The Trump administration has taken a significant step toward undoing a
controversial 2015 rule that aimed to clarify the scope of federal authority over
rivers, wetlands and other bodies of water.
A $25-million demonstration project under construction in Suffolk, Va., will show officials from the Hampton Roads Sanitation District how to address a myriad of problems facing the water utility, including a rapidly shrinking water aquifer, land subsidence and a potential checklist of requirements for restoration of the Chesapeake Bay.
A waterways industry organization would like to see some of President Trump’s proposed $1-trillion, 10-year infrastructure investment plan go for replacing decades-old river locks, but the group, Waterways Council Inc. (WCI), strongly opposes another administration proposal, levying a new tax on barge companies.
President Trump’s fiscal 2018 budget proposal confirms that he will seek federal infrastructure funds over 10 years, but there is still much that is uncertain.
Local water agencies got good news when Congress added $10 million to the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan program in the recently enacted omnibus spending bill.