Wednesday, February 4, 2009

$2B Stimulus for drinking water

            The AWWA Streamlines article posted this week begins by reminding us that the House passed an $819 billion stimulus.  In this package $6 billion was earmarked for wastewater infrastructure and $2 billon for potable water.  I don’t know how to feel about this.  $2 billion is a lot of money; I mean a whole lot of money.  Still, I can’t help but think, “Really, only $2 Billion?”  I don’t want to complain it is $2 BILLION however, I thought the plan for the economic turn around was to be a focus on infrastructure.  When I think infrastructure I think roads, power and water.  So in simple terms the math just don’t seem right to me.  $819 billion and only .002% of it set aside for water?  I’m not upset I have been really pleased with some of the other things I have read about in regards to future plans we have for this country.  One being (and I hope that we don’t screw it up) the upgrading of the digital infrastructure. Also, the attention on the medical information problem is promising. I still can’t get past feeling that we as a water industry were only an afterthought.

             The article is a good read if you want more information on the topic.  It goes on to state that AWWA is fighting to bump that number up to $10 billion.  I wish them luck.

 

Link http://www.awwa.org/publications/StreamlinesArticle.cfm?itemnumber=45491

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