Environmentalists have warned that Congressional leaders have abandoned their responsibility to help local communities ensure that there will be enough clean water into the future. Negotiators for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives agreed to invest just $900 million in 2006 to keep untreated sewage out of rivers, lakes, and streams - $190 million less than in 2005.

“For communities that are striving to ensure they will have enough clean water for the future, the news is about as bad as it could be,” said Peter Raabe, Deputy Director of Government Affairs at American Rivers. “Local governments are doing what they can to protect our streams and creeks, and their representatives in Washington just let them down.”

The Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund program disperses low interest loans and grants to states to help local communities meet water quality standards, fix old and decaying pipelines and treatment plants, curb urban and rural runoff, restore estuaries, and ensure continued progress in protecting the public’s health and the nation’s resources. The program has provided more than 14,200 low-interest loans totaling $47 billion since 1988. This clean water funding is the most successful federal water-quality funding program in the nation’s history.

Still, America’s water infrastructure is in dire need of increased investment. Many systems are using antiquated pipes that up to 100 years old. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency projects that a total investment of $388 billion is necessary by 2019 to ensure that Americans continue to have access to clean water.

Between 23,000 and 75,000 sewage overflows occur nationwide every year, resulting in the release of 3 billion to 10 billion gallons of untreated wastewater directly into our rivers and streams, according to EPA estimates.

“Communities all over the country are looking to their river and water fronts as catalyst of economic activity,” Raabe said. “Now is not the time for the federal government to undercut their efforts, no one wants to go shopping or eat at a restaurant along a river that smells and looks foul with raw sewage in it.”

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