How Pandemic Recovery Funds Are Helping States Upgrade Critical Water Infrastructure
The United States’ water utilities have been underfunded for decades, leaving state and local governments with significant capital needs in the years ahead to repair and replace aging drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater systems. For some states, the American Rescue Plan Act’s (ARPA’s) State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (FRF) program is helping to provide a critical down payment toward upgrading their water infrastructure.
Although this federal funding will jump-start important investments nationwide, communities will continue to face significant needs and emerging challenges—such as contaminants that pose public health concerns and climate-related physical threats—that will require ongoing funding even after the ARPA dollars are spent.