Jim Proctor testifies before Congressional Subcommittee
September 27, 2017
McWane Senior Vice President and General Counsel Jim Proctor testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment during a September 26th hearing on “Building a 21st Century Water Infrastructure for America: Water Stakeholders’ Perspective.”
Proctor told the Committee that much of America’s water and wastewater infrastructure is nearing the end of its useful life, and that more than $1 trillion is needed over the next 20 years to rebuild and rehabilitate these systems. However our water infrastructure challenges cannot be solved by simply providing more federal funding. A fundamental shift away from the traditional approaches must occur, through a combination of new sources of funding, greater accountability, and improved governance.
For the past nine months an inclusive group of prominent associations in the water and infrastructure sector have been working together to discuss and develop a set of ideas that could provide this positive and transformative change. The participants in these discussions include the spectrum of publicly- and privately-owned systems, rural and urban communities, and drinking and wastewater systems.
The scope and scale of America’s water infrastructure needs require a forward-thinking and creative response. Reform and reauthorization of Clean Water Act programs like the State Revolving Funds are crucial to that effort, and we at McWane are glad to have the opportunity to contribute to that process.
You can watch the hearing at: https://transportation.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=401897
