Finally, We May Get Funding for a Clean Water Trust Fund

Last week Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) introduced H.R.3203, the Water Protection and Reinvestment Act. We know this as the Clean Water Trust Fund!

Here’s how the Fund would work: The Water Protection and Reinvestment Trust Fund would be established in the U.S. Treasury. Money from the Trust Fund would be distributed to the states for loans and grants to localities that need to make repairs, improvements, or build new infrastructure. At the same time, the bill allocates funding for green infrastructure and prohibits the funds being spent on sprawl.

The Fund would receive a yearly appropriation from four dedicated taxes. Those taxes would be: a 4-cent-per-container wholesale tax on "water-based beverages;" a product disposal fee of 3% of the wholesale price of "flushable" products including toilet paper, soap, detergents, water softeners, and cooking oils; a 0.5% tax on the wholesale price of pharmaceuticals; and a 0.15% corporate income tax on companies whose alternative minimum tax income exceeds $4 million. Taken together these taxes and fees should generate between $12 billion and $13 billion a year for the fund.

To put those figures in perspective, consider that the water infrastructure appropriations passed by the House just last month equals $3.9 billion. That $3.9 billion represents a roughly 157% increase over funding in 2009 but is only one third of what the Trust Fund would provide.

With a $22 billion a year funding gap for water infrastructure, we can’t wait any longer. We need this trust fund now! See our statement from Executive Director Wenonah Hauter.