On behalf of its wholesaler and manufacturer members, ASA recently joined the Water Infrastructure Network (WIN), a coalition that pushes funding for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure. WIN's primary objective is to find federal funds to meet a projected need of $500 billion to rehabilitate the nation's water and wastewater infrastructure. Currently the federal government allocates $850 million per year for this purpose, far short of what is anticipated to be required.
There is bipartisan agreement in Washington that there is a huge need for the rehabilitation of these systems, but no one can figure out how it can be funded. Funding is not anticipated to come freely from Congress, whose plate is full with similar requests for other worthy projects and programs. It's widely acknowledged that this is a long-term project, and that a likely approach would be to create a Water Infrastructure Trust Fund, similar to the Highway Trust Fund that finances road construction.