Wheels are beginning to turn on Capitol Hill to revisit the formula by which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency divides hundreds of millions of dollars a year in wastewater infrastructure aid among the states.
该公式可以追溯到1987年，当时国会创建了清洁水国家循环资金（SRFS），这是废水处理项目的主要联邦资金来源，此后该方法没有发生重大变化。新利18备用网址
The IIJA Factor
看似奥秘的公式问题非常重要，因为它决定了每个州每年将获得多少SRF资金。由于基础设施投资和就业法案（IIJA）的资金增加，该公式将在未来几年变得更加重要。
The landmark law, enacted last Nov. 15, provides states, territories and tribes a total of about $12.7 billion over five years for the Clean Water SRFs, according to a Congressional Research Servicereport。
去年12月,环保署宣布时约1.8美元ion fiscal year 2022apportionmentsfor Clean Water SRFs—the law's initial year—up from about $1.6 billion in 2021.
The SRF issue was the subject of a March 16 Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing. Chairman Tom Carper (D-Del.) said the aim was “to better understand what changes, if any, should be made to improve the distribution of funds under this program.”
[View a webcast of the hearing and witness statementshere。]
卡珀似乎承认需要改变的必要性，他说：“肯定可以做更多的事情来适应气候变化，人口变化和基础设施年龄的公式。”
The committee's top Republican, Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), said, "I acknowledge that formula allocations set back in 1987 may not adequately address today's needs and demographic shifts."
But Capito added that significant Clean Water SRF changes "should not be rushed" but instead be "the product of deliberative process" in Congress.
州，当地水官员体重
One witness at the hearing, Tom Sigmund, executive director of NEW Water, the Green Bay Metropolitan Sewerage District in Wisconsin, said that in reviewing the formula, “Population is an important consideration but should not be the sole factor."
Sigmund, who was testifying on behalf of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, also said, “The allocation process should also consider the historic per capita investment each state has made in funding wastewater projects, as these assets must eventually be replaced.”
他还说，国会应确保最终，任何州都不会its SRF funding cut.
Laura Watson, director of the Washington State Dept. of Ecology—testifying for the Environmental Council of the States—said the council isn't making specific recommendations for how to revise the SRF formula. But she said that "the definition of 'need' should account for the actual need and the unique needs of states."
Watson also said that "the allotment formula should be based on recent and robust data."
她指出，最近的EPA清洁水需求报告于2016年发布，并根据2012年的数据。
基础设施法的国会指示该机构在两年内开发新的清洁水需求研究，并为其提供资金。新利18备用
A Failed Amendment
The genesis of the hearing was an amendment that Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott—Republicans from Florida—proposed to attach last April to a Senate water infrastructure bill that later was folded into the IIJA. Both sought to rewrite the SRF formula.
Capito, who with Carper opposed the measure, said that it would have had population as the primary factor in the formula and ignored "the crucial issue of need, which was baked into the original formula."
The amendment was defeated, 81-14. But Carper and Capito said they would work with the Floridians on the SRF formula issue.
没有快速答案
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said it is important that the SRF formula be updated.
“But as a practical matter, the only way you are going to be able to bring in a new formula is when we put money into the program—because we don’t want to adversely impact any jurisdiction," he said.
Carper indicated that the final resolution of the SRF formula issue won’t come quickly, saying that the hearing “is the end of the beginning” of the debate.
“而且我们不会急于审判。”他说。
