Take Action: Your Watershed and the Economic Stimulus Funding

Updated: February 8, 2009

The economic stimulus package is moving fast and furiously through Congress. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a version of the bill, and the Senate is working on a slightly different version.

While your organization may feel very removed from the legislation and the federal action, the impact will ultimately be felt very locally. The time is NOW for getting green projects on the list for stimulus funding and for working to get damaging projects off the list. It is critical that the decision makers in your state hear from the watershed community; it is likely that they are hearing from everyone else.

There are many ways that this money may impact your watershed - through investment in water infrastructure, transportation infrastructure, restoration for flood protection and habitat improvements, land conservation, or contaminated clean up projects, to name a few. This alert focuses on the money that will be directed toward water infrastructure.

Water Infrastructure Investment

In both the House and Senate versions, funds will be awarded to each Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund and Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund. The window for spending the money in the Senate bill is much shorter than the House version - as a result, states are filling up their lists NOW.

Each state must be ready to move the funding quickly, or the funding will revert back to Congress. U.S.EPA is pushing states to get their lists in by Presidents Day. At the moment, these lists appear to be draft lists, and some states are trying to extend deadlines.

There may still be an opportunity to influence the lists and projects later. However, because of the timing and uncertainty surrounding the final outcome of the bill, it's important that we try to get as many green projects as we can on these lists now.

Here is What You Need To Do:

• Contact your state's Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) officers! If you are unsure who your officers are, there are contact lists on the American Rivers stimulus page. See link below.
• Find out if the state has approved SRF funding to be used for green infrastructure or water efficiency projects. EPA policy already allows this, but each state may need to enable such funding if it isn't already operative.
• Ask your state SRF managers what projects on the list would qualify as green infrastructure or water efficiency projects and ask them to actively solicit for more of these types of projects.
• If there are no or few green infrastructure projects on your states list, work with local municipalities to submit their green infrastructure or water efficiency projects. You may also find relevant state projects on American Rivers' or Alliance for Water Efficiency’s project lists. See links below.

Questions? Contact Gayle Killam at (503) 542-8387.

For brief summaries of the bills and more information:
American Rivers
Alliance for Water Efficiency