Yuba River
Credit: DWR
California to receive over $600 million to improve drinking water and drought resilience through Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
December 7, 2021 - WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) has announced that California will receive over $600 million for water infrastructure projects in 2022 through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that Padilla voted for and President Biden signed into law last month. Projects supported by this funding will create new jobs across California, provide clean drinking water to underserved communities, and help remove harmful lead and PFAS chemicals from our drinking water.
“Too many communities in California don’t have access to the basic right of clean, affordable drinking water. That’s why I fought pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – to improve access to clean drinking water and reverse these disparities,” Senator Padilla said. “With this funding, California can get to work rebuilding our aging water infrastructure to better connect underserved communities, eliminate contaminants, create drought resilience, and better prepare for the impacts of the climate crisis.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will allocate $7.4 billion to states, Tribes, and territories for 2022—including over $600 millionto help California address water infrastructure demands which have historically exceeded available funding. This funding is provided through EPA’s State Revolving Fund (SRF) programs. Nearly half of the total funding is available as grants or principal forgiveness loans that remove barriers to investing in essential water infrastructure in underserved communities across rural America and in urban centers. The 2022 allocation is the first of five years of $43 billion in dedicated EPA SRF funding that states will receive through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
For more than 30 years, the SRFs have been the foundation of infrastructure investments for water systems that deliver drinking water and treat wastewater, providing low-cost financing for local projects across America. SRF money is used for the construction of wastewater treatment facilities and local sewers, drinking water distribution and pipeline repairs, treatment of agriculture runoff and stormwater runoff in urban areas, and estuary management projects.
For more information on funding available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/infrastructure.
Source: Senator Alex Padilla
