The Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee (ACRCC) last week released the 2021 Asian Carp Action Plan, its annual working document highlighting the efforts to protect the Great Lakes from invasive Asian carp. The ACRCC is a collective effort among international, federal, state, and municipal agencies to combat the spread of Asian carp to the Great Lakes. The ACRCC executes this mandate by means of oversight and coordination of interagency prevention activities through the development and implementation of the annual Asian Carp Action Plan and complementary Monitoring and Response Plan.
The 2021 Action Plan, funded through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) and annual agency appropriations, includes 61 detection, prevention, and control projects. These efforts include an aggressive reduction of Asian carp populations along established fronts, large-scale field trials of potential fish deterrent technologies, and actions to address black and grass carp threats. The full 2021 Action Plan can be viewed here.
Senate Committee Approves Bipartisan Water Infrastructure Bill
The Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works approved the Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act of 2021 (DWWIA) by a unanimous vote last week. The DWWIA authorizes more than $35 billion for water resource development projects across the country with a focus on upgrading aging infrastructure, addressing the threat of climate change, investing in new technologies, and providing assistance to marginalized communities. The DWWIA makes significant investments in Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant programs and revolving loan funds that support the nation’s water infrastructure.
Key components of the legislation include:
Invest significantly in small, disadvantaged, rural, and tribal communities through grant programs that promote environmental justice.
Provide states with increased funding and program flexibilities to invest in community water projects that address aging infrastructure and improve water quality through the State Revolving Loan Funds.
Connect households to public water and wastewater services, decentralized wastewater services, and improve sanitation in Alaskan rural and native villages.
Increase investments in lead abatement through grant programs and assistance.
Promote resiliency projects to address the impacts of climate change.
Increase investment to address recruitment, training, and retention challenges facing the water and wastewater utility workforce.
Invest in the drinking water and wastewater needs of tribal communities.
Provide significant investments in technical assistance and new and emerging technologies that result in cleaner, safer, and more reliable water.
The bipartisan bill was authored by Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Chair of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works’ (EPW) Subcommittee on Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife; Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Ranking Member of the EPW Committee; Ben Cardin (D-MD), Chair of the Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure; Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife; Tom Carper (D-DE), Chairman of the EPW Committee; and Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure; and is also co-sponsored by Senators Whitehouse (D-RI), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), and Alex Padilla (D-CA).
Senate Subcommittee on Water and Power Discusses
Natural Infrastructure To Address Water Supply Challenges
The Senate Subcommittee on Water and Power met last week to examine feasible methods to incorporate natural infrastructure into water management and policies in the western United States in an effort to create more resilient communities. The Subcommittee’s hearing on March 24 was titled, “Water Infrastructure for the 21st Century: The Viability of Incorporating Natural Infrastructure in Bureau of Reclamation Water Management Systems.”
The western United States continues to experience water supply shortages as a result of prolonged periods of drought. Along with an aging water infrastructure, this significantly reduces water security as over-consumption and over-pumping continue to increase. Incorporating natural infrastructure can increase water storage by mimicking natural processes for aquifer recharge. The Subcommittee noted that it plans to focus solutions to water supply challenges on efforts that support economic development and watershed conservation.
Subcommittee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) shed light on how there are many cities in the west which are struggling to provide clean drinking water to their communities or to provide enough water to respond to fires. When discussing the dangerous ramifications of these severe water shortages, Wyden noted that “Congress must make every tool available to align water availability with water needs.” Before the hearing, Wyden along with Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) reintroduced the Water for Conservation and Farming Act, which aims to improve water access by funding infrastructure and conservation projects to improve dam safety, conserve water, and further elevate natural water recharge infrastructure.
Among the witnesses at the hearing was Dr. Holly Richter, Arizona Water Projects Director for The Nature Conservancy, who highlighted regional water management’s efforts to replenish groundwater aquifers at strategic locations using treated wastewater effluent and stormwater. Richter discussed several groundwater protection and recharge projects taking place in the region, including one remaining project that blends natural and traditional infrastructure to divert stormwater runoff from the largest urban area in the watershed to an adjacent basin to slow down flood peaks. Richter noted that the project aims to “restore a more natural flood regime, reduce sedimentation, increase water quality, and result in enhanced groundwater storage.”
A recording of the Senate Subcommittee on Water and Power’s hearing on “Water Infrastructure for the 21st Century: The Viability of Incorporating Natural Infrastructure in Bureau of Reclamation Water Management Systems” is available here.
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