NEWEA in Washington D.C.

On April 28th a contingent from New Hampshire travelled to Washington, DC to meet with Representatives and Senate members to discuss wastewater infrastructure and stimulus funding. There was a formal Congressional Breakfast held by the New England Water Environment Association (NEWEA) with presentations from NEWEA membership, the US EPA, and US Congressman Mike Capuano from Massachusetts. Representative Capuano started his talk with "there are not too many legislators here on the hill who even know what a CSO is, but I do!" He was a lively speaker and understands the challenges facing the wastewater industry. However, there are many other challenges out there, and he reiterated the need to make sure our industry is "at the table". He stressed the importance of participating and being visible in the process, because that is what it takes to get things done.
NEWEA members from New Hampshire included Kevin Sheppard and Fred McNeill, City of Manchester, Harry Stewart NHDES, Nelson Thibault, HTA, Shelagh Connelly, RMI and Peter Goodwin, WSE. Before and after the Breakfast, some of the contingent met in the State Senator’s and Congressmen’s Offices to discuss funding and continued support of State Revolving Funds (SRF) for NH communities, along with other issues presented in NEWEA’s Position Papers. In particular Congresswoman Carol Shea–Porter held a lengthy visit in her office and reiterated her support for funding for NH clean water projects. She really engaged when Fred McNeill described the situation in Manchester whereby the City has 300 miles of underground pipe, and 100 miles of that pipe is over 100 years old! He also gave her perspective on the cost for proactively upgrading at $254/foot of pipe, versus reactively repairing at 2-5 times the cost.
Overall, the take-home message is that NEWEA members need to continue to educate our elected officials about wastewater infrastructure needs and costs, and the importance of reauthorizing the Clean Water State Revolving Funds to ensure that upgrades can be done to maintain the clean water that we enjoy in our rivers and streams.

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