARRASSO. Thank you. 

Ms. Swallow, this legislation authorizes several Corps projects 

for construction and encourages expedited completion of several 

projects that are already underway. Each of these projects serves 

an important purpose, such as providing for navigation, for flood 

risk management, for hurricane and storm damage, risk reduction, 

ecosystem restoration. You have seen the list. 

Can you further elaborate on why ongoing and future Corps 

projects are so critical when it comes to maintaining America’s economic viability, including job creation, economic growth, and our 

global competitiveness? 

Ms. SWALLOW. Thank you for that question, Chairman Barrasso. 

The Corps maintains a network of 25,000 miles of inland waterways, 239 locks, and over 13,000 miles of levees. All of these assets 

help move our goods out to other parts of the country, as well as 

our international markets, they protect our communities, and they 

provide access to clean drinking water and other benefits to our 

communities. 

Unfortunately, we have not been funding the Corps as needed. 

These facilities are not just decades old, some of them are a century old; and while they were designed with the best information 

we had at the time, they are no longer meeting their needs, they 

are beyond their design life, and they weren’t designed for the traffic they are seeing today. It is critically important for our economy 

and for our communities that we continue to invest in the Corps; 

and not just invest, but increase that investment to really meet 

their needs. 

Senator BARRASSO. Senator Carper. 

Thank you all. 

Senator CARPER. Mr. Chairman, I am happy to yield to colleagues. 

If any of you have time constraints, I am happy to yield. I am 

not in a hurry to get out. 

Senator INHOFE. I am good. I will wait for you. I don’t want to 

miss what you are saying. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator CARPER. Liar, liar, pants on fire. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator CARPER. All right; John, do you want to go first? 

Senator INHOFE. Whoever doesn’t want to hear. 

[Laughter.] 

66 

Senator BARRASSO. Well, I have some questions for Mr. Sternberg. 

Senator BOOZMAN. Thank you all so much for holding this very 

important hearing. 

Before I get started, I would like to take a second to offer a group 

of support letters for the SRF WIN Act that we have been talking 

about and some of you all have mentioned in your testimony. This 

includes the National Rural Water Association, the Council of Infrastructure Financing Authorities, the American Society of Engineers, the Associated General Contractors of America, the American Council of Engineering Companies, the National Association of 

Clean Water Agencies, Ducks Unlimited, the American Public 

Works Association, the Rural Community Assistance Partnership, 

the Water Systems Council, the International Union of Operating 

Engineers, the Vinyl Institute, the Hydraulic Institute, California 

Association of Sanitation Agencies, Orange County Water District. 

I would also like to take a second and thank the EPA Office of 

Water, the Council of Infrastructure Financing Authorities, American Water Works Association, Water Environment Federation, and 

the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies for providing us 

technical assistance to ensure that we preserve the WIFIA and 

SRF programs for years to come. 

[The referenced information follows:] 

67 


31136.046

En~c.urin: Dir~tctor 

Farrell 

\\'a:;!lington, DC20003 

November 28. 201 7 

The Honorable John Boozman 

United States Senate 

SH-141 Hart Senate Ofl1cc Building 

Washington. D.C. 20510 

RE: Strong Support for SRF WIN Act 

Dear Senator Boozman: 

I am 'WTiting on behalf of the membership of the Council of Infrastructure Financing 

Authorities (CJFA) to indicate our support for your legislation, the "Securing Required 

Funding for Water Infrastructure Now Act" which proposes an important new source 

of funding for State Revolving Fund programs that will enable states to expand 

assistance to communities to build and improve water infrastructure. 

CIF A is the national organization of State programs that manage the Clean Water 

State Revolving Ftmds and the Drinking Water State Revolving Funds. State SRF 

managers work with local communities to provide financing of critical projects to 

assure safe and clean water for our citizens. The SRF programs have a remarkable 

record of success in improving water quality but there remains an urgent need to 

continue and build on that investment if progress is to continue. The "SRF WIN Act" 

will allow state to access additional needed financing to assist more communities to 

meet their water inlrastrocture needs. 

We believe the SRF progr-ams remain the most etTective means of providing 

municipalities the necessary support to build and improve water systems. We are 

heartened that your legislation recognizes the primary role of the SRFs in addressing 

this nation's water infrastructure challenges. Vle are most appreciative of your 

leadership in this regard. 

We look forward to progress on your proposal and stand ready to assist in any way we 

can to advance that effort. 

Sincerely, 

Jeff Freeman 

President 
68 


31136.047

The Honorable John Boozman 

United States Senate 

141 Hart Senate Office Building 

Washington, DC 20510 

Dear Chairman Boozman: 

0Jovembcr !, 2017 

The International Union of Operating Engineers deeply appreciates your leadership 

in developing water-infrastructure legislation, and we arc pleased to support the 

Securing Required Ftmding lor Water Infrasttucture Now Act (SRF WIN Act). 

The Intemational Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) represents nearly 400,000 

members in over 120 local unions across the U.S. and Canada, including members 

who operate and maintain heavy equipment in the constmction sector. In fact, every 

day thousands of Operating Engineers are building the nation's water and 

wastewater systems, locks, dams, and levees, as well as dredging pmts, harbors, 

and inland waterways. 

The !UOE is grateful for your outreach to key water-infrastructure constituencies 

early in the process of crafting your legislation, allowing valuable input along the 

way and ultimately building coalition support for the legislation. We are pleased to 

join our partners in the Water Infrastructure Network as early endorsers of the SRF 

WIN Act. 

The need for water investments is well documented. Democrats and Republicans 

particularly the leaders of the Environment and Public Works Committee have 

jointly identified the problem and worked successfully over the years to craft 

bipartisan solutions to address those needs. Our Water Infrastructure Network 

partner, the American Society of Civil Engineers, in its annual report card gave 

water infrastn1cture a near-failing grade. 

The SRF WJN Act is designed to build upon the existing. eftcctive programs in 

current law: the State Revolving Funds and the relatively new program, the Water 

Infrastructure Finance Innovation Act (W!FIA). The State Revolving Funds have 

successfully delivered water infrastructure funding to communities of all sizes for 

a generation. Combining the program delivery of the SRFs with the leveraging 

capability established through WTFIA could bring out the best in both programs, 

enhancing their efficiency, reach, and accountability, putting project review in the 

hands of the agencies that have capacity and cxpert.ise in conducting due diligence 

on water systems. 
69 


31136.048

The Securing Required Funding for Water lnlrastructurc Now Act includes: 

• A minimum of$50 billion in newfimdl' for the existing State Revolving Funds 

• The reduction of significant application fees for State finance Authorities 

• Project eligibility for all projects on the "Intended Use Plans" 

• An expedited review process for State Financing Authorities 

Provisions to ensure that this new program does NOT undenninc existing SRF and 

WIFIA programs 

• The removal ofWIF!A as a "Pilot" program 

• Equal consideration of water and wastewater projects 

The Office of Management and Budget estimated that a $1 billion appropriation would suppoti 

$65 billion in direct loans to the State Finance Authorities administering the revolving funds. The 

State Finance Authorities would usc these new direct loans to ilnance the thousands of already 

vetted water and wastewater infrastructure projects contained within their existing Intended Usc 

Plans. Providing State Finance Authorities with these WIFIA loans is the most effective and 

efficient means for the federal govemment to support water and wastewater construction projects 

in communities across the nation. Your legislation could not come at a more critical time for these 

communities. 

Despite a gradual improvement in the state of the construction economy over the last decade, the 

water and sewer system segment of the construction sector is still down about 1 0% from its prerecession level. The construction unemployment rate is still one of the highest of any sector in the 

economy. Thousands of Operating Engineers and other craftworkcrs are trained and ready to work. 

The [ntemationa! Union of Operating Engineers supports the Securing Required Funding for 

Water Infrastructure Now Act, and looks forward to working with you to enact it into law within 

the year. Thank you again for your leadership, 

Sincerely, 
70 


31136.049

AR1 DANIEL, President 

EDDIE STEWART, Senior Vice President 

DIRK ELSPERMAN, Vke Presldent 

MICHAEL MORRAND, Treas1..1rer 

STEPHEN E. SANOHfRR, Chief Executive Officer 

DAVID LUKENS, Chief Operating Officer 

October 31, 201 7 

Senator Jobn Boozman 

Chairman 

ACC of America 

Senate Environment & Public Works Fisheries, Water and Wildlife Subcommittee 

141 Hart Office Building 

Washington, DC 20510 

Dear Chairman Boozman, 

On behalf of the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), I wanted to share our strong 

support for the Securing Required Funding f(lf Water Infrastructure Now Act- SRF W!N Act, 

Your legislation will provided significant and much-needed improvements to our nation's rural 

and urban water infrastructure with over $50 billion available to states to address their respective 

needs. We encourage all Senators to cosponsor this important and timely legislation, 

The SRF-WIN Act is a fiscally responsible and innovative concept that utilizes the significant 

leveraging of the F edcra1 infrastructure limding through the Water InJrastructure Finance 

Innovation Act (WIFIA) progran1 to finance Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water State 

Revolving Funds (SRFs), Based on the 011!ee of Management and Budget (OMB) Subsidy 

Ratio the $200 million appropriation authorized in the SRF WJN Act would support $13 billion 

in direct loans for to State Finance Authorities to finance thousands of much-needed water and 

wastewater construction projects in communities throughom the country. 

AGC has long advocated for increased funding for Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water SRF's 

and we arc encouraged that the SRF W!N Act ensures that SRF grant timding must be prcsen·cd 

by including a provision that requires Congress tully appropriate SRF grant dollars at 2017 levels 

or higher before funding for this program be made available. This provision will ensure that 

WlFtA funding wii! be supplemental to the current Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water SRF 

grants. 

Again, AGC fully supports the SRF W!N Act's significant and fiscally responsible investments 

in our nation's water infrastructure and we urge all members of the Senate to co-sponsor and 

support passage of this important legislation. 

Sincerely, / / ~ 

~J2:::?;fY 

JeHrcy D. Shoaf 

Senior Executive Director~ Government Affairs 

Phone: 703.548.3118 • Fax: 703.837.5400 • www,agc.org 
71 


31136.050

October27, 2017 

The Honorable John Boozman 

141 Hart Senate Office Building 

Washington, DC 20010 

Dear Senator Boozman: 

On behalf of the American Public Works Association (APWA) and our more than 30,000 members, I am 

writing to thank you for your work on the Securing Required Funds for Water Infrastructure Now (SRF 

WIN) Act of20 17. This significant legislation will help communities across our nation maintain and 

enhance their drlnking water infrastructure by providing much needed financial support. 

Providing over $50 billion over five years in leveraged funding, directly to states, allows those on the 

ground in our nation's communities to finance essential water infrastructure projects. By applying the 

leveraging component of the Water Infrastructure Finance Innovation Act (WIFlA) program directly to 

the state-administered State Revolving Fund (SRF} programs. you have combined the best elements of 

both programs, Additionally, by providing funding directly tD state financing authorities. as prescribed in 

WIFJA, you have streamlined the application process, allowing states to bundle prc:iects from their 

intended use plan into one application, Finally, we applaud your eflOrts in preserving continued federal 

funding for the SRF Capitalization Grant program, ensuring that funding levels for that program will not 

decrease, 

Each day public works professionals are diligently working to protect and maintain the critical 

infrastructure that is so essential to protecting our health and quality of life. Accause of our shared 

commitment, APWA looks forward to continuing to work with you and ym1r staff on this legislation to 

help public works professionals meet our -.t.atcr infrastructure challenges. 

Sincerely) 

William 8, (Bo) Mills, Jr., PWLF 

President 
72 


31136.051

Senator John Boozman 

Chairman, 

WATER INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK 

October !6, 20 17 

Fisheries, Water and Wildlife Subcommittee 

141 Hrut Senate Office Building 

Washington, DC 20510 

Re: SRF WIN Act-The Water Infrastructure Network's Strong Support 

Dear Chairman Boozman, 

The Water Infrastructure Network (WIN), a coalition of the nation's.leading construction, 

engineering, municipal, conservation, public works, labor and manufacturing organizations, 

strongly supports the Securing Required Fm1ding for Water Infrastructure Now Act- the SRF 

W1N Act , and encourages all United States Senators to cosponsor this timely legislation. The 

United States is facing a water infrastructure funding crisis as docun1ented in recent reports by 

CBO, EPA and WIN and underscored by recent commitrnents by Congress and the Tnunp 

Administration to provide full funding of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and Safe Drinking Water 

Act (SDWA) State Revolving Funds (SRFs). The SRF WIN Act is a fiscally responsible 

approach to provide States with over $50 B dming the next five years for significant 

improvements to our nation's rural and urban water infrasttucture. 

The SRF WIN Act utilizes the significant leveraging of Federal infrastructme funding 

established through the Water lnfrastructme Finance Innovation Act (WIF1A) Ptogram- PL 

113-121 - to finance the existing Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act State Revolving 

Funds (CWA and SDWA SRFs). In the 2017 Budget Request, OMB estimated the Subsidy 

Ratio (anticipated riskiness of the future loan portfolio) ior WIFIA appropriated funds at 1 ;65. 

Under this SUbsidy Rate a $200 M annual appropriation would support $13 B in direct loans to 

the State Finance Authorities administering the CWA and SDWA SRFs. The State Finance 

Authorities would utilize these new direct h,lans to finance the thousands of existing and vetted 

water and wastewater infrastructure projects on their existing Intended Use Plans. Providing 

State Finance Authorities WIFJA Loans is the most effective and efficient means for the Federal 

government to support water and wastewater construction projects across the nation. 

State Finance Authorities have been successfully tinancing wastewater infrastructure 

projects through the CWA SRF for the past 30 years and drinking water infrastructme through 
73 


31136.052

Page2 

the SDW A SRF for the past 20 years. State Finance Authorities have solicited and assessed 

thousands of water infrastmcture project proposals submitted by large and small cornniunities in 

every state and Congressional District. The States currently have thousands of vetted water 

infrastructure pr~jects awaiting SRF funding. 

State Finance Authorities, are in a position to combine new WIFIA leveraged funding 

with existing SRF Funds to expeditiously finance thousands of existing and vetted water 

infrastructure projects. Under current law, State Finance Authorities are eligible recipients of 

WIFIA Funding and are able to bundle existing vetted, water and wastewater projects into a 

single WIFIA loan proposaL On July 19,2017, EPA "approved" a $436 M WIFIA Loan to the 

Indiana Finance Authority that will be combined with $454 M in State SRF Funding to construe! 

$890 M in drinking water and wastewater projects across Indiana. The objective of the SRF 

WIN Act is to expand the utilization of this innovative water infrastmcture financing tool to all 

states. 

The SRF WIN Act advances significant, fiscally responsible, investments in our nation's 

water infrastmcture and the Water Infrastructure Network urges all Members ofthe United 

States Senate to co-sponsor and support the passage of this landmark legislation. 

Sincerely, 

The WIN Executive Committee 

American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) 

American Public Works Association {APWA) 

American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE} 

Associated General Contractors of America {AGCA) 

International Union of Operating Engineers {IUOE) 

laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) 

National Association Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) 

National Rural Water Association (NRWA) 

United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters (The United) 

Vinyl Institute (VI) 
74 


31136.053

October 18, 2017 

The Honorable Sheldon Whitehouse 

U.S. Senator 

530 Hart Senate Office Building 

Washington, DC 20510 

Re: Taco, Inc;. supports the SRF WIN Act 

Dear Senator Whitehouse: 

A Taco Family Company 

On behalf of our over 400 employees throughout Rhode Island, Taco is pleased to offer our 

support for the Securing Required Funding for Water Infrastructure Now (SRF WIN) Act. The SRF 

WIN Act is being championed by Senator John Boozman, a fellow member and chairman of the 

Fisheries, Water and Wildlife Subcommittee. We ask you to give Senator Boozman and the Act 

your full support as it progresses through congress. 

The SRF WIN Act has the potential to provide over $50 billion during the next five years for 

improvements to America's water infrastructure. 

Grants to states through the EPA State Revolving Fund programs have been the backbone of 

federal support for local water infrastructure projects for decades. Yet despite billions of dollars in 

federal funding through the grant program, America's water infrastructure continues to have 

incredible unmet needs. 

So while we remain firmly behind the grants, we believe that the innovative loan program In SRF 

WIN, which has already proven its potential through a pilot program, is critical to strengthening 

our water infrastructure. Providing State Finance Authorities increased funding Is an efficient and 

sensible approach for the Federal government to support water and wastewater infrastructure 

projects across the nation. 

The SRF WIN Act could create and support thousands of manufacturing jobs over the next five 

years. Conservative estimates project 23,000 construction, engineering and manufacturing jobs 

are created for every billion dollars of investment In water infrastructure. 

Taco provides a diverse range of high-efficient pumps, tanks, controls and components 

which are used throughout the U.S. water collection and distribution Infrastructure. 

Thank you for your commitment to rebuilding's America's water Infrastructure. 

Respectfully, 

Mark Chaffee 

Vice President, Governmental Relations & Sustainability 

CC: Mr. Josh Karetny 

Taco Inc., 1160 Cranston Street, Cranston, Rhode Island 02920 TEl: 401.942.8000 FAX: 401.942.2360 

www.TacoComfort.com 
75 


31136.054

President. 

Rogers$. 

Chairman of the Board 

One Waterfowl Way 

October 16, 2017 

Senator John Boozman 

Chairman 

Fisheries, Water and Wildlife Subcommittee 

141 Hart Senate Office Building 

Washington, DC 20510 

Chairman Boozman: 

I write today in support of your efforts to increase the investment in clean water 

infrastructure through the introduction of the bipartisan Securing Required 

Funding for Water Infrastructure Now Act- the SRF WIN Act. 

www.ducks.org 

Ducks Unlimited (DU) is the world's largest nonprofit organization dedicated to 

conserving North America's waterfowl habitats. Established in 1937 by a group of 

concerned waterfowl hunters, Ducks Unlimited has conserved more than 14 million 

acres thanks to contributions from more than a million supporters across the 

continent. Guided by science and dedicated to program efficiency, DU works 

toward the vision of wetlands sufficient to fill the skies with waterfowl today, 

tomorrow and forever. 

The SRF WIN Act will utilize leveraged federal infrastructure funding established 

through the Water Infrastructure Finance Innovation Act (WIFIA) Program- PL 113-

121- to finance the existing Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act State 

Revolving funds (CWA and SDWA SRFs), which has the potential to provide 

significant funding to our nation's clean water infrastructure. In turn, these 

investments will improve habitat for ducks, fish and other wildlife and further 

boost the resiliency of sportsmen and women for generations to come. 

Thank you for introducing this bipartisan legislation. I look forward to working with 

you to advance the SRF WIN Act. 

Sincerely, 

H. Dale Hall 

Chief Executive Officer 
76 


31136.055

October 13, 2017 

The Honorable John Boozman 

U.S. Senator 

141 Hart Senate Office Building 

Washington, DC 20510 

Re: ABB supports the SRF WIN Act 

Dear Senator Boozman: 

On behalf of our over 2,600 employees throughout Arkansas in our Balder motor business, ABB is 

pleased to offer our support for the Securing Required Funding for Water Infrastructure Now 

(SRF WIN) Act. 

The SRF WIN Act has the potential to provide over $50 billion during the next five years for 

improvements to America1

s water infrastructure. 

Grants to states through the EPA State Revolving Fund programs have been the backbone of 

federal support for local water infrastructure projects for decades. Yet despite billions of dollars 

in federal funding through the grant program, America's water infrastructure continues to have 

incredible unmet needs. 

So while we remain firmly behind the grants, we believe that the innovative loan program in SRF 

WIN, which has already proven its potential through a pilot program, is critical to strengthening 

our water infrastructure. 

The SRF WIN Act could create and support thousands of manufacturing jobs over the next five 

years. Conservative estimates project 23,000 construction, engineering and manufacturing jobs 

are created for every billion dollars of investment in water infrastructure. 

ABB provides a diverse range of technologies for water infrastructure, from power generation to 

distribution automation to measurement and analytics. Of course, ABB Baldor motors, 

manufactured in Fort Smith and supported by our operations in Clarksville, Jonesboro and Ozark 

are essential to pumping operations associated with water treatment, distribution and 

collection. 

Thank you for your commitment to rebuilding America's water infrastructure. 

Respectfully, 

Jim Creevy 

Vice President 

Government Relations 

ABBine. 

USA 

Phone: +1202 6-381256 

ema\L jinu:retl-vy@us.abb.<:om 

www.abb.com 
77 


31136.056

Senator John Boozman 

Chairman, Fisheries, Water and Wildlife Subcommittee 

141 Hart Senate Office Building 

Washington, DC 20510 

Re: Danfoss' Support for The SRF WIN Act 

Dear Chairman Boozman, 

Dan foss 

1 Scroll Drive 

Arkadelphia, AR 71923 

phone: 870-246-0898 

Fax: 410·931·8256 

Date: October 12,2017 

Danfoss is a global manufacturer of controls, compressors, heat exchangers1 sensors, valves and variable 

frequency drives used in the water/wastewater sector. Danfoss has fifteen facilities employing over 3000 

people in the US to support our $1 billion business here1 much of it to original equipment manufacturers. 

Our Arkadelphia, Arkansas facility has approximately 200 employees. 

Danfoss appreciates your continued leadership to significantly increase funding for America's water 

infrastructure and strongly supports the Securing Required Funding for Water Infrastructure Now Act· the 

SRF WIN Act. 

We ask you to co~sponsor and support the passage of this important legislation. The SRF WtN Act has the 

potential to create and support thousands of manufacturing jobs over the next five years. Conservative 

estimates project 23,000 construction, engineering and manufacturing jobs are created for every billion 

dollars of investment in water infrastructure. Through proven leveraging of federal water infrastructure 

dollars- the SRF W!N Act has the potentia! to provide over $50 Billion during the next five years for 

improvements to America's water infrastructure. 

The SRF WIN Act combines the proven delivery capacity of the CWA and SDWA State Revolving Funds with 

the significant leveraging of Federal infrastructure funding established through the Water Infrastructure 

Finance Innovation Act (WIFIA) Program- PL 113-121. In the 2017 Budget, OMB estimated the Subsidy Ratio 

for WIFIA appropriated funds at1:65. Under this Subsidy Rate a $200M annual Appropriation would support 

$13 Bin direct loans to the State Finance Authorities administering the CWA and SDWA SRFs. Providing State 

Finance Authorities increased funding is an efficient and sensible approach for the Federal government to 

support water and wastewater infrastructure projects ac:ross the nation. 
78 


31136.057

The SRF WIN Act removes barriers to State Finance Authority participation in WIF!A by eliminating upfront 

application fees. The SRF WIN Act provides for expedited EPA consideration of WIFIA applications submitted 

by State Finance Authorities. Finally, the SRF WIN Act provides for State Finance Authorities to receive low 

interest loans~ at or below the Treasury Rate. 

The SRF WIN Act provides for fiscally responsible investments in our nation's critical water infrastructure that 

will improve US Competitiveness in the long-term and support US Manufacturing jobs in the near~term. 

Again, we hope that you will co-sponsor and support this important legislation. 

Sincerely, 

Karl Lobry 

Director of Operations 
79 


31136.058

October 12, 2017 

The Honorable John Boozman 

United States Senate 

Washington, DC 20510 

Dear Senator Boozman, 

On behalf of the Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP). I would like to 

express our support for the "Securing Required Funding for Water Infrastructure Now 

(SRF WTN) Act of2017" legislation. 

RCAP is a national network of six regional non-profit organizations working to ensure 

that rural and small communities throughout the country have access to safe drinking 

water and sanitary wastewater disposal. The RCAP Network provides a variety of 

programs to accomplish this goal, including direct training and on the ground technical 

assistance. 

RCAP appreciates that this legislation amends the Water Infrastructure Finance and 

Innovation Act (W!FIA) to allow State infrastmcture financing authorities to receive 

additional resources to support both the Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving 

Funds (SRFs), which arc critical to funding water projects in all communities across the 

United States. 

We look forward to working with you to advance this legislation that will help small 

communities access additional WIFIA and SRF funding for much-needed water and 

wastewater infrastructure upgrades integral to economic growth in rural America. 

In closing, we appreciate your ongoing commitment to addressing rural Amelica's 

substantial water infrastructure needs. This legislation is integral to achieving long-term 

viability of rural communities and water/wastewater systems throughout the United 

States, while ensuring that all Americans have access to clean, safe, and affordable 

drinking water. We stand ready to work with you and your Senate colleagues to ensure 

this legislation is passed. 

Nathan Ohle 

Executive Director 

Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP) 
80 


31136.059

October 10, 2017 

The Honorable John Boozman 

141 Hart Senate Office Building 

Washington, D.C. 20510 

Dear Senator Boozman1 

We are writing to express our support for the Securing Required Funds lor Water Infrastructure Now (SRF WIN) Act, a 

bill that will leverage Federal infrastructure funding established through the Water Infrastructure Finance and 

Innovation Act (WIFIA) program to finance critical water infrastructure investments. A well-maintained public 

drinking water and wastewater infrastructure system is critical for public health, strong businesses, and clean waters 

and aquifers, but the age-old adage "out of sight, out of mind" plagues our nation's ability to adequately invest in 

water infrastructure systems. 

The American Society of Civil Engineers' (ASCE) 2017/nfrastructure Report Card gave the nation's wastewater 

infrastructure a grade of "D+" and the nation's drinking water infrastructure a grade of "D." Despite increased 

efficiency methods and sustainable practices, there is a growing gap between the capital needed to maintain drinking 

water and wastewater infrastructure and the actual investments made. By 2025, the disparity between needed and 

anticipated funding for drinking water and wastewater systems will be $105 billion. 

The Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) and the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF)- both 

authorized by Congress several decades ago- play a vital role in providing much-needed support for investments in 

state and local drinking and wastewater infrastructure. Another important financing mechanism- authorized in the 

2014 Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA)- is WIFIA, which assists in financing large water 

infrastructure projects over $20 million. 

The SRF WIN Act blends the most successful parts of the SRFs and WIFIA to create a program that gives State Finance 

Authorities access to WIFIA loans for drinking and wastewater Infrastructure projects. This program would offer a 

new and efficient tool to leverage limited federal resources and stimulate additional investment in our nation's 

infrastructure while safeguarding against any cuts to the existing SRFs and WIFIA programs. 

America's wastewater infrastructure provides a critical service to the public; therefore, it is crucial that sustained, 

significant, and strategic investments from all levels of government and the private sector are made. We thank you 

for your introduction of this innovative new water infrastructure financing tool and welcome the opportunity to work 

with you on this critically important issue. 

Kristina L. Swallow, P.E., ENV SP, F. ASCE 

2018 President of the American Society of Civil Engineers 
81 


31136.060

-.-'\II for dreams 

October 17, 2017 

The Honorable John Boozman 

Chairman, Fisheries, Water and Wildlife Subcommittee 

141 Hart Senate Office Building 

Washington, DC 20510 

RE: Nidec Motor Corporation's Support for The SRF WIN Act 

Dear Chairman Boozman: 

Kei Y. Pang 

Chief Executive Officer 

Nidec Motor Corporation 

8050 West Florissant Avenue 

P.O. Sox 36912 

St. louis, MO 63136 

USA 

The Nidec Motor Corporation is one of the largest global manufacturers of electric 

motors employing over 130,000 people in 40 countries. The Nidec large motor plant in 

Mena, Arkansas produces motors that drive pumps and pumping systems operating the 

infrastructure of our country. Nidec appreciates your committee's efforts to secure 

funding for America's water infrastructure and strongly supports the Securing Required 

Funding for Water Infrastructure Now Act the SRF WIN Act. Nidec encourages all 

Members of the United States Senate to co-sponsor and support the passage of this 

landmark legislation. The SRF WIN Act has the potential to create and support 

thousands of manufacturing jobs over the next five years. Conservative estimates 

project 23,000 construction, engineering and manufacturing jobs are created for every 

billion dollars of investment in water infrastructure. Through proven leveraging of 

federal water infrastructure dollars the SRF WIN Act has the potential to provide over 

$50 B during the next five years for improvements to America's water infrastructure. 

The SRF WIN Act combines the proven delivery capacity of the CWA and SDWA State 

Revolving Funds with the significant leveraging of Federal infrastructure funding 

established through the Water Infrastructure Finance Innovation Act {WIFIA) Program -

PL 113·121. 

In the 2017 Budget, OMB estimated the Subsidy Ratio for WIF!A appropriated funds at 

1:6S. Under this Subsidy Rate, a $200M annual Appropriation would support $13B In 

direct loans to the State Finance Authorities administering the CWA and SDWA SRFs. 

8050 West Florissant Avenuer Saint Louis, Missouri 63136 
82 


31136.061

.,:\II for dreams 

Providing State Finance Authorities increased funding is an efficient and sensible 

approach for the Federal government to support water and wastewater infrastructure 

projects across the nation. 

The SRF WIN Act removes barriers to State Finance Authority participation in WIFIA by 

eliminating upfront application fees. The SRF WIN Act provides for expedited EPA 

consideration of WIFIA applications submitted by State Finance Authorities. Finally, the 

SRF WIN Act provides for State Finance Authorities to receive low interest loans -at or 

below the Treasury Rate. 

The SRF WIN Act provides for fiscally responsible investments in our nation's critical 

water infrastructure that will improve US Competitiveness in the long-term and support 

US Manufacturing jobs in the near-term. Nidec Motor Corporation asks all Members of 

the United States Senate to co-sponsor and support this important legislation. 

Sincerely, 

~~4 KeiPang 

Chief Executive Officer 

Nidec Motor Corporation 

8050 West Florissant Avenue, Saint Louis, Missouri 63136 
83 


31136.062

; HYDRAULIC I 

INSTITUTE 

October 12, 2017 

Senator John Boozman 

Chairman, Fisheries, Water and Wildlife Subcommittee 

141 Hart Senate Oftlce Building 

Washington, DC 20510 

Re: The Hydraulic Institute's Strong Support for The SRF WIN Act 

Dear Chairman Boozman, 

Thank you for your support of water infrastructure funding and your continued leadership. The Hydraulic 

Institute (HI), a trade association representing the nation's major manufacturers of pumps and pumping systems 

(member list attached) greatly appreciates your work to significantly increase funding for America's water 

infrastructure and strongly supports the Securing Required Funding for Water Infrastructure Now Act· the SRF 

WIN Act. 

HI encourages all Members of the United States Senate to co-sponsor and support the passage of this landmark 

legislation. The SRF WIN Act has the potential to create and support thousands of manufacturing jobs over the 

next five years. Conservative estimates project 23,000 construction, engineering and manufacturing jobs are 

created for every billion dollars of investment in water infrastructure. Through proven leveraging of federal 

water infrastructure dollars- the SRF WIN Act has the potential to provide over $50 B during the next five years 

for improvements to America1S water Infrastructure. 

The SRF WIN Act combines the proven delivery capacity ofthe CWA and SDWA State Revolving Funds with the 

significant leveraging of Federal infrastructure funding established through the Water Infrastructure Finance 

Innovation Act (WIFIA) Program- PL 113·121. In the 2017 Budget, OMB estimated the Subsidy Ratio for WIFIA 

appropriated funds at 1:65. Under this Subsidy Rate a $200M annual Appropriation would support $13 Bin 

direct loans to the State Finance Authorities administering the CWA and SDWA SRFs. Providing State Finance 

Authorities increased funding is an efficient and sensible approach for the Federal government to support water 

and wastewater infrastructure projects across the nation. 

The SRF WIN Act removes barriers to State Finance Authority participation in WIFIA by eliminating upfront 

application fees. The SRF WIN Act provides for expedited EPA consideration of WIFIA applications submitted by 

State Finance Authorities. Finally, the SRF WIN Act provides for State Finance Authorities to receive low interest 

loans· at or below the Treasury Rate. 

The SRF WIN Act provides for fiscally responsible investments in our nation's critical water infrastructure that 

will improve US Competitiveness in the long-term and support US Manufacturing jobs in the near-term. The 

Hydraulic Institute asks all Members of the United States Senate to co-sponsor and support this important 

legislation. 

Executive Director, Hydraulic Institute 

6 Campus Drive 1 I" FloorN. 1 Parsippany, NJ 07054 I 973,267,9700 1 FAX 973.267.9055 

www.Pumps.org 
84 


31136.063

!HYDRAULIC I 

!INSTITUTE I 

A. R Wilftey & Sons, Inc. 

'A.W. Chesterton Company 

'ABB LV Drives US 

'AESSEAL Inc. 

• AFT Applied Flow Technology 

Afton Pumps, Inc. 

Armstrong Fluid Technology 

ARO Fluid Products, Ingersoll Rand Industrial 

Technologies 

'Badger Alloys, Inc. 

'Baldor Electric Company 

'Biacoh Fluid Control, Inc. 

Boerger LLC 

Buffalo Pumps Div. of Air & liquid Systems Corp. 

Carver Pump CompanyPSG-GT 

Cascade Pump Company 

Chempump, a Division of Teikoku USA Inc. 

'Clarke Fire Protection Products, Inc. 

ClydeUnion Pumps, an SPX Brand 

Colfax Fluid Handling 

Crane Pumps & Systems, Inc. 

'Danfoss Drives 

'Dynamatic® Drive Source International inc. 

'EagleBurgmann Mechanical Seals 

Ebara International Corp- Fluid Handling Division 

Egger TURO Pumps North America, Inc. 

'Engineered Software, Inc. 

Essco Pump Division, Engineers Sales Service Co. 

Flowrox, Inc. 

Flowserve Corporation 

FPI Pumps, Inc. 

Franklin Electric Company, Inc. 

'General Rubber Corporation 

GIW Industries, Inc. (A KSB Company) 

Gorman-Rupp, Mansfield Division 

'Graphite Metallizing Corporation 

Great Plains Industries, Inc. 

Grundfos USA 

Grundfos Water Utility 

Peerless Pump Company 

Gusher Pumps 

Hayward Tyler, Inc 

HERMETIC-Pumps Inc., A Division of Hermetic.. 

PumpenGmbH 

Hydro. Inc. 

Hydroflo Pumps USA, Inc. 

INDAR Maquinas Hidraulicas 

'In pro/Seal - a Business Unit of Waukesha Bearings 

'lntelliqulp, LL 

'lsomag Corporation 

ITI Industrial Process 

lwaki America Incorporated 

• John Crane Inc. 

'KCF Technologies, Inc. 

Kirloskar Brothers Ltd. 

'Kop-Fiex Inc., Regal Beloit America 

KSB, Inc. 

Leistritz Advanced Technologies Corp. 

LEWA-NikkisoAmerica, Inc. 

'lovejoy 

2017 Membership 

Mel-Pro Global Pump Solutions- Dean Pump 

Product, A CECO Environmental Company 

Met-Pro Global Pump Solutions Fybroc!Sethco, 

A CECOEnvironmental Company 

Metso Minerals Industries, Inc. 

*Mikasa Corporation 

'Momentum Engineered Systems, Inc. 

National Pump Company 

Netzsch Pumps North America, LLC 

Netzsch Canada, Inc. 

'Nidec Motor Corporation 

*NSK Corporation 

Patterson Pump Company 

Pentair 

Pentair- Aurora 

Pentair- Berkeley 

Pent air- Delta 

Pentair- Fairbanks Nijhuis 

Pentair- Hydromatic 

Pentair - Myers 

Price Pump Company 

PSG, a Dover Company 

Blackmer, Inc. 

Neptune Chemical Pump Co., Inc. 

Wilden® 

PUMPSENSE Fluid Engineering Pvt Ltd. 

PumpWorks 610 

Rectdy-Buffaloes Pump, Inc. 

'Roplan 

'Schneider Electric- Square D 

Scot Pump Division, Ardox Corp. 

ShinMaywa Industries, Ltd, 

Simflo Pumps, Inc. 

'SJE-Rhombus® 

Smith & Loveless, Inc. 

SPP Pumps, Inc. 

SULZER 

Sulzer Pump Solutions (US) lnc.-ABS USA 

Sulzer Pumps Solutions Inc. 

Sundyne LLC 

*Sun-Star Electric, Inc. 

TACO, Inc. 

'TB Wood's, lncJAitra Industrial Motion 

Thrush Co. Inc. 

'Tritec Seal 

·us Pump Corp 

Vertifio Pump Co., Inc. 

Wanner Engineering, Inc. 

Warren Rupp, Inc. 

'WEG Electric Corp. 

Weir Floway, Inc. 

Weir Minerals Lewis Pumps 

Weir Minerals North America 

Wilo USA LLC 

Xylem Inc. 

Xylem Inc. ·Applied Water Systems 

Xylem Inc. -Water Solutions 

• Associate Member 

6 Campus Drive I 1'' FloorN. I Parsippany, NJ 07054 1 973.267.9700 1 FAX 973.267.9055 

www.Pumps.org 
85 


31136.064

February 1, 2018 

The Honorable John Boozman 

U.S. Senate 

141 Hart Senate Office Building 

Washington, D.C. 20510 

Dear Senator Boozman: 

The WateReuse Association (WRA) would like to express support for S. 2364, the "Securing Required 

Funding for Water Infrastructure Now Act", or "SRF WIN Act". 

WRA is a strong supporter of both the State Revolving Funds (SRF) and the Water Infrastructure Finance 

and Innovation Act (WIFIA) program as important financing programs for water and wastewater 

infrastructure including water reuse infrastructure. SRF WIN brings the advantages of these two 

programs together to leverage additional low-cost capital that states, large and small, can use to address 

a massive backlog of critical water infrastructure projects. 

For many communities, reusing water is the only way to provide a safe, reliable, and locally-controlled 

supply of water, especially for communities experiencing significant growth or that regularly experience 

periods of prolonged drought. Communities incorporate water reuse to meet demand for potable and 

non-potable water supplies through methods such as recharging groundwater aquifers and augmenting 

surface water reservoirs. Communities facing water shortages are often in need of low-cost financing to 

help ensure these alternative supply systems remain financially viable to their customers. 

The SRF WIN Act offers a useful complement to the existing SRF and WIFIA programs by providing states 

with an additional low-cost financing tool for recycled water systems that otherwise find it difficult to 

access necessary funds for investments. WRA members continue to turn to the SRF programs as a 

primary financing tool for these projects and we appreciate the legislative provisions incorporated in the 

legislation to ensure federal investment in the SRF remains strong. 

Thank you for your support and for your continued leadership and commitment to addressing our 

nation's water infrastructure investment needs. 

Sincerely, 

Patricia Sinicropi 

Executive Director 

WateReuse Association 
86 


31136.065

PH!Uf'lAIHIH!I!Y 

DENIS R. BilODEAU. P£ 

SHAWNilEWANE 

C!THYGREEK 

OINANSIIYtN 

VICEIHfS:AI!MlE!IT!l 

SH.P'f!ENR.SIIHOON 

lAMESVA.NOERS!LT 

!!Rtlf.EWHITAKER 

RGSERC.VOII,P.E 

February 8. 2018 

The Honorable John Boozman 

Chairman, Subcommittee on Water, and Wildlife 

Committee on Environment and Public 

United States Senate 

Washington, D.C. 20510 

President 

!.lEN!SR.BIUHlEAU,PE 

First Vice President 

PH!UPLAKTH!lNY 

S11condVieePr1!s1dtnt 

SHAWHOEWA!I£ 

RE: State Revolving Fund Water Infrastructure Now ActS. 2364 (SRF-WIN Act) -

Support 

Dear Chairman Boozman: 

The Orange County Water District (OCWD; the District) supports your efforts to bridge 

the construction funding gap for publicly-owned clean water infrastructure projects. As 

the leading voice for effective federal partnerships with local water agencies, OCWD 

appreciates that your legislation, the State Revolving Fund Water Infrastructure Now Act 

S. 2364 (SRF-WIN Act). both maintains the United States Environmental Protection 

Agency's State Revolving Loan Fund Program and creates a vital new program of 

assistance. 

The SRF-WIN Act, introduced on a bipartisan basis, would establish a new water 

infrastructure program to provide direct assistance to states that could be leveraged. in 

a manner consrstent wrth the existing Water Infrastructure Financing and Innovation Act 

(WIFIA) program, to help clear individual state project backlogs. In California, projects 

cannot be constructed because the State Revolving Fund (SRF) is financially incapable 

of addressing all the pending needs. The District believes that if the SRF program 

would not be impacted by a new source of revenue to the states, and the SRF would be 

fully funded at not less than fiscal year 2018 levels, then an approach like that detailed 

in the SRF-WIN Act holds promise. 

The SRF-WIN Act envisions providing states with funding assistance that could be 

leveraged using United States Treasury-rated bonds with no fees. This is vital to 

making the program attractive to public agencies. Also. the legislation authorizes 

California to use its share of any appropriated assistance to construct up to $7 billion of 

state infrastructure. This recognizes our population and overwhelming project needs. 

The State of California currently has $2 billion completed applications pending under the 

SRF program and another $5.6 billion in projects under development 
87 


31136.066

The Honorable John Boozman 

February 8, 2018 

Page 2 of 2 

As you and your colleagues consider final legislative options to help address the 

substantial funding need within the water sector, we look forward to working with you to 

advance the SRF WIN Act to address the substantial backlog of water projects and 

preserve the existing role that the SRF serves. If you have any questions. please do 

not hesitate to contact Legislative Liaison. Alicia Dunkin, at adunkin@ocwd.com or 

(714) 378-8232. 

Sincerely, 

Denis R. Bilodeau, PE 

President 

CC The Honorable Dianne Feinstein 

The Honorable Kamala Harris 
88 


31136.067

January 29, 2018 

The Honorable John Boozman 

Chair, Subcommittee on Fisheries, Water, Wildlife 

Committee on Environment and Public Works 

u<s< Senate 

Washington, D<C. 20510 

Dear Chair Boozman: 

The California Association of Sanitation Agencies (CASA) supports your efforts to bridge the 

construction funding gap for publicly owned clean water infrastructure projects< As the leading 

voice for California's public wastewater agencies, CASA wants to ensure that Congress is 

dedicated to maintaining a robust federal partnership under the Clean Water State Revolving 

Loan Fund (CWSRF) Program and to ensure that any new programs of assistance do not 

disadvantage this vital program< 

It is our understanding, from your staff, that you intend to introduce bipartisan legislation that 

would establish a new water infrastructure program to provide direct assistance to states that 

could be leveraged, in a manner consistent with the existing WIFIA program, to help address 

clean water project backlogs within individual states< California has a significant backlog of 

clean water projects, and existing CWSRF financial resources are inadequate to address these 

needs< Our preference would be for increased direct grant funding to the Clean Water SRF 

program< However, provided the SRF program would not be adversely impacted by a new source 

of revenue to the states, and that the CWSRF would be fully funded at not less than fiscal year 

2018 levels, an approach like that detailed in your draft proposal holds promise< 

The State of California currently has approximately $2 billion in completed project applications 

awaiting funding under the CWSRF program and another $5<6 billion in projects under 

development that will need funding< We understand your proposed legislation envisions 

providing states with funding assistance that could be leveraged using U<S< Treasury-rated 

bonds< It is important that this legislation provide California with a sufficient share of any 

appropriated assistance to construct up to $7 billion in clean water infrastructure projects< This 

amount is vital to address our population and overwhelming project needs< 

As you and your colleagues consider final legislative options to help address the substantial 

funding need within the water sector, we look forward to working with you to advance a balanced 

and effective investment in water infrastructure< 

Sincerely, 

~,4. 

Adam D< Link 

Director of Government Affairs 
89 

Senator BOOZMAN. Mr. Sternberg, let me ask you. The SRF has 

a great track record of handling SRF funding to address vitally important water issues, wastewater projects in the State for years. 

Rural States like Arkansas, though, have limited access to funding. 

Across the country, SRFs have thoroughly vetted projects from 

small, medium, and large communities that are waiting to be funded. 

Can you please explain what the additional funding created by 

another tool in the toolbox, like SRF WIN, what would that mean 

for water infrastructure in rural America? 

Mr. STERNBERG. Thank you, Senator Boozman. That is a great 

question. Let me just say Arkansas Natural Resources Commission 

is the agency in Arkansas that handles the SRF for the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act, and they have done an excellent job, but there is still a need. With this bill, you know, you 

have the SRF WIN in it, and that will allow the WIFIA program 

to be much more helpful to some of the rural communities such as 

we have in Arkansas, which is a very rural State, and many of 

your States are rural. 

But not only rural communities. We think it will steer the WIFIA 

to look at the communities with the greatest economic need and 

communities that each State thinks is the priority, and giving the 

State the priority that handles SRF to say this project needs to be 

funded. It also allows for that low interest rate to come through 

with the WIFIA funding. It will be an excellent partnership with 

the SRFs, and it will be excellent to the utilities across the State 

of Arkansas and many States across the Nation. 

Senator BOOZMAN. Ms. Swallow, we certainly appreciate your 

leadership and the great job that your organization does in constantly pushing us in the right direction and really describing the 

situation that we are in regarding infrastructure. 

Can you tell us a little bit about the growing shortfall in infrastructure funding in the country? 

Ms. SWALLOW. We could talk for days about that, Senator Boozman. So, when we start talking about the investment gap needed 

for our infrastructure systems, you can look at drinking water 

alone and recognize that we waste billions of gallons of water everyday through leaky pipes. That equates to trillions of gallons a 

year. And we don’t have a single drop of water to waste, really, especially in the western portions of our country. 

We have a growing funding gap. Currently, it is estimated, in the 

next 20 years, almost three-quarters of a trillion dollars, $750 billion is the funding gap on our water and wastewater needs alone. 

We have to find a way to invest in this infrastructure. 

Senator BOOZMAN. So, we are all doing the best we can. We are 

working away, but the current situation is not near as good as we 

would like, so something like an SRF WIN type of financing, how 

would that affect things? 

Ms. SWALLOW. First, I want to thank you for your sponsorship 

of the SRF WIN Act. It is—— 

Senator BOOZMAN. Myself and Senator Booker. 

Ms. SWALLOW. Yes, thank you, and Senator Booker. 

It is just one more tool in our toolbox that will help our local 

communities fund the infrastructure that they need to serve their 

90 

communities’ needs. It is intended to take the best parts of the 

State Revolving Funds and the WIFIA program and provide that 

access to our local communities where the State infrastructure financing authorities can implement the program. It provides additional flexibility; it doesn’t further tax the EPA with another program where the State infrastructure financing authorities are already administering our State Revolving Funds. 

So, it is a great tool. It will leverage the limited Federal funding $1 up to $50 in additional funding. It will be just one more tool 

that our local agencies can use. 

Senator BOOZMAN. Good. Thank you very much. 

Senator BARRASSO. Thank you, Senator Boozman. 

Senator Fischer. 

Senator FISCHER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Ms. Swallow, if I could follow up on some of this. As you know, 

our inland waterways are critically important for moving our abundant agricultural products to ports located along our coasts. As the 

only triple landlocked State in the Nation, Nebraska and our ag 

producers rely on efficient river barge traffic and a functional inland waterway network to supply our overseas customers with our 

high quality products. 

As you note in your testimony, there is great need for investments in maintenance and repair of these inland waterways. Also 

in your testimony you emphasize the benefits of WIFIA loans authorized by the Army Corps and the benefits that they could supply 

to this network. 

Can you elaborate on how the WIFIA loans could be applied for 

inland waterway projects? 

Ms. SWALLOW. WIFIA loans are, again, just one more tool that 

we have; it is an alternative financing mechanism where we can leverage the limited Federal investment $1 up to $50 of additional 

private and alternate funding sources. 

When we have insufficient funding, we have to be able to use all 

the tools that we have in our toolbox, and that is just another way 

that we can do it. The WIFIA program has just recently been started by the Army Corps, and we are excited to hear that, and we are 

looking forward to their continued implementation of it. 

Senator FISCHER. Do you believe that private-public partnerships 

are feasible when looking at inland waterways? Do you think that 

there will be private enterprises step forward to be able to access 

that funding? 

Ms. SWALLOW. As long as there is a way to offset and for them 

to see a revenue source, they are a great way to improve our network. As you mentioned, so many of our products go through that 

inland waterway system, so I do see that as a solution. 

Senator FISCHER. Thank you. 

Mr. Sternberg, I thank you for once again testifying before our 

Committee. Given your career working with wastewater infrastructure, I am sure you are familiar with unfunded Federal mandates, 

specifically those communities facing expensive Clean Water Act 

compliance requirements related to stormwater and wastewater 

projects. 

In my home State of Nebraska, the city of Omaha was hit with a $2 billion unfunded Federal mandate from the EPA to update its 

91 

combined sewer overflow system. I was pleased to see my Water 

Infrastructure Flexibility Act included as Section 5006 in the bill 

before us, and I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for that. 

The purpose of this section is to allow communities facing expensive stormwater and wastewater infrastructure updates to have 

greater flexibility to achieve compliance under the Clean Water 

Act. 

Mr. Sternberg, can you please discuss your experiences with communities that are forced to comply with expensive Federal mandates, and will this section of the bill help alleviate some of the financial and structural burdens these communities are facing? 

Mr. STERNBERG. Thank you, Senator. My experience in Arkansas, 

where there are about 700 community water systems, and then we 

have about 350-some wastewater systems—Arkansas, as Nebraska, 

is a rural State. The majority of all systems in the Nation, 14,500, 

serve less than 10,000. So, when you start passing regulations from 

EPA down to comply with the same level as a large city such as 

Omaha, it is harder because you don’t have the customer base to 

spread that cost across the board. It is very hard financially on the 

system, the customers of the system, but it has to be paid for some 

way or another. 

That is why a grant-loan ratio. That is why we think, also, there 

needs to be more technical assistance put in for Circuit Riders. 

That is what we do; we go out there and work with these small systems and larger systems with our equipment. We do the INI studies on their collection system. There is no need in building a brand 

new plant if you can fix the INI. It is kind of like Ms. Swallow 

mentioned, the water loss that you have on leaks on water systems. 

You know, let’s identify the problems and fix them; don’t build another well or another treatment plant because you have more 

leaks. It is the same way on the wastewater side. You know, let’s 

be reasonable. Let’s look at it. That is where the engineers do an 

excellent job identifying the problems on your utility to try to come 

in compliance. But we have always argued that unfunded mandates, EPA states that you need to do this, but they don’t fund it. 

We have had the same problem with the EPA on our technical 

assistance funding. Back in 2012 it was put out through EPA, no 

more earmarks, so in 2012 they had to go out and go through the 

process of bidding out all the technical assistance. Well, there were 

several different pieces of legislation that was introduced to make 

EPA streamlined and do it with the utilities that is deemed the 

most benefit, whatever nonprofit is most beneficial to them. They 

haven’t done that. EPA has not done that, and members on this 

Committee have wrote letters to EPA in regard to that, about, you 

know, you need to go back to this rule and do it this way, but they 

haven’t done it, and we have letters to back up, letters that Senators sent and EPA responded back. 

Senator FISCHER. We have seen a huge increase on these bills to 

the people in the city of Omaha, so I am hopeful that the flexibility 

provided in this bill is going to help alleviate some of that hardship 

they are facing. 

Mr. STERNBERG. I think it definitely will. 

Senator FISCHER. Thank you. 

Mr. STERNBERG. Thank you. 

92 

Senator BARRASSO. Thank you, Senator Fischer. 

Senator Whitehouse. 

Senator WHITEHOUSE. Thank you, Chairman. Let me open my 

time by thanking you and the Ranking Member for the constructive 

way in which this Committee is proceeding on WRDA legislation. 

We often find ourselves at odds on certain issues, but I applaud the 

way in which the Committee works in bipartisan fashion on the 

water resources, and I want to particularly recognize the both of 

you. 

Ms. Swallow, one of the things that we see is that the march of 

progress and innovation brings new materials to the fore, innovative materials, often composite materials. What is your read on 

how well the Army Corps engineering manuals and other guidance 

provide adequate preparation for applicants to be able to use those 

innovative materials in projects? Should that be a continuing focus 

to try to make sure that the standards that have been in place for 

concrete and steel and other more traditional materials are updated to include innovative and composite materials? 

Ms. SWALLOW. Senator Whitehouse, that is a fantastic question. 

Indeed, we do agree that we need to provide for all agencies to incorporate the use of new materials. We can’t continue to design 

projects the way we did 50 years. We can’t afford to do that, and 

the projects won’t be sustainable, so we need to figure out ways to 

incentivize development of these new materials, their use of the 

materials, and ensure that they do get into our projects. 

Senator WHITEHOUSE. And out of date engineering manuals and 

other guidance create a lag that inhibits the implementation of 

projects that include those new materials, correct? 

Ms. SWALLOW. It is natural that the standards and guidelines do 

have a bit of a lag, but the intention there is to ensure that we are 

protecting public safety and not implementing them too soon, so we 

need to make sure that we both incentivize the use of them, but 

also continue to ensure that they are being safely used. 

Senator WHITEHOUSE. Well, I appreciate that. 

In Rhode Island we have a lot of small communities, and I see 

Mr. Bullock here representing another coastal State with small 

communities. I have noted that the Army Corps’ Flood and Coastal 

Storm Damage Reduction Account in the fiscal year 2019 budget is 

funded at $1.49 billion. Of that $1.49 billion, we have found only 

$40 million marked for coastal projects. Even in the Flood and 

Coastal Storm Damage Reduction Account, the ratio of upland and 

inland projects to coastal projects appears to be about 37:1, which 

does not seem appropriate under virtually any circumstances, but 

particularly not appropriate when we look at the type of coastal 

flooding, coastal storm, lousy FEMA mapping, and other challenges 

that small communities face. 

What is your comment on that? 

Mr. BULLOCK. Senator, I am going to not tell you how to do your 

job, but I am going to yield to my fellow Delawarean to my left who 

is the expert in this. 

Senator WHITEHOUSE. I accept that referral. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator WHITEHOUSE. Mr. Pratt. 

93 

Mr. PRATT. And I am now retired from the State of Delaware, 

but 38 years in the business, and that is why my Secretary of State 

is referring over to me. 

From Delaware’s standpoint and from the national standpoint, 

we certainly see the problem with that discrepancy that small investment made to the coastline. I think to answer that, I would 

point out something I have said to this Committee in the past. For 

point of illustration, how far off we are in the investment, and I 

use the fact that we are depending, in my mind, anyway, we are 

depending too much anymore on supplementals to fund coastal restoration work. We are responding, and I certainly see a number of 

Senators—— 

Senator WHITEHOUSE. So your recommendation would be that we 

need to make a stronger focus on coastal restoration work right 

into the WRDA program? 

Mr. PRATT. Sixty-five billion dollars was spent for Hurricane Sandy supplemental, $65 billion. And of that, let’s say $20 billion 

of that was probably very much directly coastal related in the affected States. We take that number and we say $20 billion over one 

storm and maybe 25 percent of the coasts of the United States. If 

we had spent that money for 20 years over the entire Nation, that 

is $1 billion investment a year to avoid the damages and to avoid 

the suffering that occurred before we had to pay that cost of recovery. 

Senator WHITEHOUSE. In my final seconds, let me make the point 

that Rhode Island has not applied under the WIFIA program for 

some time now. One of the reasons is that the Rhode Island infrastructure bank is actually easier to work with; doesn’t require such 

a paperwork load up front and that, for smaller projects and for 

smaller communities, the WIFIA project really is not all that useful. So, I hope that as we continue to work our way forward, we 

can find ways to make the WIFIA program more amenable to 

smaller projects and smaller communities, because a great number 

of our coastal communities are smaller communities; we are not all 

New York City. 

Thank you. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator BARRASSO. Thank you, Senator Whitehouse. 

Senator GILLIBRAND. So sad for you. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator BARRASSO. Senator Capito. 

Senator CAPITO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Thank all of you for being here. 

And thank you and the Ranking Member for working so well together on this. 

This is really a question for anybody who wants to handle this 

on the panel. For many of our constituents, how the Corps actually 

deploys their funds and rehabilitates our waterway infrastructure 

is confusing and ultimately a disappointing maze. First you have 

a study that is authorized by Congress; then the Corps has to complete the study, often soliciting funds from their local stakeholders; 

then Congress authorizes the study and appropriates funds to the 

Corps for construction or operation and maintenance. Still, sometimes after all of this has occurred, nothing really happens, and 

94 

usually the refrain from the Corps is that the project failed to pass 

muster under the OMB’s benefit-cost ratio. That standard is $2.50 

in benefits for every $1.00 in Federal investment, with a discount 

rate of 7 percent for future or long-term benefits. 

Projects are having trouble meeting these threshold, and we are 

left to explain to our constituents that their project, no matter how 

important to the local community, can’t proceed, despite all of the 

Federal reviews. 

So, I was wondering, do any of you have experiences that you 

would like to share in which otherwise worthwhile projects have 

been put on indefinite hold because of this benefit-cost ratio issue? 

OK, so maybe that is not a problem. 

Yes, sir, Mr. Riley. 

Mr. RILEY. Senator Capito, I can only do perspective from some 

of the projects in my neighborhood. When you use that standard 

without looking out way into the future, there is much of the 

projects in our region that would have never been built at that 

time, so, yes, that is a huge one. I can tell you from personal experience, when you get the Army Corps of Engineers put their foot 

down on a project you have been working on for 10 years or longer, 

maybe decades beyond that, that will crush you right there in a 

local led effort. 

Senator CAPITO. Right. Well, I think this bill tries to help answer 

that question by letting districts regionalize their projects so they 

become larger. 

Mr. Pratt. 

Mr. PRATT. Just another perspective from the State of Delaware. 

I think there are 19 or 20 federally authorized navigation channels 

in the State, only 3 of which are being maintained. It is a different 

metric for determining how waterways are maintained, which ones 

are actually supported through dredging and surveying work. We 

have had channel markers removed within our State because the 

Coast Guard can’t verify the port channel is there anymore. It is 

a different metric, but it gets to the same point, that the rationalization of what projects we do has to be examined. I think this is 

why the National Academy Study is so important; it should get into 

that way in which the Corps does its business, see how we can 

modernize it, see how we can bring it forward and better serve the 

Nation. 

Senator CAPITO. Good. All right, thank you. 

Mr. Sternberg, in your testimony you highlighted, in Section 

5010, which contains the text of the Water Workforce Investment 

bill which Senator Booker and I have worked on. This provision establishes an EPA grant program to spur education, job training, 

and apprenticeship for careers. 

You mentioned this in your opening statement, but for a rural 

State like West Virginia, this is a huge challenge. Many of our 

folks that have been maintaining our water systems were under 

the old system and are retiring, and trying to find new and younger talent has been an issue for us. Could you speak to that, please? 

Mr. STERNBERG. Yes. Thank you, Senator. National Rural Water 

actually started working with the Workforce Development Department of Labor on apprenticeships for the water industry, and this 

last year we just kicked it off, and each State is working through 

95 

that process, but it is the same problem in our State, aging work 

force. We have an aging infrastructure for utilities, but we also 

have an aging work force as far as knowledgeable individuals that 

have run water and wastewater systems for years, and getting 

new, young blood to come in to the industry. 

One of the reasons I still believe is the pay scale is not where 

it should be. It is the most important thing we do every day. Everybody has to have good, safe drinking water. Everybody has to have 

a process for disposal of your stuff. I mean, it does not make sense 

to me. But I think with this it ignites and starts the process, and 

with this in the bill I think it is an opportunity for every State to 

start expanding out and going into the work force and bringing 

new people in. 

Senator CAPITO. Well, I have a small community in West Virginia where the person who was charged with keeping the water 

system running and providing the clean drinking water also was 

the person who checked the parking meters, and you know, took 

the notes at the city council meeting. 

Mr. STERNBERG. The dog catcher and everything. 

Senator CAPITO. The dog catcher and everything. And the way 

the requirements that we have now, you can’t do that; you have to 

have the professionalization that goes along with this, which can 

be very complicated, so thank you very much. 

Mr. STERNBERG. Thank you for the addition in this bill. 

Senator CAPITO. Thank you. 

Senator BARRASSO. Thank you, Senator Capito. 

Senator Gillibrand. 

Senator GILLIBRAND. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Ranking 

Member, for holding this hearing, and for your bipartisan leadership in drafting this bill, the America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 

2018. 

New York, as you know, has a wide range of water resource 

needs. We are a Great Lakes State and a coastal State. We have 

hundreds of dams and levees that are critical to communities 

across the State which must be properly maintained to ensure 

those communities are protected from flooding, and we face the 

threat of aquatic invasive species that, if unchecked, decimate fisheries and result in major economic and environmental damage. 

I am pleased that this bill includes a number of our very important priorities. This bill includes the Long Island Sound Restoration Stewardship Act, which reauthorizes and reforms Federal programs that are essential to reducing pollution and protecting the 

Long Island Sound Watershed. It also authorizes the Great Lakes 

Coastal Resiliency Study to protect communities like those that are 

experiencing devastating flooding last summer along Lake Ontario. 

I am also grateful that the bill will utilize the study for Chautauqua Lake Project to protect communities in Westchester from 

flood risk. 

With that, just a few questions. 

For Anthony Pratt, I appreciate in your testimony you mentioned 

the Great Lake Coastal Resiliency Study, which is a priority of 

mine and something that is so important for communities across 

central and western New York. As you may be aware, last summer 

we experienced record flooding along the shorelines of Lake OnVerDate Aug 31 2005 07:04 Aug 22, 2018 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00099 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\_EPW\DOCS\31136.TXT SONYA
96 

tario and the St. Lawrence River, resulting in a Federal disaster 

declaration due to the millions of dollars in damage of both property and infrastructure. 

Can you speak a little more about why it is important to conduct 

comprehensive regional resiliency studies like the North Atlantic 

Study conducted after Superstorm Sandy? 

Mr. PRATT. Yes, Senator. Thank you for that question; it is one 

that I mentioned briefly a few minutes ago that we support, 

ASBPA. 

Looking at the Nation as a whole, we have a series of studies 

that are done, North Atlantic Study, South Atlantic Study. There 

are two coastal studies in the Gulf Coast, and now the Great Lakes 

coming onboard, which brings us to a point where the Continental 

United States is going to have fairly comprehensive plans, without 

the West Coast engaged yet, on resiliency, and there are a number 

of forces at work for each one of those units or sections that is very 

unique. 

But developing a strategic plan going forward so we can spend 

the money to mitigate prior to the disaster, save the supplemental 

dollars that are being spent at far to a greater rate, as you understand from the State of New York, $65 billion spent for recovery 

from Hurricane Sandy. That was after the destruction of property, 

after the human suffering occurs. Let’s avoid the human suffering, 

let’s avoid the disruption; let’s get out in front of it and invest in 

that infrastructure that is going to protect the infrastructure that 

is behind it, and I think the coastal infrastructure is very important in that role. 

Senator GILLIBRAND. Do you see any projects the Corps could be 

looking at to improve the resiliency of coastal and Great Lake communities? And a follow on, in your view, what are the barriers that 

hold the Army Corps back from investing more in natural infrastructure projects like wetlands restoration, and what more should 

Congress be doing to address those barriers? 

Mr. PRATT. Well, I think this bill addresses that pretty well. In 

looking at the full suite of benefits across business lines that accrue 

from the investment made, looking at green infrastructure and nature-based infrastructure. In the Great Lakes region there is a lot 

of bluff erosion because beaches at the bottom of the bluffs are 

eroding. Great Lakes levels fluctuate over time because of a difference in weather patterns. 

There are a variety of different forces at work there, but that 

said, if we can invest in green infrastructure to avoid the damages 

up front, that is good, and the suite of benefits that accrue, by enumerating the solutions that have multiple benefits, I think the benefit-cost analysis is the area where we are not doing a good job on 

the benefit side, what comes from that investment. There would be 

many more values achieved through the investment of naturebased protection than we are counting, and that is an important 

step forward. 

Senator GILLIBRAND. Thank you, Mr. Pratt. 

Ms. Swallow, addressing the massive backlog of dam and levee 

safety projects is another important priority. We have approximately 400 high hazard dams in New York. What are the consequences if we fail to take this problem seriously and allow aging 

97 

dams and levees to continue to fall into disrepair, and how can the 

Corps provide better assistance to States and localities that are responsible for maintaining this infrastructure, but are faced with 

strained budgets and limited funds? 

Ms. SWALLOW. Senator Gillibrand, that is a great question. What 

are the consequences? The consequences are devastating if we fail 

to maintain our levees and our dams. The challenge with that is 

that we are not even aware of the full spectrum of levees that we 

have. We are underfunding our National Levee Safety program. We 

are only spending $5 million to $10 million a year, where it is authorized at $79 million a year. And some of those authorized funds 

actually would go to the repair of those levees. So, first we have 

to identify their locations. Once we know their locations and their 

condition, then we can start to repair them. 

In terms of high hazard dams, the number of high hazard dams 

is increasing annually as more and more people continue to move 

into areas that are protected by these dams. Roughly 17 percent of 

our 90,000 dams today are high hazard, and should that dam fail, 

it will result in a loss of life, so the consequences are devastating. 

Anything the Corps can do to help increase that investment in 

dams and levees, but really, it ultimately comes down to ensuring 

that we are appropriating the funds that are already authorized 

and making sure that we get those funds to the projects. 

Senator GILLIBRAND. Thank you. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Senator BARRASSO. Thank you very much, Senator Gillibrand. 

Senator Inhofe. 

Senator INHOFE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

I have three areas, as I listened to the opening statements and 

heard the responses to questions, that I think could use a little 

more elaboration. 

Mr. Sternberg, I wanted to tell you you have a real champion of 

rural water in Senator Boozman. He is one that is always on that 

ball, and we agree with the problems. After all, Oklahoma and Arkansas are both rural areas. We are both impacted by how we do 

treat that. 

What I would like to have you do is anything you want to add 

to how this bill is going to be helpful specifically to the rural areas, 

give you the chance now to elaborate on that, should you want to. 

Mr. STERNBERG. Thank you, Senator Inhofe. We appreciate all 

your work from Oklahoma for rural water. My counterpart, James 

Gammell, talks about you all the time, so thank you for the opportunity to add some additional stuff. 

My last comment on this bill would be, again, 14,500 wastewater 

systems throughout this Nation in every State represent 10,000 

population and under. They are the ones that rely on rural water 

technical assistance in the field, troubleshooting problems that they 

have because, again, they don’t have the expertise as larger systems where they have—— 

Senator INHOFE. We are the resources. I know it is not any different in Arkansas than it is in Oklahoma, and when this hits 

them, they have no way of responding to it as it might in a major 

metropolitan area. 

98 

Mr. STERNBERG. Exactly. So, the technical assistance funding for 

the clean water Circuit Riders is essential. It is essential. The Safe 

Drinking Water Act has the Circuit Rider technical assistance provision of $12.7 million. That is the issue that I have; EPA is a 

stumbling block because of how they have appropriated that money 

and put it out. 

Senator INHOFE. OK. That is an excellent statement. I just want 

to make sure we had everything in the record that referred to that. 

Mr. STERNBERG. I have a letter that the Senators here sent to 

EPA requesting that they—— 

Senator INHOFE. I think it would be appropriate to ask unanimous consent that that letter be made a part of the record at this 

point. 

Senator BARRASSO. Without objection. 

Mr. STERNBERG. Thank you. 

[The referenced information was not received at time of print.] 

Senator INHOFE. Ms. Swallow, really, 150,000 civil engineers? 

Did I hear you right? 

Ms. SWALLOW. Yes. 

Senator INHOFE. And you are in charge of all of them? 

Ms. SWALLOW. I am not so sure I am in charge. I represent them. 

Senator INHOFE. Well, in your statement, toward the latter part 

of your statement, you did address the SRF WIN Act, and I just 

want to remind everyone that not only myself, but also Chairman 

Barrasso is with Senator Boozman on this legislation. 

Now, from your very unique position, is there anything you have 

not said concerning that that you would like to get in the record? 

You are the head of the civil engineers. What do you think? 

Ms. SWALLOW. Thank you for the opportunity. We are really excited that this bill is being advanced in a bipartisan manner. We 

are excited to hear that you are working on the SRF WIN Act. Ultimately, when we talk about our infrastructure, anything we can do 

to increase the investment, that is the biggest challenge, is increasing the investment. We are woefully underfunding it. 

Senator INHOFE. OK. Well, I appreciate that very much. 

Mr. Riley, you responded to Chairman Barrasso’s statement 

when we talked about local participation. You know, there are 

some people who really don’t think a good decision is made unless 

it is made in Washington, and there are those of us who believe, 

who have served in the private sector, as well as the public sector, 

at local levels, we don’t agree with that. 

In your testimony you say the best decisions on water issues happen at the State and local level, and I would agree with that. The 

decisions made in Montana are just not the same as they would be 

made in my State of Oklahoma, in eastern Oklahoma versus western Oklahoma. That is why local decisions in control are so important. 

Is there anything you would like to expand on the advantages of 

the local participation that you have not yet? 

Mr. RILEY. Thank you, Senator Inhofe. I guess the proof is in the 

pudding, in fact, the local effort. That means that we have spent 

our money before we come to see you, and it is our idea; and I believe that sells it in itself, that we have come to you, we have spent 

a lot of money. In our State I have worked on rural water tribalVerDate Aug 31 2005 07:04 Aug 22, 2018 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00102 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\_EPW\DOCS\31136.TXT SONYA
99 

State irrigation projects. We are coming to you; that means that it 

has already been originated on our side of the ball, looking for help 

from you. 

Senator INHOFE. That is a great reminder, and we will all remember that. Thank you very much. 

And thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Senator BARRASSO. Thank you, Senator Inhofe. 

Senator Carper. 

Senator CARPER. Mr. Chairman, I received a number of letters of 

support from various outside shareholders and stakeholders. I 

would like to enter these into the record. They include the League 

of Conservation Voters, National Wildlife Federation, Audubon, 

American Rivers, American Shore and Beach Preservation Association, National Association of Realtors, the Environmental Defense 

Fund. 

I would just ask unanimous consent that those letters of support 

be entered into the record. 

Senator BARRASSO. Without objection. 

Senator CARPER. Thank you. 

[The referenced information was not received at time of print.] 

Senator CARPER. I just want to say this has been a great hearing. 

I mentioned to the Chairman. On issues, and usually water resources issues, we are very good at working together, and frankly 

on other issues as well. Some of our issues that we discuss are 

more contentious, as you might imagine, but this is just a great example of where we can, I think, make progress by setting aside our 

differences and focusing on what Mike Enzi, the Senator from Wyoming likes to say—and the Chairman has mentioned this before— 

but Mike Enzi likes to say the reason why he and Ted Kennedy 

used to get along so well on issues before the Health, Education, 

Labor, and Pensions Commission when Ted Kennedy was senior 

Democrat, and Mike Enzi, a very conservative Republican, was the 

Republican leader on the Committee, I used to say to Mike Enzi 

how do you guys get so much done, and he once said to me, he said, 

Ted and I agree on about 80 percent of the stuff, and we disagree 

on about 20 percent of the stuff. He said, what we do in the Health, 

Education, Labor, and Pension Committee is we focus on the 80 

percent where we agree, and we set aside that 20 percent to another day. 

And I think what we are doing today is focusing on the 80 percent, and you are helping us in this, and we are deeply grateful. 

I want to ask the first question, if I could, of Secretary Bullock, 

if I could, with respect to ports and then the Corps’ budget in that 

regard. By 2020 I am told that the total volume of cargo shipped 

by water into and out of this country is expected to be double that 

of 2001. Think about that. By 2020 expect the cargo shipped into 

our country and out of our country to double by 2021. 

As the ships continue to get bigger, we see more congestion at 

the docks, and we see larger ships require deeper navigation channels. We are deepening right now the channel that goes from the 

Atlantic Ocean through the Delaware Bay, Delaware River up into 

New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Only a few ports have that kind of 

deep navigational channels. 

100 

How do we ensure that ports can effectively distribute and receive goods as ships continue to grow in size? How do we ensure 

that ports can effectively distribute and receive goods as ships continue to grow in size? 

Secretary Bullock, in your opinion, how does the America’s Water 

Infrastructure Act of 2018 bill before us support our ports’ needs; 

not just in Delaware, but beyond, well beyond? Thank you. 

Mr. BULLOCK. I appreciate the question, Senator. So, I would 

start out by sort of reiterating what you said earlier about partnerships and figuring out how to work together on the 80 percent 

where you can agree, because I think that is the key to success 

here. 

We know that our need for port capacity is going to continue to 

grow, and probably grow, hopefully grow significantly over the 

course of the next 10 or 20 years. As has been said here today, the 

role of the Corps of Engineers in all that is just critical. 

I will take the example that we are involved in right now as indicative of that. Even before we decided that we were going to try 

to build a new port, and we are trying to build, as you know, a new 

facility not too far from where you and I live on the Delaware 

River, and it is about a $600 million to $750 million project to build 

this new terminal. Even before we made the full decision that we 

were going to go ahead with that, we had to start working with the 

Corps of Engineers to determine whether or not the site was going 

to be suitable for that. And even before we bought the piece of 

property, in fact, we had environmental studies underway to determine whether the property was suitable for dredging, for example. 

And now that we are a couple years into it, we are already 1 year 

into our partnership with the Corps of Engineers in the dredging 

piece of that, which is supposed to be, I think a 2- or 3-year process 

all told, and who knows what happens in between. 

So, as has been said several times by this panel in a number of 

different contexts, a well supported, well funded, well devised plan 

by the Corps of Engineers is just absolutely critical to us being successful. 

If we can get that port up and running by 2024, 2025, that is 

a pretty good accomplishment, right, to build a new port. It is also 

6 or 7 years ago, which strikes many people as being a long time, 

but that is how long it takes to do all of this right now. 

To the extent that we get a well resourced Corps of Engineers, 

we can minimize that amount of time, at least from the regulatory 

perspective, in getting the approvals that we need, so that is critical. 

To the other part of your question, about the ships getting larger 

and the changing nature of the businesses as it relates to that, we 

know that ships coming up the Delaware River are only going to 

be so large, and because of the deepening of the channel, we can 

now handle larger ships. We can’t handle the largest ships, but it 

is a sort of spoke and wheel business practice on the part of most 

of our customers, anyway, so that is not going to hold us back. 

Making sure that channel deepening is completed, making sure 

that it is then maintained after it is completed, making sure that 

we accommodate things like where we put dredge spoils, for example, which is going to be a very big issue for us, maybe not in the 

101 

short term, but certainly is going to be in the long term, these are 

the things that will allow us to maintain our commercial development and will make us successful in the longer term. 

So, the overall message, I think, from me, and I heard it from 

others, I know we all have our budget constraints, we certainly do 

in the State of Delaware, but this is not a place to cheat. This is 

not a place to cheat the budget. This is a place where not only will 

you facilitate things like what we are doing in Delaware, but you 

will be doing the exact same thing around the country; you will 

grow jobs, you will grow the kinds of jobs that we need to be developing in our country right now, blue collar jobs that we so desperately need to increase, and you are going to promote more economic development in our country. 

Senator CARPER. Thank you for an excellent and thoughtful response. 

Mr. Chairman, I have another question to ask of Tony, but let 

me—— 

Senator BARRASSO. Please, go right ahead. 

Senator CARPER. Are you sure? 

President Pratt, as the President of the American Shore and 

Beach Preservation Association with a long, rich history with coastal issues, and as a former non-Federal project manager for the 

State of Delaware, you know the importance of pairing natural infrastructure improvements with engineered flood control solutions 

and how they can complement each other. How can gray and green 

infrastructure work together? How can gray and green infrastructure work together? In what ways does the bill before us actually 

support that hope, that aspiration? Please. 

Mr. PRATT. Thank you. Good question. Gray infrastructure at the 

coastline refers to the kind of practices that were done in the 

1930s, 1940s, 1950s, perhaps, where seawalls were built, bulkheads 

were constructed, breakwaters were constructed and became a way 

of trying to tame the forces of nature that were impacting the 

coasts. 

Over time, we began to look at it from a broader perspective. If 

you stop and think just for a minute what attracts so many Americans to the coasts, it is not a wall and a sea on the other side of 

it; it is a beach, it is a dune, it is a wetland, and those beaches, 

dunes, wetlands, the vistas that they provide for people, the recreational benefits, but also the protection of estuaries, which is vitally important. We have seen the collapse of protection in the 

Delta in Louisiana, for instance. The Chandeleur Islands and their 

collapse created devastation of wetlands, losses of wetlands, more 

exposure of New Orleans to coastal storms. 

So, looking at systems that bring back those natural features is 

why we went to the coast; we didn’t congregate at the coast because it is a solid wall, and then there is sea on the other side. 

Those amenities, those resource values are very important to people, so bringing those back into the fold, they can perform very 

well. We think in our minds about the Dutch and the way they protect country, which is below sea level. I used to think there were 

probably giant walls everywhere. I have seen photographs—I have 

not been to Holland to examine them, but I have seen photographs, 

and their protection, their dikes, as they are called, are dunes and 

102 

beaches, massive dunes and beaches that are providing recreational amenities, natural resource amenities, but also do the job 

of keeping the sea back. 

So, combining the two I think is a way forward that accomplishes 

many goals, and I think the National Academy Study and the GAO 

study looking at the benefit-cost analysis should pick up on some 

of those values that come from that investment. 

Senator CARPER. Thank you. 

Would you just mention what is going on at the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge with respect to transforming a freshwater 

marsh into a saltwater marsh in order to sort of raise it up and 

really to save it and preserve it? 

Mr. PRATT. Certainly. The National Wildlife Refuge at Prime 

Hook is one that is a Delaware Bay fronting resource. For a number of years, because of mismanagement of the streams and creeks 

that went through that wetland system back in the early part of 

the last century, Phragmites took over, dominated the coastline. 

There was a beach, and there were seas of Phragmites, the tall 

reed that we see all over Delaware. 

To reverse that non-productive land, the Department of Interior, 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, created impounded freshwater wetlands back in the 1960s and 1970s. Those provided tremendous 

benefit to migratory waterfowl for quite a number of years, until 

the beach and dune system broke down and seawater got into that 

system and created a tidal anomaly that didn’t allow those wetlands to flow out. 

Bottom line is that, through Hurricane Sandy relief, $38 million 

was appropriated to the Department of Interior to rebuild the 

beach and dune, and to create a wetland system that was based on 

tides again. Again, entirely valued by benefit-cost analysis was 

strictly on the environmental improvements that would come, and 

the benefit would provide to migratory waterfowl, which is the mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 

So, the values are there. They are very high values, and Department of Interior looked at it closely and said, yes, it is very much 

in our favor to go ahead and make that investment, $38 million to 

restore a complete system to its original natural function. 

Senator CARPER. Thank you. 

Mr. Chairman, let me go back, but if I have a question I would 

like to ask later on, a very short question of Ms. Swallow. 

Senator BARRASSO. No, please go on. 

Senator CARPER. I was sitting next to Tom Udall in a meeting 

earlier today, and I am sure he would want to convey his warmest 

regards and his thanks for all the help you provided when you 

were a member of his staff. 

Ms. Swallow, do you believe that the Corps’ current budgetary 

funding is sufficient to accomplish its mission for inland waterways, and how does this bill assist on this front? 

Ms. SWALLOW. Thank you for the question, Senator Carper. Is 

the budget sufficient? No, it is not. We have infrastructure on our 

inland waterway systems that dates back not just decades, but in 

some cases, as I mentioned earlier, a century, and that infrastructure is struggling to meet the needs of our Nation. 

103 

If we don’t fully restore our inland waterway system, we will see 

the impact of that product, instead of being shipped on the inland 

waterways, it will hit the rest of our surface transportation system 

and cost us a lot more not just in terms of the cost for the producers who are trying to get their products to market, but will cost 

every single American citizen as we buy that product, so we need 

to find a way to further improve the investment in our inland waterway network. 

One of the things that we really like about this bill is that it enables the Corps to charge and collect fees on their facilities that 

they can then use to leverage the WIFIA program. We will not attract private investment unless they know that they can see a return on their investment, so that is one of the steps that we are 

excited to see in this bill, is it allows the Corps to start collecting 

and retaining fees for operations and maintenance. 

We, of course, like that the bill is reauthorizing WIFIA and the 

dam and levee safety programs as well. 

Senator CARPER. Thanks. 

When we say dam safety program, I always think is that with 

the ‘‘n’’. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator CARPER. We will note here for the record today it is just 

d-a-m. 

This has been great. Mr. Chairman, thank you again for pulling 

this all together and for our witnesses that are here from Delaware 

and other places far and wide. 

Again, I just want to say to our staffs, deeply grateful for the 

great work that is being done not in the light of day so much, certainly not here under these lights, but very good work is being 

done, and we know we have a lot more that needs to be done, so 

we look forward to that journey. Thanks so much. 

Senator BARRASSO. Well, thank you very much, Senator Carper. 

You were kind enough to mention so many of the staff. I think 

Richard’s name was left out, so, Richard, we apologize, but are 

grateful for your great work. 

Senator CARPER. I would like to say something about Richard. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator BARRASSO. If there are no more questions, members may 

submit follow up questions for the record, so the hearing record is 

going to be open for 2 weeks. 

I want to thank all of the witnesses. Thanks so much for your 

insight, for your time, for your testimony. 

Senator Carper. 

Senator CARPER. Just an observation. I mentioned earlier that 

Secretary Bullock was once my chief of staff when I was Governor, 

and later for a while as a United States Senator, and he was succeeded as chief of staff by Jonathan Jones, who is sitting immediately behind him. And immediately behind Jonathan Jones is a 

fellow who looks very much like Alan Hoffman, who used to be 

chief of staff to Joe Biden as Senator and as Vice President. I don’t 

know who the rest of you are. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator BARRASSO. Would people like to stand and introduce 

themselves? We can work our way through the crowd. 

104 

Senator CARPER. This is one heck of a Delaware lineup right 

here. Thank you. 

Senator BARRASSO. Thank you, Senator Carper. 

Thanks to each and every one of you who have attended, as well 

as those who have participated by testifying. 

With that, the hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 11:45 a.m. the Committee was adjourned.] 

[Additional material submitted for the record follows:] 

105 


31136.068

January 29, 2018 

United States Senator Tammy Baldwin 

709 1-lart Senate Office Building 

Washington, DC 20510 

Rc: MMSD's Strong Support of the SRF WIN Act Cosponsor Request 

Dear Senator Baldwin: 

The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) is pleased to join the nation's leading 

construction, labor, municipal wastewater, and engineering organization's in strongly 

endorsing the ·'Securing Required Funding for Water Infrastructure Now Act" (SRF WIN Act) 

being advanced by Senator Boozman and Senator Booker. This bipartisan legislation builds on 

the established success of the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act State Revolving 

Funds (SRFs) and the innovative financing in the WIFIA Pilot program to make available over 

$50 billion in new Fedeml tlmding for the SRF. The SRF WIN Act has the potential to provide 

millions of dollars in additional Federal tlmding for water infrastructure and water quality 

improvements in Milwaukee, and your co-sponsorship of this bipartisan water infrastructure 

funding legislation would be greatly appreciated. 

I have attached for your review a list of the national organizations strongly supporting the SRF 

WIN Act, a letter of strong support sent by the Council of Infrastructure Financing Authorities 

(CIF A) the organization representing the State Financing Authorities, and a recent EPA 

Memo noting the ability to utilize SRF Funds to replace lead drinking water service lines. The 

SRF WIN Act will benefit Milwaukee and communities across Wisconsin. 

Your longstanding commitment to increased investment in our nation's water infrastructure is 

greatly appreciated. Please contact me with any questions regarding the SRF WIN Act or its 

impot1ance to Milwaukee. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of cosponsoring the 

bipartisan SRF WIN Act. 

Sincerely, 

Kevin L. Shafer, P. E. 

Executive Director 
106 


31136.069

ExewliveDirector 

CommiSSroners 

January 30, 2018 

United States Senator Tammy Baldwin 

709 Hart Senate Office Building 

Washington, DC 20510 

Re: The SRF WIN Act- NEW Water Cosponsor Request 

Dear Senator Baldwin: 

NEW Water, the brand of the Green Bay Metropolitan Sewerage District, is committed to improving our 

region's water quality and is a strong supporter of the bipartisan "Securing Required Funding for Water 

Infrastructure Now Act" (SRF WIN Act) being advanced by Senator Boozman, Senator Booker, Senator 

Feinstein, and Senator lnhofe. This bipartisan SRF WIN Act makes available over $50 Billion in new 

Federal funding for the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act State Revolving Funds. NEW Water 

believes this landmark legislation will provide tens of millions of dollars in additional SRF funding for water 

quality improvement projects in and around Green Bay. NEW Water respectfully requests your 

cosponsorship of the SRF WIN Act 

The nation's leading municipal wastewater, drinking water, engineering, contracting, conservation and labor 

organizations have registered their strong support for the SRF WIN Act. Please find enclosed a list of the 

national organizations strongly supporting the SRF WIN Act and letters of strong support for the SRF WIN 

Act sent by the Council of Infrastructure Financing Authorities (CIFA) and the Water Infrastructure Network 

(WIN). NEW Water believes the SRF WIN Act will ultimately provide funding for hundreds of water 

infrastructure projects in Wisconsin including our work to reduce phosphorus discharges into Green Bay. 

Investment in our nation's clean water makes eminent economic and environmental sense and we are 

grateful for the leadership role that you have played in securing federal funding for our state's water 

infrastructure. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of the bipartisan SRF WIN Act 

Sincerely, 

GREEN BAY METROPOLITAN 

SEWERAGE DISTRICT 

~y~ 

Thomas W. Sigmund, P.E. 

Executive Director 

Enclosure 

2231 North Quincy Street 1 Green Bay, W! 1 Fax (920) 432-4302 1 www newwater.us 
107 

Æ 


31136.070

SRF WIN Act Supporters 

• American Council of Engineering Companies - ACEC 

• American Society of Civil Engineers- ASCE 

• American Public Works Association - APWA 

• Associated General Contractors of America - AGC 

• Ducks Unlimited - DU 

• Hydraulic Institute- HI 

• International Union of Operating Engineers -IUOP 

• Laborers International Union of North America- LIUNA 

• Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District- MMSD 

• National Association of Clean Water Agencies- NACWA 

• National Rural Water Association- NRWA 

• Rural Community Assistance Partnership - RCAP 

• United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters The United 

• Vinyl Institute- VI 

• Water Infrastructure Network- WIN 

• Water Systems Council- WSC 

Green Bay Metropolitan Sewerage District 

2231 North Quincy Street 1 Green Bay, WI 54302 I Phone (920) 432-4893 1 Fax (920) 432-4302 I www.newwater.us