UPDATE | Proposed bill would authorize $1.8 billion for grants to fix old sewers, water

YOUNGSTOWN

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland, this morning used Mill Creek Park’s Fellows Riverside Gardens as his platform to announce a plan he said would help cities with outdated combined storm and sanitary sewer systems, such as Youngstown, improve water quality.

Brown said the legislation he plans to introduce would achieve that goal while keeping sewer rates affordable for residents and small businesses.

The senator said his proposal would help reduce future water and sewer rate increases to attract new businesses and create jobs.

Under its agreement with the U.S. and Ohio Environmental Protection agencies, Youngstown will spend $146 million over the next 18 years to upgrade its sewer system, including elimination of combined storm and sanitary sewer overflows that discharge into Mill Creek Park.

After heavy late June rains, such an overflow was the primary cause of a massive Lake Newport fish kill, the Ohio EPA said.

After the Mahoning County Board of Health detected high E. coli bacteria levels there, park officials closed the park’s lakes Newport, Cohasset and Glacier indefinitely on July 10 to all recreational uses.

The Clean Water Affordability Act is aimed at updating the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) clean water affordability policy, which can put undue strain on the budgets of local communities. The current EPA affordability policy does not provide for a full and accurate representation of the financial impacts of clean water investment programs on communities struggling to meet federal regulations for improving their water infrastructure.

The proposed bill would authorize $1.8 billion over five years for a grant program to help financially distressed communities update their aging infrastructure. The program would provide a 75-25 cost share for municipalities to use for planning, design, and construction of treatment works to control combined and sanitary sewer overflows. The National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), which represents the sewer districts, has endorsed the legislation.

The legislation would also:

• Tailor the implementation schedule for water quality related improvements to the affected community’s unique financial condition.

• Structure environmental improvements to mitigate the potential adverse impact of their cost on distressed populations.

• Allow for reopening of approved Long Term Control Plans for green infrastructure projects.

• Establish integrated permitting that would require EPA to prioritize the funding of most cost-effective and most important water quality projects.