Missouri Pours Money on Water Projects

JEFFERSON CITY – Gov. Jay Nixon on Monday announced $146 million in federal stimulus funds to speed infrastructure construction across Missouri.

The grants, in conjunction with $120 million in low-interest loans provided by the state, will pay for more than 50 wastewater- and drinking-water system improvements statewide, including projects in and around Kansas City.

Kansas City will receive $23.9 million — including $3 million in grants — for eight projects, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. Blue Springs, which already won approval for about $33 million in low-interest loans for a wastewater-treatment expansion project, will receive $3 million.

Other area cities receiving grants or loans include Harrisonville, $7.3 million; Liberty, $1.9 million; Parkville, $612,048; Platte City, $1.2 million; and Weston, $3.6 million.

Source: KansasCity.com

Obama, Congress Put Water on Stimulus List

PHILADELPHIA — The benefits of President Obama’s proposed economic stimulus plan, now winding its way through Congress, won’t impact infrastructure-related companies, including those involved in water projects, until the second half of 2009 when stimulus effects begin to be felt, according to a January 26 report by the Philadelphia-based investment firm Janney Montgomery Scott (JMS).

While negotiations about the stimulus bill’s details are continuing, the JMS report outlined some key water-related items to be found in different versions of the bill now under consideration by the House and Senate. Those items, and the amounts each house in Congress is proposing to spend so far, include, according to the analysts:

● EPA revolving loan funds for use by states in financing new public drinking water and wastewater projects: House is proposing $8 billion, Senate is proposing $6 billion.

● Rural water projects: House, $1.5 billion; Senate, $1.4 billion.

● US Army Corps of Engineers water resources projects: House, $4.5 billion; Senate, $4.6 billion.

● Water supply projects in western US: House, $500 million; Senate, $1.4 billion. The House bill also includes $400 million for conservation/watershed programs that are not mentioned in the Senate bill.

● Cleanup of US Department of Energy nuclear weapons production sites: House, $500 million; Senate, $6.4 billion. The House also includes $300 million for cleanup of closed military bases and $400 million for habitat restoration projects not mentioned in the Senate version.

● EPA environmental cleanup programs, including Superfund: House, $1.1 billion; Senate, $1.4 billion.

The JMS analysts so far see more water spending proposed by the House than by the Senate in the stimulus bill, but the analysts note that the bill is still subject to change and that negotiations between the two houses of Congress and among the Obama administration, Democrats and Republicans are continuing.

Meanwhile, over the weekend of January 24-25, the Obama administration released some additional detail about proposed water spending. According to the JMS report, the administration’s “21st Century Infrastructure” portion of the stimulus bill would include 1,300 new wastewater projects, 380 new drinking water projects, and 1,000 rural water and sewer systems, providing new or improved water/wastewater service for 1.5 million people.

Other infrastructure portions of the stimulus bill include new spending on clean energy technology, energy transmission, energy efficiency, computerization of health records, and the upgrading of 10,000 schools.

The JMS analysts note that lobbying and governmental groups in recent weeks have been compiling “long lists of ‘shovel-ready’ projects” that could benefit from the stimulus package. However, they also say the manner in which stimulus-bill funds will be administered for specific projects “is still somewhat murky.”

One criticism of the bill has been that allocation and spending of money for infrastructure projects like new water systems will take too long to have a beneficial effect. Administration officials have responded by saying that 75 percent of the bill’s money will be spent within 18 months of enactment, and that, in any case, the recession is expected to last long enough to require longer-term as well as nearer-term stimulus spending.

The administration and its congressional allies are pushing to have the $825 billion stimulus bill approved by both houses of Congress and ready for Obama’s signature by mid-February.

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Source:  Water Technology Online

U.S. Water Systems Earn “D-” Grade

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

America’s roads, public transit and aviation have gotten worse in the past four years. Water and sewage systems are dreadful. The basic physical backbone of American society is barely above failing, a report by top engineers says.

It’ll cost $2.2 trillion to fix America’s ailing infrastructure, according to highlights of a report being released early, just as the House of Representatives readies its first vote on President Barack Obama’s call for a massive economic stimulus spending package.

The country’s roads, dumps, dams, bridges, schools and rail systems need lots of that money, say the engineers, who would get a piece of the pie in working on the repairs. Government officials are already aiming billions of dollars at those physical needs as part of what at the moment is a $825 billion economic stimulus package. But the engineers say that’s not enough.

Overall, the American Society of Civil Engineers gives the U.S. physical backbone for everything from schools and parks to dams and levees a D. That’s the same overall grade as the last time the group gave a report, in 2005, but it really is slipping from a “high D” to a “low D,” said report chairman Andrew Herrmann.

Herrmann, an engineer with the New York firm Hardesty & Hanover, said his group is issuing the highlights of the report – the full document won’t be out until late March – “to be relevant … investing in our infrastructure will create jobs.”

In 2005, the engineers said it would cost what would be $1.7 trillion in current dollars to fix what’s broken. Now the pricetag is up to $2.2 trillion.

“That just goes to show that waiting has cost money,” Herrmann told The Associated Press on Tuesday evening. “We haven’t made any progress in four years. If my kid came home with 11 Ds and 4 Cs, I know I wouldn’t be happy.”

America’s solid waste system was the only C+ on the report card. Bridges got a C; parks and rail systems managed C-. The only D+ plus was for energy. Solid Ds went to aviation, dams, hazardous waste, schools and public transit. The worst grades, D-, went to drinking water, inland waterways, roads and sewage systems.

The report, the first one issued since Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, added America’s 100,000 miles of levees as a new area of failing infrastructure. Levees, which hold back floodwaters, get a D minus grade, with the report saying, “The risk to the public health and safety from failure has increased.”

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Source: KansasCity.com