Water Infrastructure Financing: History of EPA Appropriations

Claudia Copeland
Specialist in Resources and Environmental Policy

The principal federal program to aid municipal wastewater treatment plant construction is authorized in the Clean Water Act (CWA). Established as a grant program in 1972, it now capitalizes state loan programs. Authorizations since 1972 have totaled $65 billion, while appropriations have totaled $85 billion. It has represented 25-30% of total funds appropriated to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in recent years.

In appropriations legislation, funding for EPA wastewater assistance is contained in the measure providing funds for the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, which includes EPA. Within the portion of that bill which funds EPA, wastewater treatment assistance is specified in an account now called State and Tribal Assistance Grants (STAG). Three trends in the funding of this account are most prominent: inclusion of non-infrastructure environmental grants to states, beginning in FY1993; increasing number and amount of special purpose grants since FY1989; and the addition of grant assistance for drinking water treatment projects in FY1997. This report summarizes, in chronological order, congressional activity to fund items in this account since 1987.

Prior to the 1987 amendments, wastewater treatment assistance was provided in the form of grants made to municipalities. The federal share of project costs was generally 55%; state and local governments were responsible for the remaining 45%. The 1987 amendments altered this arrangement by replacing the traditional grant program with one that provides federal grants to capitalize state clean water loan programs, or state revolving funds (SRFs). Appropriations for the clean water SRF program through FY2010 have totaled $33 billion. As a general matter, states and cities support the program changes made by the 1987 amendments and the shift to a loan program that was intended to provide long-term funding for water quality and wastewater construction activities. However, the change means that local communities now are responsible for 100% of projects costs, rather than 45%, because they are required to repay loans to states. The greater financial burden of the act’s loan program on some cities has caused some to seek continued grant funding.

This has been particularly evident in the appropriations process where, in recent years, Congress has reserved as much as 30% of funds in the STAG account for special purpose grants directed to specified communities. Since FY2000, appropriators have awarded earmarks to a larger total number of projects, resulting in more communities receiving such grants, but at the same time receiving smaller amounts of funds, on average. Most of the funded projects are not authorized in the Clean Water Act or the Safe Drinking Water Act. State water quality officials, state infrastructure financing officials, and EPA have objected to this practice, since it reduces the amount of funding for state SRF programs. Since FY1997, the STAG account also has been used to fund a drinking water SRF grant program established by Congress in 1996. Appropriations for the drinking water SRF program through FY2010 have totaled $14.5 billion.


Date of Report: December 29, 2010
Number of Pages: 37
Order Number: 97-647
Price: $29.95

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Water Quality Bills in the Lame Duck Session of the 111th Congress

Claudia Copeland
Specialist in Resources and Environmental Policy

Early in December 2010, press reports indicated that legislators, especially in the Senate, were seeking to gather support for several water quality bills that could be considered during the postelection, lame duck session of the 111th Congress, possibly packaged with others dealing with public lands and wildlife protection. These discussions resulted in a comprehensive bill, titled “America’s Great Outdoors Act of 2010,” that was introduced in the Senate on December 17 (S.Amdt. 4845 to S. 303). This report describes water quality bills that were included in the legislative package.

All but one of the bills discussed below would have amended the Clean Water Act (CWA), and all had been approved and reported by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Similar House bills were introduced for all but one of the Senate measures, and the House had passed two of them. With the exception of a bill on Chesapeake Bay, the individual bills were not considered controversial. Most of the individual bills would either have reauthorized and in some cases modified existing CWA provisions that address water quality concerns in specified geographic areas, or would have established similar provisions for other regions or watersheds. The water quality issues and related 111th Congress bills are: 

• Estuaries under the CWA’s National Estuary Program (H.R. 4715), 
• Chesapeake Bay (S. 1816), 
• Columbia River Basin (S. 4016), 
• Great Lakes (S. 3073 and S. 933), 
• Gulf of Mexico (S. 1311), 
• Lake Tahoe (S. 2724), 
• Long Island Sound (S. 3119), 
• Puget Sound (S. 2739), 
• San Francisco Bay (S. 3539), and 
• Monitoring water quality of coastal recreation waters (S. 878). 

The 111th Congress adjourned sine die on December 22 without taking up either the omnibus bill or individual measures that were included in S.Amdt. 4845. Whether the 112th Congress will consider some or all of these bills is unknown for now. .


Date of Report: December 23, 2010
Number of Pages: 13
Order Number: R41517
Price: $29.95

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The Army Corps of Engineers’ Nationwide Permits Program: Issues and Regulatory Developments

Claudia Copeland
Specialist in Resources and Environmental Policy

Permits issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authorize various types of development projects in wetlands and other waters of the United States. The Corps’ regulatory process involves two types of permits: general permits for actions by private landowners that are similar in nature and will likely have a minor effect on wetlands, and individual permits for more significant actions. The Corps uses general permits to minimize the burden of its regulatory program: they authorize landowners to proceed with a project without the time-consuming need to obtain standard individual permits in advance. About 90% of the Corps’ regulatory workload is processed in the form of general permits.

Nationwide permits are one type of general permit. Nationwide permits, which currently number 49, are issued for five-year periods and thereafter must be renewed. They were most recently reissued in total in March 2007. The current nationwide permit program has few strong supporters, for differing reasons. Developers and other industry groups say that it is too complex and burdened with arbitrary restrictions that limit opportunities for an efficient permitting process and have little environmental benefit. Environmentalists say that it does not adequately protect aquatic resources, because the review procedures and permit requirements are less rigorous than those for individual or standard permits. At issue is whether the program has become so complex and expansive that it cannot either protect aquatic resources or provide for a fair regulatory system, which are its dual objectives. Controversies also exist about the use of specific nationwide permits for authorizing particular types of activities, such as surface coal mining operations.

In addition to general objections, interest groups have a number of specific criticisms of the permits, such as requirements that there must be compensatory mitigation for impacts of some authorized activities, impacts of regional conditioning through which local aquatic considerations are addressed, and the need to define “minimal adverse effects” for purposes of implementing the nationwide permit program. Coordinating implementation of the nationwide permits between federal and state governments also raises a number of issues. Of particular concern to states is tension over whether their authority to certify the nationwide permits is sufficient to assure that water quality standards or coastal zone management plans will not be violated.

Congressional interest in wetlands permit regulatory programs has been evident in the past in oversight hearings and in connection with bills to fund the Corps’ regulatory programs. For some time, there has been a stalemate over legislation that would revise wetlands regulatory law and that could, if enacted, modify the nationwide permit program. During this time, no consensus has emerged on whether or how to reform overall wetlands policy legislatively. Recently, Obama Administration initiatives and actions intended to restrict harmful effects of surface coal mining activities in Appalachia have drawn congressional attention and criticism that is likely to continue in the 112th Congress and that could include oversight of the Corps’ regulatory program generally.


Date of Report: December 28, 2010
Number of Pages: 24
Order Number: 97-223
Price: $29.95

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Water Infrastructure Needs and Investment: Review and Analysis of Key Issues

Claudia Copeland
Specialist in Resources and Environmental Policy

Mary Tiemann
Specialist in Environmental Policy

Policymakers are giving increased attention to issues associated with financing and investing in the nation’s drinking water and wastewater treatment systems, which take in water, treat it, and distribute it to households and other customers, and later collect, treat, and discharge water after use. The renewed attention is due to a combination of factors. These include financial impacts on communities of meeting existing and anticipated regulatory requirements, the need to repair and replace existing infrastructure, concerns about paying for security-related projects, and proposals to stimulate U.S. economic activity by building and rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure.

The federal government has a long history of involvement with wastewater and drinking water systems, with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) having the most significant role, both in terms of regulation and funding. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also plays an important role in rural communities through its water and wastewater loan and grant programs. These programs have been popular; however, states, local communities, and others have asserted that various program gaps and limitations may be diminishing their potential effectiveness. They also point to the emergence of new infrastructure needs and issues.

A number of interest groups and coalitions have issued reports on infrastructure funding needs and related policy issues, as have EPA and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). They present a range of estimates and scenarios of future investment costs and gaps between current spending and future costs. EPA and CBO, in particular, caution that projections of future costs are highly uncertain, and that funding gaps are not inevitable. Increased investment, sought by many stakeholders, is one way to shrink the spending gaps, but so, too, are other strategies such as asset management, more efficient pricing, and better technology.

Congressional interest in these issues has grown for some. In each Congress since the 107th, House and Senate committees acted on legislation to reauthorize and modify infrastructure financing programs in the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act, but no bills were enacted. The Bush Administration addressed water infrastructure in a number of general ways, but did not offer legislative proposals of its own. EPA’s principal initiative has been to support strategies intended to ensure that infrastructure investment needs are met in an efficient, timely, and equitable manner. The Obama Administration has focused attention on providing increased federal budgetary resources for water infrastructure investments and is developing a water infrastructure sustainability policy.

This report identifies a number of issues that continue to receive attention in connection with water infrastructure investment. It begins with a review of federal involvement; describes the debate about needs; and then examines key issues, including what is the nature of the problems to be solved, who will pay, and what is the federal role, and questions about mechanisms for delivering federal support. Congressional and Administration activity on these issues since the 107th Congress also is reviewed. (For detailed information on legislative activity in the 111th Congress, see CRS Report R40098, Water Quality Issues in the 111th Congress: Oversight and Implementation, and CRS Report RS22037, Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF): Program Overview and Issues.) .


Date of Report: December 21, 2010
Number of Pages: 40
Order Number: RL31116
Price: $29.95

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Clean Water Act: A Summary of the Law

Claudia Copeland
Specialist in Resources and Environmental Policy

The principal law governing pollution of the nation’s surface waters is the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, or Clean Water Act. Originally enacted in 1948, it was totally revised by amendments in 1972 that gave the act its current shape. The 1972 legislation spelled out ambitious programs for water quality improvement that have since been expanded and are still being implemented by industries and municipalities.

This report presents a summary of the law, describing the essence of the statute without discussing its implementation. Other CRS reports discuss implementation, including CRS Report R40098, Water Quality Issues in the 111th Congress: Oversight and Implementation, and numerous products cited in that report.

The Clean Water Act consists of two major parts, one being the provisions which authorize federal financial assistance for municipal sewage treatment plant construction. The other is the regulatory requirements that apply to industrial and municipal dischargers. The act has been termed a technology-forcing statute because of the rigorous demands placed on those who are regulated by it to achieve higher and higher levels of pollution abatement under deadlines specified in the law. Early on, emphasis was on controlling discharges of conventional pollutants (e.g., suspended solids or bacteria that are biodegradable and occur naturally in the aquatic environment), while control of toxic pollutant discharges has been a key focus of water quality programs more recently.

Prior to 1987, programs were primarily directed at point source pollution, wastes discharged from discrete sources such as pipes and outfalls. Amendments to the law in that year authorized measures to address nonpoint source pollution (stormwater runoff from farm lands, forests, construction sites, and urban areas), which is estimated to represent more than 50% of the nation’s remaining water pollution problems.

Under this act, federal jurisdiction is broad, particularly regarding establishment of national standards or effluent limitations. Certain responsibilities are delegated to the states, and the act embodies a philosophy of federal-state partnership in which the federal government sets the agenda and standards for pollution abatement, while states carry out day-to-day activities of implementation and enforcement.

To achieve its objectives, the act is based on the concept that all discharges into the nation’s waters are unlawful, unless specifically authorized by a permit, which is the act’s principal enforcement tool. The law has civil, criminal, and administrative enforcement provisions and also permits citizen suit enforcement.

Financial assistance for constructing municipal sewage treatment plants and certain other types of water quality improvements projects is authorized under title VI. It authorizes grants to capitalize State Water Pollution Control Revolving Funds, or loan programs. States contribute matching funds, and under the revolving loan fund concept, monies used for wastewater treatment construction will be repaid to a state, to be available for future construction in other communities.


Date of Report: December 15, 2010
Number of Pages: 14
Order Number: RL30030
Price: $29.95

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