Water Infrastructure: Information on Federal and State Financial Assistance Page: 4 of 46
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GGAO
Accountability * Integrity * Reliability
United States General Accounting Office
Washington, DC 20548
November 30, 2001
The Honorable Robert C. Smith
Ranking Minority Member
Committee on Environment
and Public Works
United States Senate
The Honorable Michael D. Crapo
Ranking Minority Member
Subcommittee on Fisheries,
Wildlife, and Water
Committee on Environment
and Public Works
United States Senate
U.S. drinking water and wastewater systems encompass thousands of
treatment facilities, collection facilities, and related works and well over a
million miles of pipes and conduits. While the investment, made over
decades, in these facilities is enormous, even more funds will be needed in
the future to support efforts to maintain clean and safe water. The
estimated cost of the investments needed to repair, replace, or upgrade
aging facilities; to accommodate the nation's growing population; and to
meet new water quality standards ranges from $300 billion to $1 trillion
over the next 20 years, according to various estimates.
While user rates serve as the major source of facilities' financing, federal
and state government agencies offer financial support as well. As the
agency that regulates drinking water and surface water quality, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides a significant amount of
financial assistance for facilities that supply drinking water and treat
wastewater. This assistance is primarily in the form of grants to the states
to capitalize revolving loan funds. The states, which are required to
contribute matching funds equal to 20 percent of the EPA grants, make
loans to local communities or utilities; as loans are repaid, the states'
revolving loan funds are replenished. In addition, other federal agencies
provide financial assistance for drinking water and wastewater facilities
through a variety of grant and loan programs, some of which also require
matching funds. Some of this assistance goes directly to local communities
or utilities; the rest goes to states that then distribute it to the local level.
In addition, states sponsor their own financial assistance programs for
local drinking water and wastewater facilities. Given the magnitude of theGAO-02-134 Financial Assistance for Water Infrastructure
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United States. General Accounting Office. Water Infrastructure: Information on Federal and State Financial Assistance, report, November 30, 2001; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc293522/m1/4/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.