Bush’s Proposed Budget Cuts Could Strip Funding for Clean Water
WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 – President George W. Bush’s proposed budget cuts, if approved by Congress, could reduce the money available to clean the water flowing into New Bedford’s harbors, local officials say.
Bush is proposing to cut money for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund from $850 million this year to $730 million for fiscal year 2006, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Regional water authorities and municipalities may borrow money from the revolving fund, matched by the state, at a low- or no-interest rate, to be paid back over 20 or more years.
New Bedford Mayor Frederick M. Kalisz Jr. said if the proposed cuts restrict the amount the city could borrow, it would be a “devastating loss to us because of the fact that we have made such progress and we have justified and shown this isn’t as though the government cuts us a check and we stick it in the account.”
But the president’s budget says that because ” significant additional funds ” were provided for the State Revolving Fund program this year and last, the total available for borrowing through 2011 ” will remain the same as committed to in the 2004 budget.”
The Environmental Protection Agency has requested that $ 24.7 million be placed in Massachusetts Clean Water State Revolving Fund for fiscal year 2006, according to an EPA official, who asked to remain anonymous because “it’s too early in the game to comment.” This year the Massachusetts fund received $36.9 million.
To comply with The Clean Water Act, a federal law that regulates water pollution and requires that sewage be treated before being released into rivers and other bodies of water, money is borrowed from the State Revolving Fund or received through direct aid grants for individual projects.
Mayor Kalisz said the city has used money received in the past to help pay for a $100 million water treatment plant that was built as a result of a lawsuit brought against the city about 16 years ago.
Mayor Kalisz said the “major legal battle” forced the city to bring its primary water treatment plant up to standards established by the EPA. The city has used the borrowed funds and direct federal aid “to leverage impacts on stabilizing rates in the face of a declining industrial base, a rising local market and compliance to standards that have been previously established by EPA.”
“New Bedford unfortunately had never made the decision to look proactively in building a secondary waste water treatment plant,” the Mayor said. “The best that we were able to do was borrow the money and repay it at no interest ., but we still had to pay $100 million.”
Mayor Kalisz said securing the grant money on an annualized basis has allowed the city to stabilize the cost of paying off the loan. He added that without the loans, the impact “would have been devastating, it would have bankrupt the city, it would have bankrupt households.”
The federal funds also have been used to make infrastructure repairs, including repairs to sewer overflows to prevent discharges of untreated or partially-treated sewage.
“We have not just been trying to draw from the federal government,” the Mayor said. “We’ve tried to be a model of showing how creative, out-of-the-box thinking applies itself when there can be moneys achieved and then justifying why it is so important to try to maintain this over a long period.”
Rep. Barney Frank also stressed the importance of the State Revolving Fund to New Bedford and Fall River and said “a cut of this sort” would have a negative impact on the area.
“That would be a really terrible thing for Fall River and New Bedford,” the Massachusetts Democrat said. “I hope we can stop it.”
Rep. Frank said he plans to fight the proposed cuts, something he says he won’t be alone in.
“I believe that there will be a number of communities that are also fighting it; every state has this,” he said.
Rep. Frank has worked with Rep. James McGovern and Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry to bring money to the area through direct aid, and the success is in part due to the lawsuits brought against Fall River and New Bedford in the past, said Peter Kovar, spokesman for Rep. Frank.
New Bedford has received about $13 million in direct aid since 1995 in addition to the money borrowed through the State Revolving Fund, Mr. Kovar said.
Mr. Kovar said Rep. Frank has worked to change the Clean Water Act to extend the time available to pay off the loans and make more money available to communities that are “economically disadvantaged.”
But, Mr. Kovar said, “Those bills are never passed.”.
####
