InfoSense, Inc.’s Post

Investing in our future

On top of being the right thing to do, I’ve long talked about the lead work being a major piece of #2024election strategy in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. This announcement leads me to wonder when the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s #PFAS MCLs are coming and what they will be. Because nothing will sidetrack this effort (and funding) more than to have to shift money away from the lead work touted here to focus on PFAS. And that's what thousands of #utilities will be forced to do at 4/4/HI. With proper CCT, they can wait on getting the #lead out. They’re not going to be able to wait on PFAS if they’re staring NOVs in the face in three years.

Did you know that the EPA's survey reveals that the U.S. will need $630 billion for #stormwater and #wastewater infrastructure upgrades over the next 20 years? Advocates say that we need more federal help to ease the burden on local communities. #InvestInWater #InfrastructureMatters

One big takeaway from the weekend’s #CrowdStrikeOutage and resulting #MedicalCareChaos, #TravelChaos, #TechFail, #AirlineGroundStop, #HotelOutage and more should be how incredibly vulnerable critical infrastructures are to even seemingly small, well-meaning errors like those in coding. Let us redouble our focus on our vulnerabilities to potential larger scale failures whether they be to attacks on infrastructure, failure to plan, or failure to act. More has to be done to improve, protect, and even just maintain our #Infrastructure. The linked primer on just one of those, our water system, is a good start to the conversation.

If we fail to properly invest in asset expansion and asset renewal, outcomes we should expect are inadequate and frequently failing water supply and wastewater systems. The choice may be ours to make, but the consequences will belong to our children and grandchildren. https://lnkd.in/g7SZysf3

“Water issues cut across different levels of government, laws and regulations, and technical and academic expertise, requiring partnerships that can be difficult to govern. That can put different government agencies into conflict as disputes develop over regulatory control and responsibility, particularly between federal, state and local governments.” And that’s just one piece of infrastructure. Other utilities face the same challenges. Governments, federal all the way down to municipal, have to look at this strategically in order to really begin addressing the issues.

“[This] report to Congress confirms what public clean water utilities across America already know – that there is a massive gap between available funds and the dollars actually needed to invest in the country’s clean water infrastructure, and that the gap is growing at a rapid and unsustainable pace,” said Adam Krantz, NACWA CEO. “Local utilities and their ratepayers simply cannot continue to bear the full burden for these costs. While the $50 billion in federal water investments provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) are important and much appreciated, this new report makes clear that amount will hardly make a dent in the overall need. Local ratepayers will continue to pay for the majority of investments, but the federal government must step up and come forward as a full and long-term partner to address the funding need.” https://lnkd.in/eGS6eu88

Want to do some reading on the progress of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s “Closing America’s Wastewater Access Gap” initiative? Check out this page at the EPA website, which summarizes the initiative’s key activities, how to request help, and the pilot program. The pilot program worked in 11 communities across the country from Arizona to North Carolina. A case study and solutions plan document has been completed for each community, and all of these documents are available to peruse under the “Pilot Communities and Solutions Plan” section of the webpage. If you think bringing this program to your community may be an answer for a failing wastewater system, find out what you can expect based on the work done in these pilot communities! See it all here ⬇️ #wastewateraccess #wastewaterfunding #wastewaterinfrastructure #bipartisaninfrastructurelaw

$5.8B in funding for clean water infrastructure... Here's four water-based infrastructure investments happening in America: 1.) Delivering clean drinking water 2.) Replacing lead pipes 3.) Improving wastewater and sanitation infrastructure 4.) Cleaning up PFAS pollution in water https://lnkd.in/eAPQ9GXr

The EPA has announced that $630 billion is needed over the next two decades to upgrade and maintain our nations wastewater and stormwater systems. This comes as aging infrastructure and climate change present mounting challenges. Here are some key points: The Clean Watersheds Needs Survey estimates financial requirements for modernizing wastewater treatment plants and pollution control. Federal support through Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, contributing $50 billion, including nearly $13 billion for wastewater and stormwater management. #StormwaterInfrastructure #EPA