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The Issue
Since the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, billions of dollars have been invested in wastewater infrastructure by federal, state, and local governments. This investment has yielded significant benefits. Alarmingly, a weakening of the historic partnership is threatening the nation's water quality.
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The physical condition of the nation's wastewater treatment facilities is in decline and needs to be repaired, replaced, and upgraded.
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Your sewer or drinking water system, like many, may rely on 100 to 200 year old pipes.
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45% of waters nationwide do not meet Clean Water Act water quality standards.
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Federal investment in clean water has declined from 75% in the 1970s to under 5% today.
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The municipal debt load to pay for water infrastructure projects has doubled over the last ten years.
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Many studies, including those of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), estimate local communities need to spend up to $400 billion over the next 20 years just to maintain current water quality and ensure public health.
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In the past two years alone, Congress has cut the budget of the last remaining federal water quality program by 33% and intends to zero it by 2010.
It is clear that without a permanent, long-term solution to this crisis, our nation risks losing all of the hard-fought environmental, public health, and economic gains of the last thirty years. The frequency of failures, sewer collapses and basement backups will increase in urban areas and small towns alike absent a viable solution to the infrastructure funding gap.
In order to ensure continued water quality progress, all levels of government -- federal, state and local -- must develop a lasting partnership to meet this challenge. For this reason, Clean Water America supports the creation of a Clean Water Trust Fund that will help guarantee needed funding to get the job done.
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